8 Days Without Cyberspace
My trip to Ontario was great. All the school and library visits went really well, and the Silver Birch celebrations were amazing. The big provincial gala was held on Thursday at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Organizers say it was the best attended gala to date. Over 250,000 Ontario students took part in the Forest of Trees Reading Programs, and over the two days of celebration, 7,000 young people showed up at Harbourfront to cheer on their favourite authors and stand in line to get their autographs. Sixty authors attended (the most in the history of the event), and despite the cold, windy, rainy conditions, a good time was had by all.
One of the highlights for me was spending the day with Martha Newbigging, the illustrator of Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers. Though we'd exchanged emails and spoken on the phone during the making of the book, we had never actually met. But we hit it off right away and even did a tag-team autograph session. Martha accompanied every signature with a quick sketch of one of the characters from the book. She's so fast! And so good too. We got to thinking perhaps we should do some classroom visits together. Wouldn't that be cool for the kids!!
On Friday I took part in a regional Silver Birch gala for Durham, held in Whitby, Ontario. And I drove there on the 401 all by myself. Okay, maybe not quite all by myself -- I had Gloria with me (my GPS). At any rate, I made it there on time, in one piece, and without an ulcer. I started the day with a couple of classroom presentations at FM Heard School. What fun! Kids love learning about the mummification process -- especially removing the brain through the nose. Then there was the Silver Birch Luncheon held at the local rec centre. I understand there were around 1,000 young people in attendance, and they were all pumped. Even though the results had been announced at the previous day's event, students hadn't been told, so they were just as excited as kids had been the day before. It was Fantastic!
In total, I was away 8 days, and for the first time in at least 10 years, I got to spend Mother's Day with one of my children. My daughter may be a mom with 4 kids of her own, but she's still my kid, and sharing the day made it special. The only thing that could have made it better was if my son and his family had been there too.
Because I knew I was going to be mega-busy and because I also knew I would be spending all my free time with family, I left my computer at home with instructions to my husband to download my emails every couple of days so that the server wouldn't get overloaded. (That spam takes up a lot of space, you know.) I didn't check email once while I was away. So it was a lovely surprise to come home and find out my books had received two more award nominations. Return to Bone Tree Hill had been shortlisted for the 2011 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, and Zach & Zoe and the Bank Robber had been shortlisted for the 2011 Red Cedar Award. Hurray!
I would love to rest on my laurels and just enjoy the rewards of my labours for a while, but if Zach & Zoe and the River Rescue is going to be published next spring, I have to get working on it. The first draft is due August 3rd.
So away I go.