Writing Process "Blog Hop"

My friend, Jane Warren, whom I met at grad school (which she completed and I didn’t!), invited me to be part of a virtual game of blog tag. Fellow writers link from writer to writer, answering a few questions as we go. Since at the moment I am thinking about writing a lot more than doing it (kind of like I was thinking about writing my thesis instead of actually doing it), I thought this exercise was apropos. So, thanks for the invite, Jane. Make sure you take a moment to visit Jane’s site. She’s a very witty, intelligent writer and I look forward to reading her forthcoming work. 

Below I have tagged three writing friends: Kristin Butcher, Shelley Leedahl, and Sheryl McFarlane. Please take the time to visit their websites and/or blogs. (They'll be posting and linking to other great writers after May 12.) 


What am I working on?
I’m working on filling the well. My last major project was Long Beach Wild, which came out in 2012. Planet Ark, for young readers, came out in 2013, but I think it was Long Beach Wild that drained me. I had been thinking about this book for a long time and worked on it for at least five years. A good deal of primary research went into it and then there were the issues of having to pretty much cut it in half when it got to my publisher (sob) and having it just slink in under the wire before my publisher went in to creditor protection. (All resolved now and the book is out there in the world.) Those last two books were good projects I’m proud of, but other than having a few ideas stewing, I’m not working on any of my own projects at the moment. I am helping a friend write down her memories of living on a small island near Tofino, which is very enjoyable, and it's nice just to be the scribe and not the “creative genius” for a while. I also have a small publishing company, and we are slowly (very) releasing books, so that is keeping me close to books, even if I’m not actively immersed in writing one at the moment.

One note though. Even though I’m not working on an essay or book at the moment, I am writing. I’m writing more letters, which has been very enjoyable. And, for the moment, art – specifically collage and “correspondence art” (a fascinating movement I’m trying to learn all I can about) -- is helping provide  a creative outlet. 

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
This should be a shorter answer. The work I am most passionate about is rooted in place. My favourite essay, Stone Heart, was written when I was sailing in Haida Gwaii; Long Beach Wild comes from a fascination with local history and after spending years walking that long stretch of sand. I suppose my voice, which I try to stay true to, makes my work slightly different, but I don’t think you could pick it out of a lineup! I’m a fairly “straight up” writer and I think that’s why I’ve had a fair bit of success writing about science for children. You have to be able to explain things in a way that makes sense, while, hopefully, still holding the reader’s interest.

Why do I write what I do?
There are a few ways to approach this question. I write non-fiction because I love doing research. I feel as if I could research forever – visiting archives, doing interviews, travelling, etc. – but at some point you actually have to start writing!

Ideas get in my head that I can’t quite shake. The one and only novel I’ve ever worked on – a novel for children – started from an idea I had over 23 years ago. I can still remember the exact spot I was sitting when the idea came to me. I think about this story often and occasionally jot down ideas. Perhaps one day I will actually finish it. I live in eternal hope. 

More and more though, I write about the history of the west coast of Vancouver Island. Interviewing local people, visiting First Nations communities, spending time on the ocean and in the forest, are endlessly fascinating to me and this has been some of the most personally rewarding work I’ve done. I’ve met entirely new groups of people that I might not otherwise have met because I was interested in hearing their stories. For the most part, people just love to be asked.

How does my writing process work?
I am a morning person. When I was writing full time (and had young children), I could often get up at 5 or 5:30 and get right to my desk. Sometimes it felt like I started to work even before I woke up, because I often had an idea in my head that I just needed to get down. (More often than not it wasn’t actually a very good idea, but it felt urgent at the time!) I would do most of my writing during the morning and would try to save the early afternoon for research, answering emails, tending to the business of writing. By mid- to late-afternoon, I’d be done and ready to hit the beach or the garden. Now that I am working full time (at a "real" job), I  write when I can - in the evening, on weekends, or jot down ideas in a notebook when I'm on the beach. 


 KRISTIN BUTCHER

I’ve known Kristin for several years now. We’ve met at retreats and through various writerly events as we’re both part of the network of children’s writers on Vancouver Island and in British Columbia. Kristin is a whirlwind of energy and output. She is endlessly prolific and when she’s not writing, she’s creating art.

Kristin’s bio: Award-winning author, Kristin Butcher, is addicted to pencil and paper. She might be reading, writing, drawing, or painting, but it’s a sure bet paper is involved in some way. A teacher for 17 years, but a writer her whole life, Kristin published her first mid-grade novel (The Runaways/Kids Can Press) in 1997. She now has 21 titles for children and teens, with two more waiting in the wings. Look for Alibi (Orca Currents) in the fall and In Search of Sam (Dundurn YA) next spring. Learn more at: www.kristinbutcher.com

SHELLEY LEEDAHL

I first met Shelley about 14 or so years ago when we both attended the Labrador Creative Arts Festival. I suspect we are both still dining out on the stories that came from that experience! We’ve stayed in touch over the years and I am so delighted that she has just moved to Vancouver Island. This is very welcome news. Shelley is one of the most dedicated and hard-working writers that I know and I’m proud to have a section of my bookshelf dedicated to her poetry and fiction.

Shelley’s bio: Shelley A. Leedahl is a multi-genre literary writer, editor, and instructor. Aside from her numerous publications--including her most recent books, Listen, Honey (stories, DC Books),  Wretched Beast (poetry, BuschekBooks), and the forthcoming I Wasn't Always Like This (essays, Signature Editions) -- Leedahl also works part- time as a radio advertising copywriter. She was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and recently moved from Edmonton to Ladysmith, BC. Learn more at www.writersunion.ca/member/shelleya-leedahl.  

SHERYL McFARLANE

Back in 1988, when I first started to get into the publishing biz, there weren’t really that many of us around. But Sheryl McFarlane was and still is. Sheryl’s book Waiting for the Whales, is one of my all-time favourite children’s book. My editor gave it to me when my first daughter was born and I will never give this gem away (except, perhaps, to my own children’s children). Sheryl is a prolific writer of books for children and young adults and she is just plain passionate about books for young people. I so appreciate her work reviewing books and advocating for writers, writing, and literacy, which she keeps up on her blog, sherylbooks.wordpress.com.  

Sheryl’s bio: Sheryl McFarlane is the author of more than a dozen award-winning books and Ebooks for kids and teens, including Waiting for the Whales, Jessie's Island, and Eagle Dreams.  Island Santa, her latest picture book, is based on a west coast tradition of delivering gifts by boat at Christmas time to those living in isolated coastal communities. Sheryl lives in Victoria, Canada. Learn more at www.sherylmcfarlane.ca and  www.sherylbooks.wordpress.com

Profile of ... Me!

The Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC has a regular feature readBC where BC writers and illustrators are profiled. It is my turn. You can read the Q & A here. Check out the other writers too! I'm still waiting for my call from Pippi Longstocking.

Picturing Canada: A Discussion on the Importance of Canadian Books for Canadian Children

There was a great discussion on the Canadian children's books on CBC yesterday. The guests were Judith Saltman and Gail Edwards, authors of Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing.

From the CBC site:

Picture a Children's Story

For most of us our first encounter with a book was when we were very young. Odds are it was a big thing, or at least seemed so to our tiny hands. It was filled with pictures, some words and usually involved a parent or two along side trying to help us navigate this exciting new world called reading.

And while we moved on to different types of books and different types of reading as we aged, this first encounter may well have defined not only what type of reader we were going to be but also implanted some pretty strong ideas of what type of person we might be. So you would think that given the importance of that first contact the world of illustrated children's books would be a much studied and analysed experience. But you'd be wrong. For the most part, the illustrated children's book has been,the orphan child of academia.

That's something that Gail Edwards and Judith Saltman have set out to correct. Gail Edwards is Chair of the Department of History at Douglas College. Judith Saltman is an associate professor in the school of Library, Archival and Information studies and Chair of the Masters of Arts in Children's Literature Program at the University of British Columbia.

And they are the co-authors of Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing. They joined us from our Vancouver Studios.

You can listen to the show here.

Here is a review and the authors also have a Facebook page.

I know what's on my Christmas list this year.

Books with Long Legs (and a long caterpillar)

I love the simplicity of Eric Carle's books (and, of course, the vivid illustrations). Other fans might enjoy this interview.

"I often joke," he says, "that with a novel you start out with a 35-word idea and you build out to 35,000 words. With a children's book you have a 35,000-word idea and you reduce it to 35. That's an exaggeration, but that's what's taking place with picture books."

One day, when I finally get to the eastern seaboard (final destination New York), I shall make a pilgrimmage here. What a legacy to leave.

Where the Wild Things Are

The lament that I've too much to do before I blog, is as ongoing as the stack of books I want to mention is growing, but, for now, here's a profile of Maurice Sendak. A bit of a curmudgeon, that Wild Man, but, oh, what a genius. (Thanks to Book Ninja for the heads up.)

Turning Up the Volumes

If you're in BC (and even if you're not; you can listen on-line) you might want to turn the dial CBC on Saturday mornings to check out Sheryl MacKay's North By Northwest. Alan Twigg, writer and publisher of BC's treasure, BC Bookworld, and supporter of all things literary in BC has a spot on the show every other week called Turning Up the Volumes. In each spot he profiles a BC writer and/or book that you may, or may have not, heard of. The shows thus far have been far-reaching and varied, from Wylie Blanchet, author of the classic The Curve of Time, to Eric Collier, author of Three Against the Wilderness, to Betty Pratt-Johnson, whose books on diving in BC are long-standing classics. All of the past shows are available on-line here. Twigg also spearheads the Author Bank, which includes entries on all authors from BC (an impressively long list).

We Need a National Children's Lit Laureate, Too!

So the UK has one, and now the US has one -- I think it's high time Canada had a national laureate for children's literature, too. Jon Scieszka has just been named the national ambassador for children's literature in the US. Here's a letter from Michael Rosen, the UK's laureate, to Jon. And here's an interview with Jon from Bookslut.

So, if Canada had a laureate for children's literature, who might it be?

Meet Tiffany Stone

Here's the first of what I hope will become many interviews with Canadian writers. This is the email "conversation" I had with the kids' poet, Ms. Tiffany Stone. This fab photo of the fun-loving Ms. Stone is courtesy Photography by Raegan.

Tiffany's books, Floyd the Flamingo and Baad Animals are favourites of mine. They're filled with fun, wacky poetry with ditties like this:

Rules

Do not tie knots
in unsuspecting snakes.
Do not hop on hippo's heads
to get across the lake.
Do not cheat when playing chess
with cheetahs late at night.
It may not be illegal
but that doesn't make it right.
Do not connect a leopard's spots
or toot a rhino's horn.
Laugh at a hyena
and you'll wish that you weren't born.
Do not subtract with adders.
Do not pinch a chimpanzee.
Do not, do not, do not, do NOT
times ninety-nine
times three!

from Baaaad Animals



Tough City Writer: What's the best thing about being a writer?

TS: When a kid comes up and recites one of my poems to me from memory and entirely of his or her own volition. Something created by little ol’ me is now an actual factual part of someone else. How cool is that?!? It’s especially sweet when that kid is the one I’d never expect to care about what I write. To make that kind of a connection is…well, indescribable!

You know, the feeling when I finally finish a poem and I just know it works is pretty good, too.

The worst thing? Rejection letters from publishers. And lines that won’t scan no matter what.

TCW: Do you remember any favourite books from your childhood?

TS: The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I copied Arrietty’s diary out of the book into a little journal so I would have my very own handwritten copy of her diary to keep. National Velvet. I really wanted to be Velvet Brown. The Secret World of Og because of course there were other worlds my parents didn’t know about! Rumer Godden’s The Doll House because at one point in elementary school, it was the thickest book I had ever read. Wind in the Willows—both my parents came from England. And the What Katy Did books. Oh yeah—Little Women. My friends and I set up our own book club based entirely around that one book. Alice in Wonderland because it abandons so many of the ‘rules’ of reality (whatever that is!). I could keep going. I read A LOT.

With three young kids, I don’t have time to read for myself as much as I used to but when I do, I still prefer kids’ books. I think it’s because there’s so much hope and possibility in them. Grownups need more of that! There are tonnes of Canadian children’s books I absolutely love but for fear of leaving out someone I know, I’m going to wimp out and not be specific here. What I will say is look for Canadian children’s authors at your local library and at bookstores worth their salt everywhere!

TCW: If you could live in one book, which one would it be? (And what character would you be?)

TS: I would be Pippi in Pippi Longstocking because in real life I live in my head too much and am not brave, adventurous or athletic—although I aspire to be! I also care way too much about what people think of me. Pippi couldn’t care less! Plus I love the funky way she dresses and who wouldn’t want bright red hair and sticky-out pigtails?!?

TCW: Is your fridge covered in magnetic poetry?

TS: Not officially. Besides magnetic Lego and gears, it does have some magnetic words from CBC’s Early Edition on it that my son Emory won at a book event I was part of. But thanks to my two year old, Kaslo, these words have been ‘edited’ quite a bit. (They’re under the fridge, I think.)

Here’s one of my fridge poems from awhile ago that I liked enough to write down:

crave dynamite anatomy always
get not good enough anxiety only
hooray to pain
love being vain
how else is there
I am a cartoon
and you?

TCW: Do you have a favourite time and place to read?

TS: All day long on a tropical island. But seriously. I read at nighttime. In bed. Once the kids are asleep. If I can stay awake.

TCW: Do you write in other genres than poetry? Can you share?

TS: My very first book, Tall Tale: The True Story of the World’s Largest Tin Soldier, is non-fiction and tells, you guessed it, the true story of the construction of the world’s largest tin soldier, which is located at the New Westminster Quay in New Westminster, BC. The book was a commissioned piece so it’s pretty hard to get hold of. It was a terrific learning experience, though, because the illustrator and designer, Elisa Gutierrez, and I were responsible for most of the book’s production. And Tall Tale turned out not half bad if I do say so myself—thanks mostly to Elisa! By the way, check out her fabulous wordless picture book, Picturescape, published by Simply Read Books.

That said, my genre is really poetry. It’s taken me a long time to figure out something I knew back in elementary school but obviously forgot somewhere along the way: I’m a poet. I love writing poems. I enjoy editing other people’s picture book stories for Tradewind Books and as a freelance editor but I have absolutely no talent when it comes to creating my own prose stories. And that’s okay. I just wish publishers weren’t so reluctant to publish collections of kids’ poems by poets who aren’t already dead. And that bookstores, etc. would put more effort into drawing people’s attention to good books of good poems. Poetry has a lot to offer. I believe that the more you play with words, the more they become your friends. Plus reading poems aloud—and lots of poems are meant to be read this way—exercises your tongue and trains your ears to hear the music in language. In fact, I double-dog-dare-you to go find a poem and read it out loud right now! Just remember to come back because there’s still a little more of this interview.

Yes, ma'am. I went and read The Secret Life of Slugs . See how obedient I am?

TCW: Your poems are wonderful and funny. Lovely word play, and well, just fun. Do you play around with other forms of poetry too?

TS: Thanks! There are many, many fantastic serious poems out there but I prefer to be silly. I figure the world is a serious enough place without me adding to it!

I first got really into writing poetry in grade six. My teacher, Mrs Pudek, wrote poetry. Mostly unrhymed descriptive poems to go with photographs she (or maybe her husband) had taken. She encouraged the class to write these kinds of poems, too. Man, I loved Language Arts that year! And, you know, I totally recommend that when kids start writing poems they don’t worry about rhyme. Although rhymed verse often seems quite simple when you read it, it can be amazingly difficult to write. Plus worrying about getting the rhyme and rhythm right can put a cramp in what you’re trying to say. In fact, I only started writing rhymed poems after submitting a collection of free verse to a publisher who read it, liked it but told me that I should try writing in rhyme if I wanted to write for kids because the only thing harder than getting a rhymed collection of poems for kids published if you’re an unknown poet is getting an unrhymed one published. So I switched and have enjoyed it so much I haven’t written any free verse in a long time. Just to prove I did actually write something other than “humorous nonsense verse” (as reviewers tend to call what I currently write), here’s one of those descriptive, unrhymed jobbies I wrote in university that actually got published in several poetry anthologies:

rush hour in the rain

wet streets
shiny black like licorice
twisting through the city

traffic tastes its way home

TCW: On that note, what's for dinner?

TS: Leftover homemade mixed vegetable and bean curd pulao (rice, tofu, cashews, mixed veg and spices). I had planned on cooking something tonight but my kids wanted to paint this afternoon and, well, there was a lot of cleanup. Kaslo thinks his body makes a fine canvas!

Before I finish off, I realize I’ve mentioned my two sons but not my daughter, Jewell. This could put my life at risk so I’m going to end by saying, “Hi, Jewell!” Oh, and go read another poem!

Roger! I'm happy to obey. Thanks for the chat, Tiffany. We look forward to your next work, "humorous nonsense verse" or otherwise!