Secrets Shared

Here is a great blog post from Keri Smith for any self-employed artist needing a boost or inspiration. Good advice that.

Bill Slavin - Great Artist for Great Moments

One of my favourite features at the mag., is when our regular comic arrives in my IN box. Bill Slavin creates Great Moments in Science for us and he always does such a fabulous job. It's a pleasure to have him onboard. For the last cartoon, Bill wrote a blog post telling us more about the process and the subject of this month's column: Winsor McCay. Check it out!

2010 Information Book Award Results

Congratulations to Valerie Wyatt and Hugh Brewster for their accolades from the 2010 Information Book Award from the Children's Literature Roundtable. Val was the winner for How To Build Your Own Country and Hugh was the Honour Book for Dieppe: Canada's Darkest Day of World War II.

More info. here.

If you care about books for children — particularly Canadian children's books — literacy and reading, then please consider supporting/joining a Literature Roundtable near you.

Science in Society Book Awards

If you, or someone you know, has published a science book this year (and you're Canadian), don't forget to submit it for the Science in Society Books Awards, administered by the Canadian Science Writers' Association. Info. here.

Celebrate Science! The Movie

Here's a great video that encapsulates the Celebrate Science! event BC children's science writers*, including me, took part in at UBC's Beatty Biodiversity Museum. Thanks again for all who put it together.



[*There's got to be a better way to say this. BC Children's Science Writers is a mouthful and could be confusing, but I guess it's better than "writers who write for children about science."]

Making a Book

When I visit children I find they are often quite confused over how a book is actually put together. They can understand the writing and the illustration part, but the physical part of putting the books together is a bit of a mystery. The younger children, in particular, think that I put together each book. Although this is a more "old-fashioned" type of printing, this video provides a glimpse into some of the steps. I love the offset, letterpress look so it was fun to see how the Field Notes booklets are put together.

Wings: Making the Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

Many Moons Ago, We Started KNOW . . .

[Cover art by Bill Slavin.]

The latest issue of KNOW is out. The theme for this issue — our 29th — is moons. Not just Earth's Moon, but the other moons in our solar system, too. Over 60 "moons ago" we started KNOW. It's hard to believe I started with Peter Piper Publishing in August 2005. The Jan/Feb 2011 issue will be our 30th and we're celebrating our fifth birthday. Just like the astronauts on this issue's cover, bouncing along in their Moon buggy, it's been a great ride.

If you haven't checked out KNOW, I hope you'll do so. I am, of course, totally biased, but I would argue that you would be hard pressed to find more value for your buck in a children's magazine.

Congratulations to BC writer, Polly Horvath, for winning the Vicki Metcalf Award for Children's Literature. We're big fans of Everything on a Waffle in our house.

Hycroft on November 9

For those of you living in the lower mainland, mark your calendars for the annual CWILL event at Hycroft. It's a great chance to see your favourite BC authors and illustrators at a group launch/announcement/celebration of their new titles. Information here.

Like I Don't Have Enough to Do

Thanks, Kelowna! I'm having a great time here, visiting schools full of curious kids. One day down, three more to go. And like I don't have enough to do, I think I will sign up for this, just for the heck of it. I mean, how hard can writing down ideas? The execution is where I bog down!

And I received some exciting news from a publisher yesterday. I'll post more with details, but it seems like after a few years' hiatus busy with other writing, I have a new book for children in the pipeline.