Writing to My-se-elf...

Remember that Billy Idol song Dancing with Myself ("My-se-elf")? No? Okay then, here it is! Now that you've established my approximate age, be reassured I have, for the most part, moved beyond dancing with myself. Instead, I'm writing to myself. Not so very punk, but so be it. 

I try to keep a journal when I'm travelling, but on this year's summer vacation I decided to make a collage every day and mail it to myself. It was a way to keep the collage bug alive (no worries there, really), but I was also curious to see how these collages make it through the mail and whether they'd all arrived. I'm pleased to report that they all made it home fully intact. Yeah for glue sticks (UHU rules) and invisible Scotch tape.

Honestly? I was getting a bit bored at the end because I was trying to use materials at hand that had something to do with where I was. Tourist brochures start to look a lot alike after awhile. I had a bit of washi tape with me, but other than that, used what I had at hand (primarily maps and brochures).

Here's the result:

You might notice that I added a blood pressure test here? I was "optimal!" I wish I'd taken one at the end of the trip!

Fun  day. I hadn't been to Telegraph Cove for a lot of years. Very busy, but still charming. 

Our cushy ferry from Port Hardy to Bella Bella. The next ferry was about 1/20th the size. ..

The card above had a cool cancellation. Our ferry up the snaking fjord from the coast to Bella Coola stopped briefly in Ocean Falls, "home of the rain people," which is a coastal town far from its heyday. Apparently about 18 people live there full-time, but they have a post office, so of course I had to mail a card. Here's the cancellation (and a crazy "Haunted Canada" stamp):

Yes, I did bring that postage stamp from home. Nice to juxtapose the petroglyphs of the Nuxalk people with the rock carving of an explorer, Alexander MacKenzie who perhaps left the first graffiti in Canada on a rock on the Pacific coast in 1793.

Here's a close-up of the stamp:

I was really hoping to get some interesting cancellations along the route. Somewhat by chance I read that the post office in Bella Coola has its own unique cancellation. I'm over 50 and pretty much beyond worrying about people think about me, so I marched into the post office and asked the nice lady to stamp my journal. Good thing I did, because the franking on the actual stamp was hard to see. Here is the cancellation with art by a Nuxalk artist:

I had my first ever job in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. I was about 16 or 17 and was part of BC Park's "youth crew," a program that had unsuspecting youth volunteering (I honestly can't recall if I was paid) in provincial parks, painting outhouses, grubbing trail, washing stacks of awful pots, tubing down rivers, raking the sand of volleyball courts…". I had brought a few letters I wrote home (thanks Mom, for being a pack rat) and read them out to my husband and daughter (who happens to be 17). Hilarious and slightly embarrassing.  

The background here was actually from a large glossy tourist magazine promoting the Chilcotin area, but the art was done by a Tofino artist, Mark Hobson. We watched fishermen use these large nets (beside very swift moving water) for quite awhile. The pictographs were a bit tough to find (poorly written directions; bah), but worth it. 

I haven't been to Barkerville for over 17 years, so I was worried it might have become too much of a tourist trap. It was busy, but we were pleasantly surprised. And, yes, there was a historic post office. 

The PO boxes were quite lovely and it looked like the boxes were actually being used. I thought they might have an interesting frank, but it was a fairly plain frank, much as you would have expected from the era (1800s). We watched the postmistress use her long metal "wand" to whack the cards I sent from there.

I have a soft spot for Barkerville because my parents went there on their honeymoon, back in 1958, just around the time it became a provincial park and historic site.  I do have one BIG beef though. There were no good cards - not even good postcards - that you could pick up there. Craziness. With all of that historic fodder you think someone would come up with something! I did pick up this photo of one of the famous Cariboo camels that were part of the BC gold rush. Not exactly Barkerville, but perhaps they were were on their way there when this photo was snapped.

A little travel tip if you go to this area: stop in Wells first, especially if you like to write letters and send postcards. It a similar era as Barkerville, but people actually live there today and many of the historic buildings are restored and painted in fairly funky colours. There are several excellent artists in town and lots of options for picking up from art and cards (and great coffee, too). We had a great visit at two churches converted into galleries: Amazing Space and St. George Gallery.

One very cool thing about the Wells-Barkerville area is that they have an annual Sled Dog Mail Run. The last weekend of January, they re-create the the Gold Rush Trail Sled Dog Mail Run and mail is cancelled with a unique cancellation at Quesnel, Wells, and Barkerville. Every year there is also a artist-designed envelope. You never know. I might get it together to get some envelopes in next year's run!

We visited friends in Valemount who have just opened a new brewery, Three Ranges. Thus began about five days of visiting with old friends from our mountain days.  

My old office in the lower left. Maligne Canyon everywhere else. Parks Canada? Your "Proper Awesome" slogan is dumb. 

I was starting to lose steam here and the materials were not "proper awesome." We did see a wolf one day though (not this one exactly) and the next day saw six bears - a grizzly and her two cubs and a black bear and her two cubs. Okay, maybe that was proper awesome.

Miette Hot Springs day. And the goofy guys in costume? Just watch this and you'll understand.  (Thank you to my little buddy Keeley for introducing me to that.)

Okay, I'm tired and so are you (if you've lasted this long). We DID have a great time #exploringBC! Hope you had a wonderful summer as well.

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

The Word on the Street, Vancouver's version of the "National Book and Magazine Festival." It's on Sunday, September 28 from 11 to 5. You can find the relevant info. here. You can catch up with me from 1 - 1:30 in the Magazine Life Tent and at 3:30 in the Kids' Tent. I'll be talking about KNOW in the morning and my latest book, Robots, in the afternoon. (More on that book in the next few days.)

Also in Vancouver, is Fall Book Hatching, sponsored by CWILL-BC. Come meet local authors and illustrators for this fun afternoon event. Fall Book Hatching is Sunday, October 5 from 1 to 3 in the downtown library's Alice McKay Room. You can see some pictures from the spring equivalent of the event: Spring Book Hatching, here. Fun, fun. Wish I could be there!

Finally, if you happen to be in Tofino this coming weekend, there's Art in the Garden. This annual event is a chance to meet local writers and artists and enjoy the ambience of the Tofino Botanical Gardens. It's this coming weekend, both afternoons.

On the Road with Wow Canada!

Okay, it's not too PC considering the price of gas and global warming and all, but we're going on a road trip in a few weeks. To our credit, we'll be driving our spanking new hybrid, which we can ill afford (Anyone want to by a great Toyota 4-Runner? I'll throw in a box of great books to sweeten the pot!) and we'll be hiking once we arrive at our destination. In the car I'll definitely be packing Vivien Bowers' Wow Canada! Exploring This Land from Coast to Coast to Coast.

In this fact-and-fun-packed book, we join 10-year-old Rachel, her older brother Guy, a stuffed beaver (Bucko), Mom and Dad as they cram in their van and head out to explore our vast country from coast to coast to coast. (As Guy tells us in the introduction, "Our whole family is going on a trip across Canada. When my parents told us, they said we had to do it now because in two years I'll be fourteen and 'cool,' and I won't want to go anywhere with my family.")

The scrapbook style of the book provides something for everyone: a map introducing each province or territory, fabulous photographs with short captions, longer chatty entries of the trip as seen through Guy's eyes, lots of great, and very funny sidebars such as Exceedingly Weird (according to Guy), Food I Was Introduced to for My Own Good (such as oysters), According to Mom (who loves to fill in the details), According to Dad (more details and historical bits), Guy's Family Car Trip Survival Tips (new and crazy ways to drive your parents crazy), Things We'll Do and Places We'll Go Next Time, and more.

This book is packed full of info. I can't imagine how long it took Bowers to research and write. It is a keeper for sure and was deservedly so an award winner when it was released. (It won the Red Cedar award one year when I had a book on the short-list, too. It also won the BC Book Prize (Sheila Egoff award), the Hackamatack, and the Information Book Award from the Children's Literature Roundtables. ) Here's a review from Canadian Materials. Happy road tripping, whether you're on a bike, on foot, or (gulp) in a car.

Pack Some Mags in Those Bags

Getting ready for a day at the beach or perhaps a road trip? Why not slip some kids' mags in with the Frisbee, sunscreen and lemonade? The summer issues of KNOW and YES Mag are hot off the press.

The theme for this issue of KNOW is night life -- what goes on in your neighborhood at night (ahem, just the stuff fit for the consumption of 6-to-9 year olds)? The kids can read about night-blooming plants and animals that are out and about at night. There's also a Where's Waldo-type spread that highlights the people who are hard at work while most of us are asleep. Elsewhere in the pages are columns on skin (and how sunscreen works), the steps that go into the making of a comic, garter snakes, shark skin, Mercury and how palaeontologists remove fossils from the rock. And, of course, activities, puzzle pages, and ideas of how to participate in future issues. Thirty-two pages of fun, fun, in my unbiased opinion!




For the older kids (and their parents), YES Mag is heading Into the Danger Zone! In this issue they're looking at science in the extreme -- outer space, volcanoes, venomous animals, deep sea, microbiology labs and more. There are also features on vehicles that run on air, the Svalbard Seed Bank tucked up in the chilly Norwegian mountains, and also the physics and chemistry of how those beach essentials -- sunglasses and sunscreen -- work.

More Huzzahs

Just back from a fabulous week of events in the Nanaimo area. The organizers of Book Fest, the Vancouver Island Children's Book Festival, put on an outstanding event. It was so well organized and you treated the presenters so wonderfully. Attentive and interested hosts and drivers, lovely meals in stunning settings, keen readers young and old. I had a fabulous time and I'll be back with my own children, and hopefully children from our town, in tow. If you haven't ever attended this event, mark it on the calendar for next May. It is so well worth it. Thanks also to the students and teachers of the schools I visited this week: North Oyster, Seaview, Ladysmith Elementary and Middle schools, and Pleasant Valley (as well as the libraries in Nanaimo and Gabriola). It was also such fun meeting other writers and illustrators. Had a blast. I'll be back!

Huzzahs to Kathleen McNeely Kids

A big thanks to the children and teachers of Kathleen McNeely Elementary school in Richmond. I had a wonderful visit with you on Friday and you had such wonderful stories and questions. It was a pleasure! I had so much fun; I hope you did too!

On the Road with Scaredy Squirrel, Stanley, and friends...

I'll be in great company at the Vancouver Island Children's Book Festival on May 31st in Nanaimo. Lookee here at the great slate of events and presenters. It will be lovely to meet and spend some time with a few fellow Kids Can authors and illustrators -- Melanie Watt, Bill Slavin, Wallace Edwards, and Linda Bailey. (My bookshelves will be lighter that weekend as I lug a box of books by these creators across the island so I can get them signed. Actually, I own books by all of the presenters, so it will be nice to meet the creators behind these wonderful books.) Others on the slate are Sarah Ellis, Andrea Spalding, Arthur Slade, and Simon Rose. A pretty stellar line-up if I do say so myself. Before Saturday's festival I'll be doing school visits in the mid-island (Ladysmith to Qualicum) area. Hope to see you there, too!

Okanagan Tour

Here are the dates for my upcoming tour in the Okanagan:

April 28, Penticton Public Library 10-11 am
April 29, Vernon Public Library 10:30-11:30 am
April 29, Lumby Public Library 1-2 pm
April 30, Salmon Arm Public Library 10-11 am
April 30, Armstrong Public Library 1-2 pm
May 1, Kelowna Public Library, 10-11 am

Hope to see you there!