I got the chance to live the cover girl experience on Saturday. It was all part of a CBC project on race for which I will be a contributor.
Tag Archives: Canada
NaNoWriMo: Getting Inspiration from the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards
I took the night off from NaNoWriMo last night to go to the annual TD awards for Canadian Children’s Literature published in French. Five books were up for the $30,000 top prize. The event at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was an opportunity to mingle and meet writers and publishers in the French community. It’s so inspiring to see writers and illustrators being feted and recognized for their work.
The NaNoWriMo Challenge
After thinking about it for weeks and some encouragement from my friend and blogger, Tranquil Dreams who has done it at least twice, I finally found the courage to sign up for NaNoWriMo. Continue reading
World Teachers Day
When my first book, The Fragrant Garden, was published, I got a phone call that I will never forget. My fifth grade teacher, Miss Rubin, had called to congratulate me and to tell me she was proud of me. She had read the article about me that had appeared in The Montreal Gazette that week.
Remembering Our history: The Ancestral Ceremony
As a writer, I’m constantly on the lookout for ideas especially anything that might help me discover more about my father’s history as a head tax payer. So a few years ago, when a friend mentioned that he was on a committee called The Ancestral Ceremony, it piqued my interest.
I remember my father used to say he “walked the mountain” with friends. Considering his advanced age, I knew he didn’t mean that he went hiking. When I questioned him about it, he said it was something the men in Chinatown did once a year. It turns out that he along Continue reading
Q&A with Suana Verelst, Illustrator of Razia’s Ray of Hope
Montreal has a terrific writing community and there is no doubt that its members have helped me grow as a writer. I met Suana Verelst, an award winning illustrator, several years ago at a get-together for writers and illustrators of children’s and young adult books. (She also makes great home-made soup which I tasted at our last Christmas pot luck.) Her latest, Razia’s Ray of Hope, is an award winning book based on the true story of a girl in Afghanistan who desperately wants an education Continue reading
Talking About Books from Knowlton to Westmount
It was a beautiful day to be in a bookstore yesterday. Sunny and blue skies outside and sunny smiles inside. Here are a few of my photos from the first Canadian edition of Authors for Indies Day. Continue reading
Writers Writing and Reading Really, Really Fast
This is me doing my two minute reading.
Thursday evening, I was invited to participate in a really fun event with the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Twenty-five writers were challenged to do a reading lasting no more than two minutes. Then each writer was to contribute a sentence or two to a short story which would be read out loud at the end of the evening. Welcome to “Rapid-Fire Readings, Ricochet Writing: 25 Montreal Writers Write Before Your Very Eyes”. Continue reading
Montreal Swings into Spring
If you happen to be near Place des Arts between now and May 31st, you may want to take a few minutes to play. The installation 21 Swings is back on De Maisonneuve Street.
The motion of each swings triggers the musical notes of one of four instruments: piano, guitar, harp and vibraphone. When multiple swings are in motion, they create a melody. The notes change the higher you go. At night, the swings are illuminated. Yes, that’s me in the photo above making music and feeling like a kid again.
The installation is removed for the summer festival season, but will be back from August 6th to October 18th.
Celebrating Independent Bookstores
When I was a teenager and working part-time, there was a Classics bookstore at a nearby shopping mall, and that was where I headed on payday. My meager paycheque wouldn’t have gone far in a travel agency, but in a bookstore, it took me anywhere I wanted to go. I checked out the bestsellers before heading to the mystery section. On the top of my list were books by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot was my favorite) and the Peanuts series by Charles Schultz. I still have those books, now slightly yellowed, packed in a box. Back then, I thought working in a bookstore would be a dream come true. Continue reading
Day's Lee 