One of the things I enjoy about being an author is that I get to take part in some fun events. Saturday, I was at Prose in the Park, an annual outdoor literary festival which was held at Parkdale Park in Ottawa. It was an opportunity to meet local authors, to listen to them talk about their books, their views on writing and the publishing industry, and of course, to buy new books. Continue reading
I am pleased to reveal the cover for my short story collection which was designed by my talented friend, Robin Patterson, who also did the cover for GUITAR HERO.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
Would you write a valentine to a potato? Wax poetic over beans? Write free verse about free range chickens?
Thirty-four writers from seven countries did just that, and you can read their work in the anthology Dear Tomato: an International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems edited by my friend and fellow writer, Carol-Ann Hoyte. Continue reading
Day's Lee 