by Sylvia McNicoll | Mar 12, 2017 | Sylvia McNicoll
At a recent CANSCAIP (Canadian Society for Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) meeting a woman commented passionately on how she had tried everything to get her son to read–then he met an author and everything changed. He grew to love books. It was wonderful to hear and I believe her. How many times have I listened to a passionate writer and needed to buy her book afterwards.
Describing my crossing guard character Mr. Ron In the foreground is Ping the dog played by granddaughter Jadzia. I am flanked by grandson Will and mentee and friend Tiffany.
Also I know I have been lucky enough to have this effect on my young readers too. One time I was in a restaurant grabbing some lunch between school visits on a tour of the Sudbury region and the waitress hugged me because I had hooked her daughter on one of my books. She had read it right through. First book ever.
So I venture out as much as possible, embarrassing myself as I call out to young customers at Chapters. “Want to have an autographed bookmark from a famous Canadian author?”  I don’t mind the odd rejection (crazy woman in aisle four alert!) but I love engaging kids, telling them about my books and having fun with them. Two out of three times parents and young readers walk away dazed and amazed, saying how nice it was to meet a real live author. (We won’t talk about  the other times.)
While I am genuinely autographing this book, the admiring reader is my grandson William. He thinks The Best Mistake Mystery is awesome.
But it’s even nicer to venture into a really beautiful independent bookstore. This Saturday I visited Blue Heron Books–a mesmerizing bright and colourful emporium with friendly inviting staff. On the advice of my writing mentee and friend Tiffany Short, I invited myself to host an event for March break: Solve the Dognapping. With prizes, props and script in hand, I brought along a guaranteed audience Jadzia and William Filipowicz, a couple of my grands. Â They’ve been to my launches but I wanted them to experience a more child-focussed event.
Seven other keen youngsters came and we enjoyed a wonderful time. Jadzia kept saying “I feel I have to tell everyone who did it!”
“Noooooo. Jadzia, Noooo!” She kept it in luckily.
I have had larger audiences but never a better one. Or more fun. Everyone was able to earn a prize either by trading their best mistakes with me, acting out scripts or hunting down the missing (stuffed) dogs. Tiffany participated and interviewed each participant to hear who they felt committed the dognapping. I loved watching her patiently discussing all the characters with them.The local newspaper photographer came and  took photos and afterwards I was able to chat with the owner Shelley McBeth. It takes a whole village to raise a book lover.
Does that mean I turned any young readers on to reading? I think my participants were all readers to begin with. Still I did hear Jadzia tell my daughter she wants to be a writer when she grows up. But I guess I’ll judge my success by how fast Jadzia and Will grab for the next in the series, The Artsy Mistake Mystery.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Mar 7, 2017 | Sylvia McNicoll
Over two hundred readers crowd the room, some already lined up for an autograph. Phones flash, click, snap or whatever camera apps do. Books quickly disappear from a pile on the table, and your hand cramps up from signing. Obviously you’re Lawrence Hill.
But if you’re not Larry, then if you’re lucky (and I am) most everyone from your writers’ group shows up, some people from your gym class, a neighbour or two, a couple of bookshop devotees. You get 50 happy people, many of whom already own the book and/or have read several drafts. You sell 20 books. Congratulations, you’ve hosted the near perfect launch.
Since I have been so lucky several times, I have over 35 books published, I want to share with you the secrets of my success.
- Find a good place to celebrate. My goto is A Different Drummer Books. Ian Elliot’s store is cosy and he creates beautiful displays. In this store setting my attendees can buy other people’s books too (each others’.) Set your phone calendar alarms, November 5, I will launch The Artsy Mistake Mystery at the Art Gallery of Burlington.
- Ask your publisher for a budget. Shock of shock, they may have funds set aside for this.We didn’t serve this at the launch. But for a few moments there were Hollywood cupcakes.
- Plan for the best refreshments you can afford. Link or theme them to your novel, if you can. Â Make sure they’re a treat for you (in case you end up alone.)
- Let whomever’s left of the press in your area know. Email the editors everything you would like the public to read about the book and the event. Â I sent a long note to my community paper and they published it verbatim.
- Invite everyone with whom you associate, the mechanic, your hairdresser, preferably by a printed card. Usually not possible so resort to E-invite, Facebook event and individual emails. Individual is key. Each person should feel as though they are wanted. And they are! Your friends from Weight Watchers, your aqua fit crowd. They may not come but they may buy books at another time.
Favourite props on a couple of the grands, natural born puppies.
- Plan to talk for a few minutes about the story. Bring a prop associated with it, a cap, a box of secret letters. Think about the questions people usually ask and answer those–where did the idea come from,( not how much money you aren’t making these days, please, please buy the book) Read a short excerpt. Do it with energy and a smile–unless the dog dies in that scene.
- Have your friends take lots of photos and post them all over social media. My writer friends are naturals at this.
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Share your launch with a good friend. Deb and I always have the best times.
- Enjoy yourself. No matter what the sales numbers end up to be, or whether your book ends up on awards list–this is a huge achievement and this book launch is for you.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Dec 31, 2016 | Sylvia McNicoll
The Comic Book War by Jacqueline Guest
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
First of all a big congratulations to the author Jacqueline Guest who has just been appointed as a member of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. She is a lively writer who strives to encourage kids to rise to their full potential.
Honestly, it’s a strange coincidence that I just finished reading The Comic Book War. I’d put it off because I didn’t want to read yet another story with the backdrop of World War II. But the cover kind of pulsed at me from my bedside pile of potential.
I loved The Comic Book War.
First of all it’s a great home front story with a different perspective on the war. Robert Tourond is the youngest brother of four left behind as his siblings go off to fight. The way he deals with his anxieties about them is to read comic books and predict the outcomes of battles through their plotlines. He develops a deep superstition that he must read every new issue to keep his brothers safe. In order to earn money for his obsession he works as a telegraph delivery boy alongside a wonderful strong girl character Charlie. It was fascinating to read about this delivery process. I can’t imagine having to deliver countless missing in action telegraphs to parents after a big battle.
Jacqueline used great skill to incorporate comic books we won’t know in a way that we can feel the main character’s passion for them. The takeaway for me is that art, in this case comic books, can be a great source of comfort and distraction in times of trouble. As a grandparent of eight, arts educator, and writer (and former comic book lover) myself, I also am reminded that we should honour whatever our young people are interested in.
View all my reviews
by Sylvia McNicoll | Dec 22, 2016 | Sylvia McNicoll
Authors need to acknowledge their own creations and buy themselves gifts. This is to help fortify us for the tough world out there that perhaps doesn’t celebrate our work enough. I decided to reward myself for The Great Mistake Series with a specially designed and handmade pin by Cathy Disbrow, a designer and illustrator extraordinaire. (The name of her company is Woolly Doodles, have a look at her work over at http://www.woollydoodles.com) The first stage is selecting sketches. These are of Pong, the rescue greyhound in the story, and Ping, a Jack Russell largely based on my dog Mortie. The top two are the ones I chose.
In the story the dogs are described as a miss matched wagon team, one big, silent and powerful, Pong; the other small, bark and bold, Ping. Â They are already earning me great reviews. “The descriptions of canine exuberance, however, are delightful and the best parts of this quick read and first in a promised mystery series.”
Pay no attention to the “however” which  is why I need to have this piece of art created for myself.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Dec 15, 2016 | Sylvia McNicoll
Lana Button, author of Willow’s Whispers, Willow Finds a Way and Willow’s Smile, challenged me to write about the perfect Skype class visit.
The biggest problem, I find, is that I don’t know how the visit goes. Because of the location of the webcam at the top of my screen, Â I cannot make eye contact with the students. Each time I really look at them, it will appear to the students as though I am looking down. They will see my closed eyelids.
I put a little pink post end note near the round camera hole so my eyes know where to fix–not on the little image of myself in the corner talking which is kind of hypnotizing I must say.
To check how I would look to them, I used photo booth (which is also how I took the above picture) and rearranged things for the best lighting. The natural inclination would be to face away from my office window, but that turns me into a dark silhouette. Instead I faced the window and raised my laptop, and hence the camera, with a box.
Debbi Ohi, author/illustator of Where are my Books spoke on how to Skype at the December 14th CANSCAIP meeting. She suggested taking advantage of all the things you could show the kids which you couldn’t ordinarily if you travelled. Mind you I don’t have sky high paintings. But I always like to show off my dog for that all important universal “AWWWWWW!”
That’s the student reaction I was able to hear.
Mortie acted as model for my Ping character in The Best Mistake Mystery so he became a prop to demonstrate the importance of using real things from your life to create surprise and recognition in a story.
Of course my students are writing about space ships and their characters are cars. The teacher let me know that in advance. The morning of, actually. (Any  advance dialogue and testing can be hugely beneficial) Their teacher wanted to tie in a lot of curriculum and the class will be making derby cars in the spring.
Because I did not want to clean what a newspaper reporter once described as my “daringly disheveled” office  I resisted the urge to show the students my entire workspace. Again that photo booth shot, see above, gave me a clear vision of what they would see.
I used a microphone and headset because I Skype workshop with other writers and that works best with them. Â I also listened to my own audio via the Skype tester. Â I sounded great.
During the 50 minute visit, my sound cut out on the school three times. We hung up, I called back twice. Once they called me. Â My husband says we could pay for an upgraded Internet package to get better bandwidth. Something I would explore if Skype visits became more popular.
Because I could not feel their energy returned to me, I tried to be over the top with my own energy and enthusiasm. Theatrical, really. Â Debbi Ohi is the kind of bubbly person who can carry this off well. I would say quieter authors need to steer away from Skyping or they will come across flat.
For the dog, I kept some treats at my side in case he became restless. I didn’t need them and once I finished talking about how we came up with his name, a little about his problems and how they fed the character and the arc, I put him down on his bed in his favourite spot–my treadmill. ZZZZZZZZ.
The students were writing picture books so I showed them one of my favourites, aptly titled A Lucky Author Has a Dog. It tells the story about how one children’s authors works and how her dog “helps”. On the last page, after a school visit, the adult author magically transforms into a little girl with a stuffed dog, writing on her bed. I told them how a picture book should surprise like that at the end. How I felt that ending really spoke to how we all CAN write and the process can be different or the same.
Because I was nervous about the sound and what the students took in, a day after the Skype, I emailed the teacher some notes on what we discussed during our visit. I think that’s a nice thing to do in a regular school visit too but often I don’t take the time because who has any, really.
She responded today about how she used them to recap the session. She also said she can see the students applying what I said in their writing already. “What an extremely valuable experience for them!”
The perfect Skype visit?
Close enough.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Oct 25, 2016 | Sylvia McNicoll
Received this journal from a young writer friend Tiffany Short. The lines are made up of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s writing in tiny, weeny print.
When I walk my dog, I often pick up dog do bags others leave behind–they drive me nuts. Why would you go to the trouble of bagging excrement and then just leave it mid path or park or even in the trees. But when I deposited the bags in the recycling bin by error, not once, but twice, I became even more annoyed. This time with myself. That was the beginning of my mystery series The Great Mistake Mysteries. The Best Mistake Mystery will be coming out January 7.
The idea being that we should celebrate our mistakes because it means we have put forth effort, possibly even taken a risk, stepped outside our comfort zone. Â Each chapter is a mistake the main character Stephen Noble and/or his associates make and of course the errors lead to the solution of the mystery.
Flowers from Jennifer Irwin, a genius writer I accidentally met and bonded with at a signing in Pointe Claire, Quebec. A signing that only occurred due to a miss-scheduling.
But now I’m also thinking about something else. Errors are the conflict in life, how we resolve them shows our character. Easy to remember what we get wrong. However we should also celebrate what we get right. Sometimes it’s the resolution of the error, sometimes it’s something else entirely. Could be something little.
Like when I finally remembered that a friend’s mom wanted autographed books to take to England for some great nephews and nieces. I was annoyed that I kept forgetting but when I delivered them, she was just thrilled that I brought them a week before her departure. False deadlines, my friends, are the way to go! Here’s my thank you gift (as if buying my books for kids in England weren’t thank you enough!)
Pauline’s homemade banana bread to thank me for delivering Canadian souvenir autographed books. Only two weeks late.
So I put use to the new journal a young writer Tiffany Short gave me as a gift. Her favourite author is Lucy Maud Montgomery and she purchased a journal where the lines are tiny words from LM’s books. For me! Inspiring such a treasured gift is something I got right for sure. What an honour! At first it was hard to mark this book up. Those words are so perfect. But then I decided on days of overwhelming feelings of inadequacy to write in it or on these words as it were. Â I would write all the things I got right that day.
Notice the first line if you can make it out is that I deposited those little bags of dog excrement in the right bin that day. Eventually I learn from my mistakes.
I gave away a Blueberries and Whipped Cream at a library reading. My husband ordered the 2000 or so remainders many years ago–big mistake at the time. The young reader was very grateful. The photo itself is the crazy face picture you let them make after the real shot. I always hope they relax and I get that photo immediately following. Not this time. Mistake? Nah! I love these kids.
 Maybe this will give way to a new series: Things I got right today.
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