And the Winning Title is…

by | Dec 21, 2011 | Sylvia McNicoll

crush. candy. corpse.  

This is my first book with James Lorimer Company Ltd. Publishing and it’s been a wonderful experience.  It should have happened back in 1987 when the acquisitions editor turned down my first novel ever:  Blueberries and Whipped Cream.  Such a lucky book that turned out to be, film options were sold, Australian rights, a couple of years ago German, Swedish and Norwegian rights.

But this is going to be an even luckier book because the spirit of my mother will bless it.
It’s dedicated to her and she died as I was completing the last edit. Much of my experience visiting
with Mom in the Alzheimer’s unit is fictionalized in this book.  Things that nearly happened, that I imagined happening as I sat hoping for some response from my mother.

Anyway, we’ve been agonizing for a couple months.  Or maybe it was just me.  But a reader, Charlotte Zronik, came up with the title and everyone, including the booksellers who previewed the mock cover, loved it.  Thank you Charlotte.  You may have a career in marketing and PR in the future.  Certainly you have an autographed book coming your way.

Coming from my magazine world, initially I thought, with the lower case letters, that the first three words were the “dek” and the all-caps WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FORTY-FIRST HOUR? was the title. But that’s just cool graphics.  I do like alliteration but this is a bit of a tongue twister.  Say it quickly and you’ll see.

But nobody really has to say anything out loud. They just need to buy the book and read it.

Skyping Freedom Middle School in Stone Mountain Georgia

by | Dec 13, 2011 | Sylvia McNicoll

Not my fans, at least not yet, these are a class of kids from Georgia who listened to Thunder Over Kandahar as a read a loud. Sharon McKay came over so I could help her skype in to answer their extremely thoughtful questions.  I thought Sharon was joking when she said she was bringing me a burqa to wear for the interview. I chuckled out loud. That Sharon.  Such a kidder.  Me dressing up for that tiny skype window.
She wasn’t joking.  It felt a bit claustrophobic even though it was a pretty aqua coloured fabric with some nice embroidery.  I found it hard to breathe and stumbled to the computer. Sharon spoke about the detailed research she does, usually onsite, and how she relies on  a team of supporters from the culture to fact check.
She likes to write about what she wants to know rather than following the old adage of writing what you know.  
So the question she left the kids with was, should a white middle class woman write about the life of a young Muslim girl?  Should she ever write outside her culture?  
I think, since we’re privileged to live in a free speaking country, we not only should write about other cultures, but it’s our duty.  They can’t always write about their own lives with impunity. Also a western woman can write in a mainstream way for western kids to find the story readable.  One young woman who had read the book before listening to it and speaking to Sharon, told us how it had changed her life and how grateful she was that Sharon had written the story.  Brought a lump to my throat.  It’s what every author hopes for.  Netoba Watson said the skype visit was one of the highlights of her teaching career. All I can say is, it’s teachers like her and Itaski Arnette that help kids achieve their full potential and Sharon and I, as moms, and grandmoms as well as authors,value them.  You’re lucky Freedom Middle School.

Cobourg Library Writing Contest-St. Joseph and Dale Road School

by | Dec 5, 2011 | Sylvia McNicoll

After this photo, my camera disappeared underneath the carpet in the back of my passenger seat. I only found it on Friday after a hunt through the house that turned up all kinds of other interesting things. So we travel back in time to November 18 when I enjoyed (re) meeting Rhonda Perry, Cobourg librarian extraordinaire. Each year her library engages several authors to visit schools to celebrate and encourage their writing contest. St. Joseph School was kind enough to allow a gifted class to join their audience on this particular visit. I walked them through my writing process on a book called Last Chance for Paris. In trying new ways to explore metaphor and similes, I often use paint chips and ask the students for the best shade of white to describe snow and then tombstones. I also explain what difficulty I had in coming up with new ways to describe blue eyes for the character Tyler. His eyes can be glacier blue since Zanna the main character now lives near the icefields in Alberta. Sometimes when he’s friendlier, they’re described as lake blue. Last question of the day was how would I describe the blue of my top which you can barely make out in this photo. It was a challenge rather than a genuine desire for information. The young man wore a crooked grin as he asked it. I explained that writers sometimes have to think long and hard about these things, they don’t come instantly. That the cliche answer was royal blue but that if pressed, I would probably choose an emotion to describe the colour: sincere blue. I’d read somewhere that blue was a good colour to wear to job interviews because it’s is considered a “true” colour, true-blue. Visiting schools is like a job interview, if you “pass” the students believe some of your writing

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Happy Journeys Mom June 7, 1931 – November 3, 2011

by | Nov 20, 2011 | Sylvia McNicoll

November 19th was Mom’s sendoff party. Five out of six grandchildren attended, six great grandchildren and my brother and I, with our spouses, plus many friends and some Condo mates. Mom would have loved it. One thing I learned is how much a person is remembered

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and loved for their idiosyncrasies for example: feeding kids Smarties so they get smarter (wink-wink), sending postcards with birds on it to a granddaughter because she is named Robin, paying quarters for correct Jeopardy answers, dressing in cleavage displaying leopard fabrics, and sewing/weaving through calves liver with bacon. Mom loved to swim and called on all the Condo ladies every morning to head off to the pool. She also enjoyed the Sound of Music Festival in Burlington every year, playing Rummy Cubes,

reading, big family dinners with lots of kids running around. She would have loved the rouladen, red cabbage, cabbage rolls, spaezle, Schnizel, potato salad, and cheese cake served at her sendoff. She would have liked hearing her granddaughter singing You are my Sunshine. Most of all she would have loved all her great and grand children. Happy trails Mom. Auf wiedersehen.

Last Chance for Paris wins Hamilton Award for YA Book

by | Nov 15, 2011 | Sylvia McNicoll

The biggest win wasn’t the cheque, although thank you very much to Reliable Life Insurance for sponsoring my groceries for a week. (We eat a lot too and there may be crabs’ legs this week) The amazing gift was that Ron Ulrich, Managing Artistic Director of Theatre Aquarius, read chapter six from Last Chance from Paris. Imagine listening to seven minutes of a readingof your own work as you’re standing in front of an audience. He originally trained as an actor with the National Theatre School of Canada and

his rendition was nothing short of spectacular. You could feel the level of respect for children’s literature and my book rising as he continued. It’s difficult for writers to appreciate their own work when they’ve written and rewritten a piece and they’ve received all the reviews or (sometimes not received enough reviews) and gone through “recessionary” royalty statements. But his reading made me appreciate my own talent. It also made me think that literature needs to make use of every platform, whether electronic or auditory, to keep up the passion for the original medium: pages.

I enjoyed listing to all the readings but especially a surprise performance by Burlington Slam Poetry http://burlingtonslam.wordpress.com/. Apparently they host poetry readings every third Thursday of the month at Philthy McNasty’s, cover charge of $5 goes to the winning poet. I will definitely make a point of going.
The end of the evening featured a reading of the winning adult fiction, Trevor Cole’s Practical Jean, another book I must acquire. Life is never better than when you have a stack of books at your bedside ready for your enjoyment. Thank you Hamilton Arts Council and Ron Ulrich!