by Sylvia McNicoll | Aug 29, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
While trying to find a good Internet address to send people to view my Last Chance for Paris trailer, I inexplicably became hooked into reading about myself, this entailed googling my own name in quotation marks: “Sylvia McNicoll”
The results weren’t pretty. First of all I discovered that on Boomer Counter they had a tribute already for me in case I died. On the good side, the content providers insisted I was still alive.
Then I saw that there was another Sylvia McNicoll in Edinburough Scotland who had a somewhat lascivious photo of herself up on some social network site.
I discovered that a young person was reading Last Chance for Paris but she added (HORRIBLE) immediately following the title. Why does she read a book she thinks is horrible? Conclusion:
it must be a novel study for school which could be good, I suppose.
I read the title of an article I’d written for Today’s Parent Toronto with no stars beside it as no one had rated it. Not true, by the way, as I’d rustled up 20 some close friends to give it a full five star rating.
My blog entry about Exercising Creativity had been counterfeited over to an exercise machine site. Yeah, yeah they violated my rights. But who really knows what I signed in order to have this free blog site? Does anyone read those pages of small print that we have to check off
before using a program? Should I hire a lawyer and blow all my royalties for the last few years?
There is a page out there that says I wrote The Snow Queen published by Tundra. Ken Setterington actually wrote it. This reminded me of how I was once hired by a school to do an author visit based on a book I also never wrote (There’s a Cow in the Swimming Pool) by Martyn Godfrey.
I found out a lot of other stuff like Grave Secrets is out in Braille.
Some teachers were discussing whether to use Walking a Thin Line as a novel study for grade six. It’s been out of print so long, I know there are no royalties in it for me.
Also that you could have Google translate the sites about yourself in other languages, Norwegian and Chinese in my case. Surprising how many countries seem to want to sell my books on some version of ebay.
The best reason not to Google yourself is that it took up a couple of hours of time that could have been spent reading a good book.
Oh and that tribute about me? All it says is: “Sylvia McNicoll is a Canadian children’s writer who lives in Burlington.” So I’m relying on all my good friends, a lot of whom are writers, to make sure that at least they get the tense right in my obit.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Aug 2, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
It’s always fun when the McNicolls + Filipowiczs get creative together. Here we all return to Lowville Park to film the trailer of Last Chance for Paris. While my husband Bob and I have travelled over eight times to Alberta to research the series, the cover photo for the novel was shot at Lowville by Bob due to time and budgetary issues. The model with , what a cooincidence, the same tatoo as my main character Zanna, daughter Robin posed wading into the stream. In the book she falls in the icy rapids and tumbles down the stream. Here we try to re-enact the cover moment. Craig McNicoll, videographer and video editor supreme for Emotion Pictures, donated his time and skills to the event.
Robin looks like she’s way too happy being buffeted by the currents in the shot. Afterwards the crew discusses whether the splash sounded loud enough or whether we should make Robin fall again and again.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 28, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
This wasn’t my idea. As far as I know Arthur Slade (author of The Hunchback Assignments) first started the trend and I wanted to get on board immediately. Only treadmills cost money and Arthur is ten years younger than I am. But then Gillian Chan (author of The Turning) appeared on CBC also using a treadmill while writing. She’s the same age as I am and has similar joint issues.
Coincidentally Canadian Tire had a sale offering about 50% off on a Temp 621 T which I knew would work as Art had done all the research on the model. It also had the 90 degree handles required to mount a shelf/desk.
Still it took me a week of agonizing to decide. The day I went to purchase the treadmill, to my horror the sale was over. A more expensive model without the right handles was on sale instead. I used my persuasive language (begging and whining) and got them to sell me the Tempo at the past due price.
Then I borrowed a truck from Gisela Sherman (author of Grave Secrets)
My husband took the day to put it together. The screws are hard to fit properly. He bungee corded the shelf to the treadmill.
It’s only been a week, but I love it. Even if I don’t lose weight, I think it keeps me more alert and certainly I’m getting more exercise. I usually walk my Jackapoo Mortie about 5 times a day. I know what you’re thinking. But Mortie can’t have a treadmill of his own unless he starts writing books too.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 28, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 11, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
For Today’s Parent Toronto, I was invited to a photo tutorial at Riverdale and then given the camera to keep! Hurray! These two photos are taken on my year old Sony. I love digitals for taking notes on fiction and non fiction projects. Helps my description immensely. I take photos of food,menus, and decor, for restaurant reviews. It’s my visual memory.
I went mostly because I’d never been to Riverdale Farm before. I’ve written about it which always feels slightly fraudulent. We were encouraged to bring a child-subject so three year old William and I were off on an adventure.
Negin Sairafi gave us tips on the features of our new Kodak plus general hints in exporing our photographic creativity. I enjoyed the tutorial very much.
I loved the animals and the idea that here was this green and organic oasis in the middle of the hustle bustle city. I would post a lot more photos of horses and goat and donkey bottoms (that’s how they faced us) except I accidentally deleted ALL instead of PICTURE. Maybe Kodak makes it too easy?
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