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?
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 11, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
On behalf of Today’s Parent Toronto, I was invited to a photo workshop designed to help you photograph children. The idea was that I could write about this for moms but the subtext was Kodak was showcasing its new products. Every writer there received a new camera (see below) to work with and (hurray) keep. Negrin Sairafi gave us helpful hints and demonstrated the new prezzie. I loved it. I used digital cameras as note takers for all my fiction and nonfiction writing projects.
We were at Riverdale farm, see the crazy flower horse, and I brought three year old William as we were encouraged to bring subjects.
These pictures were taken with my year old Sony. I haven’t uploaded any new photos from the Kodak because, ironically, I accidentally deleted them all. A little glitch in the ease in which you can do everything with this new model. I was sure I pressed “Picture” not “All” but maybe the red was highlighting All. Usually computers asked you incessantly if you’re sure, not Kodak I’m afraid.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 10, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
The first few days back from Alaska and in between blowing my nose from an airplane cold, I wrote like crazy trying to sort out the sites of Toronto. I checked websites, talked to people, looked over event calendars, asked Today’s Parent people for some KidSummer sites, double checked neighborhoods and hours and prices, cut hours and prices because of space issues.
Readers don’t realize how much work is behind an article, sadly publishers don’t either. You only see the end result, you don’t see the mass of info that got sculpted into a slant.
Now I feel better and I’m onto writing a feature on Art Slade. It’s how I began my published career, writing about authors. First off I’m rereading as many of his books as I can get my hands on. A joy, really, no problem there. I’m also reading everything written on him. I’ve already been to one of his presentations with kids at a school in Newmarket, I’ve also seen him speak at launch and interact with a fan. Friday I will skype with him. I present in Saskatchewan all the time but just not conveniently in time for this piece. I’ll meet his new daughter( just arrived from China ) on a computer screen.
Then will come the hard part, sculpting it all into a slant. Watch for it in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Magazine.
by Sylvia McNicoll | May 27, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
No internet for me on the Coral Princess, well I did pay for 15 minutes to wish my son a happy birthday but otherwise I un-addicted myself. It helped that I forgot my camera-downloading cord at home. I hate blogging without an image. The surprise gift on the cruise was an upgrade to balcony which meant not stop beauty from my bedroom window. Listening to silence as we drifted through Glacier Bay was inspiring and
eerie. Immediately below is a small iceberg broken from Mendenhall Glacier a short shuttle ride from Juneau. Incredibly I heard an explosion and actually saw one
break off while I was standing there. Next are views from the boat of Glacier Bay and from my window of Whittier. Last is a snapshot of Denali Mountain. It needs to be a bright clear day for the highest peak in North America to appear. We had perfect weather. Over so quick, like a dream.
by Sylvia McNicoll | May 9, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
I inherited a “staycation” feature from my fellow editor who became too busy. I love Toronto and always feel I should get to know it better so I started off on Harry the Hippo, an amphibious bus tour. Leanne, the tour guide, gave random trivia about Toronto like that the Royal Bank Building has $90 worth of gold dust in every window. No wonder bank charges are so high! The cool factor of course was when Harry splashed into the water off Ontario Place
We were pretty cold after our hour and a half tour, mainly ’cause we unsnapped the windows over the lake. After a hot soup, we headed to Harbourfront for a coffee with the dogs at the Pet Discovery Centre (Pawsway). Always fun to meet with animal people. No chihuauas in mini skirts today.
Then we headed for the AGO. Absolutely awesome in the true sense of the word. In the wooden atrium, there is a massive (sculpted )palm tree on its side, complete with roots. The exhibit is called palm Sunday. We also checked out the whimsical Bata Shoe Museum. I tried on some Elton John type shoes. We finished with the longest streetcar ride in the world ending in the Beach.
by Sylvia McNicoll | May 4, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
My writing job consists of three parts, one: writing novels which I consider the main part, two:talking about writing with students, there by exciting them to read and write and three: writing and editing for Today’s Parent Toronto. All of these jobs crisscross in lots of fun ways.
I visited Science North while I was teaching at Alexander Public School a couple of years ago with the idea of writing a travel feature on Sudbury and their great museums and instead wrote Slam Dunk Robot, a piece of fiction for grade twos, set in Science North.
So on the way home from Timmins and the highschool art day, I stopped in Sudbury to shorten the drive and meet up with other writers and storytellers Aubrey Davis and Bernice Hume to give them a lift home. To pass the time waiting till they were done their readings, I visited Dynamic Earth and Science North on a complimentary pass they so graciously granted me.
I used to feel guilty about asking for these when I didn’t know whether the visits would lead directly into a marketable piece of writing that would get them more visitors. Now I realize you can never tell where an idea will come from or what kind of story will evolve from it and so everyone shares in the gamble and process.
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