by Sylvia McNicoll | Jul 27, 2013 | Sylvia McNicoll
After 25 years of published writing, besides feeling more free to creatively stretch my writing fingers, I like to travel the path of mentorship and support. A personal delight of mine has become to welcome and support new writers. It’s very lucky to buy and then have an author sign her early work for you.
Today I took a meandering drive in the country to Fergus in order to attend Lisa Dalrymple (writer)
and Suzanne DelRizzo (illustrator’s) launch of Skink on the Brink (Fitzhenry Whiteside) at Roxanne’s Reflections Book and Card Shop.
Resplendent in a Skink-tail blue dress, (Blue-y and New-y to the children’s literature scene) Lisa talked about the nearly extinct skink showing actual photographs of the creature. Then she launched into a reading. At some point a bright youngster hijacked the story to ask a question and tell a rambling anecdote of her own. Don’t you just love it! Lisa displayed great humour and tact as she told her how much she wanted to hear more AFTER she finished reading Skink on the Brink.
Dressed in a contrasting fuschia (the colour of the head of the skink at maturity?) Suzanne guided the plasticine sculpturing. Young attendants modelled their own skinks and animals.
Did I mention the beautiful cake with all the colourful three D characters of the book perched on top of it? So much energy and activity in both the book and on the cake.
The story follows Stewie’s growth through a close escape from a weasel. It shows his dismay and then his final acceptance of the changes in his body (a tale that metaphorically parallels puberty?) and his return to home and happiness, using narration, rhyme and rhythm. Then when you think you’re done, there’s a couple of pages that instruct on endangered species with more specifics on the skink as well as instructions on how to make Stewie from plasticine. Turn to the final page and be surprised by a lovely sunset farewell to Stewie and his new partner in life.
Well, I needed to buy a copy for each of my three sets of grandchildren and I know I’ll enjoy reading it over and over to them. I am a very lucky writer indeed to be privileged to know so many talented creators both early and further on in their careers. My bookshelves are blessed.
PS The report form Grammarly is that the text was original, however there were 26 critical writing issues giving me a score of 51/100. There were nine issues with contextual spelling, six with grammar including one confusing modifier, two with sentence structure and two with wordiness. Hey, that adds up to only five! With punctuation within a sentence there were three issues. With style and word choice there were six issues with writing style and two with vocabulary. Well, I’m feeling way more confident having used Grammarly. Not.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Apr 25, 2013 | Sylvia McNicoll
The metaphor–does a lawyer really look like a crow?
Too many kids fall under some witness program so no full frontal photos.
The special thank you card that makes you think the students really know your book better than you do.
What makes for a really great author visit in the school?
Excitement–from the moment you approach the school you see a welcome poster on the door. The announcements declare your presence. The library displays your books.
The kids in the front row of the auditorium ask you if you’re the author. Maybe they point to one of the books in your stack and say they’ve read it or ask something about the plot or character.
What should a terrific author visit do? Entertain and enlighten–I think it’s important that the kids and I have fun but I’m there to deliver some writing process tips perhaps as much for the teachers as for the students.
“Where do ideas come from?”is the question foremost in my mind when I create my presentation. I try to address this question in as visual a way as possible. I carry around a rubber brain, for example, to show them. I use Power Point to show the brain with a piece of toast in–the brain is a toaster, what you get in,you get out.
But I also know the question really means how does a book get created from start to finish so I include images of my office, some research. I address what I
need to pre plan before my fingers hit the keyboard and call up kids to hold the key plot points. I sometimes feel the teachers want me to say I have an idea file, or that I plan and plot the whole story out but I always make sure to say that different processes work for different authors.
Also rewriting is a topic that educators want addressed but it’s so much different for a professional writer than it is for a student and there’s a fine balance between inspiring and encouraging readers and writers, and telling them how hard the professional job of writing and rewriting is.
S is for the Silver Birch…imagine an acrostic thank you poem. I was a little nervous that my name was just too long.
Aw, and then the personal thank you from the kids. To the left you see my cheerleading squad thanking me with attributes that spell my name. Y was for YA if you’re wondering.
Below is a thank you card that gives a flow chart of all the attributes the readers and teachers have found in my story–some I didn’t really know it had.
You’re welcome guys. It is always a huge pleasure. Inspiring and humbling, and tons of fun.
Characters, settings, themes–really? It had all that.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Nov 14, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll
Marsha Skrypuch tagged me to answer a few questions about the project I’m working on right now which is difficult as I’m working on rewrites for three different books. One is called What the Dog Says, and it’s almost
ready to go to my favourite Norwegian publisher.
My one+ sentence synopsis is that it’s about a 13 year old girl who after drowning meets her dog at the gates of heaven and together they receive a one week do over. Their goal is to cheat fate and fate does not like to be cheated!
Another is Revenge on the Fly, a historical novel that I dusted off after hearing Christopher Moore speak at Packaging Your Imagination. I’m passionate about this story (Chris instructed us to write about a time in history that inspires us) and have a very positive outside reader’s report to edit from as one publishing house almost bought it. It about a 12 year old boy who immigrates to Hamilton, Ontario from England and participates in a fly killing competition in order to avenge his mom and sister’s death. The local health officer told him that flies carry and spread the germs for all the diseases
The project I really should talk about it Dying to Go Viral. That’s the actual title to come out this spring with Fitzhenry Whiteside.
It’s about a 14 year old girl named Jade who skateboards without a helmet as she hitches to a car. She tumbles under, dies and at a garden gate to 
heaven meets her mother. Jade watches her funeral from the garden and begs to go back to help her brother and dad get closer so that they can survive this huge grief. Her mom gets her a one week do over during which Jade signs up Dad to an online dating agency as well as negotiates for her brother to skip university and stay at home to help him at Dad’s design business. Jade also learns to experience life to the fullest. How can she give it all up when she’s finally fallen in love?
Oh man, that was so not one sentence.
The idea came to me after reading about a local skateboarding accident that put a boy in a coma when he “skitched” in a performance for youtube. (The other drowning story was inspired by a 14 year old girl who jumped off a dock in Burlington and drowned. She didn’t know how to swim.)
I guess you would call it an urban or realistic contemporary fantasy. What the Dog Says falls under the same non classification.
Who would play the main characters? Selene Gomez. Justin Bieber could play the part of her best friend turned best boyfriend.
How long have I been working on this? A year and now I’m approaching another rewrite.
What inspired me to write the story? I’m fascinated with what happens after death but have decided it must be different for each person. Everybody meets a different dead person to guide them along the way and everyone’s heaven will be unique according to what they like right here on earth.
What else can I say to pique your interest? I think by reading about Jade’s death you’ll appreciate life. Plus you’ll never skateboard without a helmet or attach yourself to a car when you do it.
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