Category: book reviews

Thank you, Stella Papadopoulos, for inviting me to be a part of this writing process blog tour. Stella is a Montreal artist and entrepreneur. Being of Greek heritage, the gift of artistic journeys, and endless beauty of Greece inspired her art and writings. While at home with her young children she taught Moms and Tots painting classes at the Jewish Public Library. She subsequently obtained a Diploma in Illustration and Design at Montreal’s Dawson College.

She is a member of the Montreal Children’s Literature Roundtable, CANSCAIP, and CCBC (Canadian Children’s Book Center).

In addition she combines her illustration and writings for magazines and has been featured online and in print in The Link & Visitor, a Canadian Baptist Women’s publication.

After much virtual communication, we will be meeting in person for the first time this week.

Here is my turn to describe my Writing Process:

What are you working on?

I am in the midst of edits for Dance of the Banished, my YA novel being published by Pajama Press in August.

Based on true accounts, Dance of the Banished is the story of a teenager who leaves his fiancé behind in their Anatolian village to make a new life in Canada for them both; but soon after he arrives, World War I breaks out and the boy is sent to an internment camp in Kapuskasing, Ontario, while his betrothed struggles to survive and find a way to join him.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

My genre is historical fiction, but I only write on historical topics that have been ignored or misrepresented. If I can find a novel to read on a topic that I’m interested in, I read it. If I can’t, I write it.
Why do you write what you do?

I feel a moral responsibility to shed light on those bits of history that have been forgotten or ignored. I can’t do all of them, of course, but I gravitate towards WWI and WWII untold stories.
How does your writing process work?

I think about any given novel for a few years before ever writing down a word. During this time, I read widely on the subject, accessing primary documents when I can, and talking to survivors of the historical incident, when possible. Over the years, I have been gifted with journals, documents and letters from war survivors and their families. I read these in addition to the other sorts of documents that I can get. It takes about ten years of research before I can write about a particular era, but once I’ve done that research, I can write a number of books. For example, I’ve had two previous books published that were set during the WWI Ukrainian internment — Silver Threads and Prisoners in the Promised Land. That prior research came in handy when I embarked upon Dance of the Banished, although this novel required additional research because Ali is not Ukrainian, he is an Alevi Kurd who was interned in Canada. I have also written five previous novels set during the Armenian Genocide — The Hunger, Nobody’s Child, Daughter of War, Aram’s Choice and Call Me Aram. Half of Dance of the Banished is set in the Ottoman Empire during the time of WWI and the Armenian Genocide but it shows a completely different aspect of this history.

I had many false starts with this novel. I abandoned a 40,000 word chunk and set the entire book aside for a year. I couldn’t quite get the voices of Ali and Zeynep, plus the history behind the story was so huge that I feared it would overtake what is essentially a love story. My editor Ann Featherstone gave me a brilliant suggestion which ended up resolving my issues with voice. She suggested that Ali and Zeynep exchange journals when they part, so their alternating WWI stories are both told from starkly different first person points of view.

Once I had the issue of voice settled, writing the story was a breeze. I finished it in a matter of months.

Thanks for reading my blog tour post! Next Monday, Lisa Dalrymple and Karen Autio will be posting:

Lisa Dalrymple is the author of Skink on the Brink which won The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Writing for Children Competition in 2011. Her other books include If It’s No Trouble… A Big Polar Bear and Bubbly Troubly Polar Bear. A Moose Goes A’Mummering will be out in the fall of 2014.

Karen Autio is the author of a trilogy of historical novels for young readers. She writes about events in Canada’s history that haven’t had much attention, such as the sinking of the Empress of Ireland and spies, sabotage, and internment during the First World War. Her latest book Sabotage has been shortlisted for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile/YA Crime Bookand the 2015 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award.

All sorts of last minute changes with the launch of this book tour. My husband was originally going to fly me to Montreal, I was going to rent a car, and he was going to fly in to pick me up after the week was over. But we’ve had March weather in May and there was a risk of the wings icing, so he couldn’t fly me. I booked Via Rail, changed the rental car pick-up … but there was the small issue of whether I’d be able to get in to the rental place in time on Sunday before the office closed. It the train was at all late, that was a distinct possibility. So in the end, I drove the 750 or so kilometers from Brantford to Ste Agathe du Monts. The drive was relatively uneventful. Lots of rain but traffic was moving. I listened to one third of Stephen White’s last Alan Gregory novel, Compound Fractures. And Auberge La Tour du Lac is lovely. Looking forward to visiting St. Agate Academy tomorrow morning before I head in to Montreal.

Monday May 5, 2014

I checked out of the lovely Auberge La Tour du Lac and drove to Ste. Agathe Academy, which was about three minutes away.

Librarian Jeanne Marcotte was all ready for the visit!

And soon the students poured in — enthusiastic and full of questions, many about my WWII novels but also about writing and books in general! Here are some of the boys, checking out my books before the presentation. You can see that one of the boys is holding his cherished copy of Prisoners in the Promised Land:

And here are a bunch of students after I had finished both sessions:

Jeanne gave me a bagged lunch (egg salad on brown), I packed up and flew out the door. Drove to Montreal, sandwich on my lap.

Next stop: Sourp Hagop Armenian School, where I spoke to high school students:

 

The students asked GREAT questions and were particularly interesting in my upcoming novel, Dance of the Banished.

I drove to the Marriott Residence Inn on Lincoln Street and checked in, and was then taken out for a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner with Armenian friends.

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

My first school of the day was St. John Fisher School in Pointe Claire. Librarian Debbie Poirier had a uniquely cheerful way of brightening her basement library. See the tree in the photo below? That’s actually a pylon. Debbie and her students decorate their learning tree according to the season. The grade four students asked GREAT questions!

My next stop was Kirkland Library, which was just 15 or so kilometers away, but I had a dickens of a time finding it. My car GPS led me to a seniors’ home, and my phone GPS took me to the sports centre. Fortunately, I saw these students walking down the street:

They were going to my presentation! I was a kilometer away! They pointed me to the right direction, and by the time I parked and set up, they had arrived. On my itinerary, it said that these were grade 1 students. They were grade 7-8 students — not a problem! Just call me flexible Marsha!

The final visit of the day was at Selwyn House School in Westmount. It was impossible to know where to park in this extremely busy area so I called librarian Laura Sanders from the car and she sorted me out.

The grade 5 Selwyn students were so bubbling with questions that they nearly sidetracked my presentation. What most interested them was my own learning challenges when I was their age, but also my World War II trilogy.

David from Babar Books came in with books for sale and autograph. Here he is with Laura in the awesome library:

Here’s a pic of me with David:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a couple of hours unbooked in the afternoon, but I also hadn’t had lunch and was meeting two fabulous authors for dinner. Carol-Ann Hoyte:

 

Who is not only an author in her own right, but she also organized ALL of the Quebec tours!

And the awesome Kyo Maclear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with three GPSes, two human beings and a paper map, Kyo and I somehow managed to make a 10 minute trip take an hour. We almost missed Carol-Ann altogether. But I had a wonderful opportunity to chat with Kyo as we sat in traffic. A brilliant writer who delighted many students with her presentations during Book Week.

After dinner, I met with fellow Ukrainian, fellow librarian, fellow writer Vasyl Pawlowsky over a cup of mint tea. I have now strong-armed him into joining kidcrit. Ha!

More later …

 

 

After presenting to two FABULOUS groups of OLOL students, Marisa guided me to a lovely restaurant that was between her school in Delaware, and Nette Timmermans’ St Vincent de Paul in Strathroy. Nette had just arrived, and secured a booth…After a tasty lunch (Marisa’s fries were particularly tempting) I followed Nette to her school.

And here’s what welcomed me upon my arrival:

 

St. Vincent de Paul has a beautifully big and functional library and her students had decorated it with a lot of artwork from lessons about my books. Here is a picture of a giant suitcase display, with students’ thoughts on what Tuyet would pack to come to Canada.

Here are some avid readers from St Vincent de Paul.

And an avid reader teacher!

The young woman on the left, with me and Nette, is about to have her first piece of writing published!

Me and Nette.

 

More fabulous work from SVDP students.

I am thrilled that Manitoba students have chosen Making Bombs for Hitler as their Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice winner for 2014! Congratulations to Gordon Korman and Joanne Levy, both Honour Book selections. Here’s the link to the official announcement.

When Mama Goes to Work
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, author
Jessica Phillips, illustrator
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
311 Washington Street, Brighton, MA 02135
9781554553143, $18.95, www.fitzhenry.ca

 

“When Mama Goes to Work” is a cheerful descriptive book for preschool and up children about daily routines of both parent and child when Mama goes to work. Filled with beautiful color illustrations of families with skin tones of black, brown, white, and tan, “When Mama Goes to Work” presents a positive, upbeat attitude towards the experience of separate schedules of mother and child during the day. Both mother and child have prepared for their busy days by wearing appropriate clothes, and packing a lunch in a special bag. Sometimes there is a pleasant surprise in the lunch bag left by mother or child (like a spider toy or a valentine note)! Both mother and child are busy all day long, work with different tools, and get things done. Both smile (this is important). Both think of each other during their day and also miss each other. But the child knows that Mama will be back. The end of the day brings reunion, coming home, changing clothes, cooking, eating, books and reading, and bedtime. The child dreams of growing up and working with tools, being busy all day long, and smiles. One nice touch in “When Mama Goes to Work” is the pictured occupations for the mother, which include doctor, construction worker, and astronaut. Cheery text and happy faces in the illustrations help teach the young child that Mama going to work is a good thing, and an adult goal to aspire to.