Thirty years ago when being an author seemed like an unattainable dream, I had a second seemingly unattainable dream: that Michael Martchenko would illustrate a book that I wrote. As it turned out, he became the illustrator for my very first book, Silver Threads. He also illustrated the book that made me a princess, Enough. I saw Michael tonight at a Scholastic Canada do and asked my friend Natalie Hyde to take this pic. The last time we had our pic taken was 17 years ago when Enough was launched.
Such a thrill that Adrift At Sea has won the Golden Oak Award. The nominated books are read and judged by adult literacy learners, and for me this is so very special. I am dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until I was nine years old. I have an inkling of the challenges adult learners confront and am in awe of their courage. All of the shortlisted books were fantastic. Not in a million years did Tuan and I expect to win. We had actually placed our bets on Fight to Learn: The Struggle to go to School as the winner. I had been taking pics and tweeting them throughout the ceremony and was all set to take a pic of the winner, but then we were called up! So I don’t have a pic of Tuan and I receiving the award. Maybe someone will send me one? The pic above was taken in mid-May when we spoke at Downsview Library to Golden Oak participants.
The pic below is Tuan and I with Marlene Shuan, who passionately presented our book to the audience. See the bottom pic of Marlene in action. All of the shortlisted books were presented by adult literacy learners — such bravery to get up there in front of your peers and present like that!
People who meet me tend not to realize that I am an extreme introvert. I am good at building characters though, and one that has proven very useful is Marsha the extrovert. I have been mostly hunkered down at home writing, writing, writing, but I crunched together 7 presentations over the last three days and so got a chance to air out Marsha the extrovert.
Monday morning’s presentation was at the Palmerston branch of the Toronto Public Library, organized by Rachelle Gooden who is a TPL Adult Literacy Senior Services Specialist. I spoke about Adrift at Sea, which was shortlisted for the Golden Oak Award. It was an awesome event!
Me with Rachelle Gooden
On Tuesday afternoon, I drove back to the GTA, this time to the ARS Armenian School in North York.
First I had the honour of speaking to the grade 8 students about my very first novel, The Hunger, published in 1999. An interesting experience, considering these students weren’t even born yet. It was so neat to answer their superb questions and to realize how well this novel has stood the test of time.
On Tuesday night, I spoke to another Golden Oak group, this time at Downsview Library. And this time, Tuan came too. Such a moving experience.
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day at Birchmount CI, with the wonderful Julia Zwaan and grade 10 history students. My presentation was about the real people behind my books.
Julia and me
just before the third group comes in
So now Marsha the Extrovert retires for a bit and the real Marsha, the introvert hunkering down and writing yet another book, takes over.
