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In my just-released novel, Daughter of War, Kevork survives the deportations into the desert because he is adopted by an Arab clan. He is tattooed with distinctive blue dots. Later on, this distinctive tattoo helps him blend in while he is doing underground relief work to help save other Armenians.

Both Marta and Mariam survive by being taken in to Turkish homes and living as Muslim women.

Here is an online exhibit with some stunning photographs about some of the real people behind the story of Daughter of War.

My dear mother-in-law died in February. She led a rich and varied life and she was a beautiful person, both inside and out.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cat Heaven, producer

Tel: 905-877-3422 (Studio)

Website: www.georgetownlittletheatre.ca

GEORGETOWN LITTLE THEATRE YOUTH GROUP BRINGS LOCAL HISTORY TO THE STAGE

Story of The Georgetown Boys performed by Halton area youth

From May 1 to May 10, 2008, the Georgetown Little Theatre Youth Company (GLTYC) will be staging an original production called The Georgetown Boys.

The GLTYC is proud to present this original theatrical production based upon the stories written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and adapted for the stage by Sam Hancock. The two-week run of the production will take place at the GLT studio in Stewarttown from May 1 to 10, 2008, with a special one-night-only Gala Performance at the John Elliot Theatre on May 14, 2008.

This production is indicative of the growth of the Youth Company over the past five years. The young cast and crew are thrilled to be a part of this unique event.

Based on two books by award-winning author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Aram’s Choice (available in stores now) and Call Me Aram (to be released in fall 2008), The Georgetown Boys was adapted for the stage and directed by local Georgetown resident, Sam Hancock. Sam has directed many productions since graduating from Guelph University’s theatre program. Sam’s plays have won audience awards and have been staged in Toronto, New York and San Francisco.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads and Enough as well as her YA novels, Hope’s War, The Hunger and Nobody’s Child, which was nominated for the Red Maple Award, the Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award, and the B.C. Stellar Award. Daughter of War, which continues the story of Nobody’s Child and The Hunger, will be newly launched at this time.

In 1923, 110 young Armenian boys, aged 8-12, were brought to Canada to live on Cedar Vale Farm in Georgetown where they were trained in farming with the aim of becoming Canadian farmers. The Georgetown Boys documents a significant moment in the history of Georgetown and Canada. It was “Canada’s noble experiment” – Canada’s first international humanitarian effort. Many of these orphans grew up and settled in Southern Ontario, reuniting with their friends as often as they could, forming a tight-knit community that continues to this day among their descendants.

The Georgetown Little Theatre is proud to support the efforts of the Youth Company. There are 24 performers in this production with as many, if not more, adult and youth volunteers helping backstage. Organizing and rallying this large troupe of theatre artists is Cat Heaven, Sue Bryan and Kay d’Entremont who have been the guiding force behind the GLTYC since it’s inception in 2003. Each year the company produces a fall one-act play festival, with plays written and directed by Youth Company members, and one full-length production each spring. Past spring productions have included “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, “The Insect Play”, “Dark of the Moon” and “Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

The performances will take place at the Georgetown Little Theatre in Stewarttown, Ontario. To purchase tickets, please call 905-977-3422. Tickets are $10.

The GLT Studio is located at 32 Stewarttown Road, Georgetown, Ontario:

Performance Dates and Times

Thursday, May 1 – 8:00pm

Friday, May 2 – 8:00pm

Saturday, May 3 – 2:00pm

Sunday, May 4 – 2:00pm

Wednesday, May 7, 8:00pm

Thursday, May 8, 8:00pm

Friday, May 9, 8:00pm

Saturday, May 10, 2:00pm

Saturday, May 10, 8:00pm

For information on the Gala Performance on May 14, 2008, at the John Elliot Theatre,

please leave a message at 905-877-3422.

Take a look at this petition and do sign. But also, click through the signatures. There are many people who have taken the time to write about their family and personal experiences under Communism.

Hope to see you there!!

Call Me Aram will be published in the fall of 2008. Here’s the cover:
Aram Davidian, like his fellow orphaned Armenian refugees, is delighted with his new home on a farm in Georgetown, Ontario. But despite the excitement his new surroundings, Aram worries about his young friend Mgerdich, who was injured on the long trip to Canada and is recovering in France. And what is more worrying is that he and the other boys have been assigned new English names. How will their extended families find them one day if all the boys have new identities? Even when their translator assures them that their hosts want only the best for the boys, Aram cannot accept the name David Adams. When Mgerdich finally arrives at the farm, a relieved Aram finds the courage to lead the boys in a gentle revolt. Together, they must find a way to convince the Canadians adults that the boys, as grateful as they are for their new lives, they cannot forget their old ones. They must keep their names.

Here.

President of Ukraine honours local author

Elizabeth Yates
Brantford Expositor – 24 May 2008 

City author Marsha Skrypuch hopes to snatch a few words with Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko when he gives her a state honour at a ceremony in Toronto on Wednesday.Skrypuch will receive the Order of Princess Olha, Class III: the highest honour the country bestows on foreign citizens. The medal recognizes her books about the 1932-1933 Ukrainian famine, which killed up to 10 million people. The award comes on the 75th anniversary of what Ukrainians call Holodomor: meaning death by hunger.

Since her award was announced in February, Skrypuch has been waiting to hear when the honour would be bestowed. The date is now confirmed for a 9:30 a.m. reception at the Old Mill Inn and Spa.

About 600 people, mostly from the Ukrainian community, are expected to attend, says Skrypuch, who will be accompanied by her husband, Dr. Orest Skrypuch, and other family members.

Meeting Yushchenko – on his first visit to Canada – will be a thrill. She wants to tell him how much she admires the reforms he has brought to the country where her paternal grandfather was born. “He’s my hero,” she says, citing Yushchenko’s role in the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution, which introduced free elections to Ukraine.

Yushchenko also helped draw attention to the famine and to the fate of Ukrainians during the Holocaust.

“His father was an Auschwitz survivor,” says Skrypuch. “People don’t realize that Ukrainians and Poles died along with the Jews.

“He’s a symbol of all that being acknowledged.”

A writer of award-winning books for children and young adults, Skrypuch has carved a significant career crafting fiction from the facts of historic atrocities.

In 2000, she wrote Enough, a picture book based on a folktale about a young girl’s attempts to save her village from starvation during the Ukrainian famine. The Holodomor also inspired her story called The Rings, published in Kobzar’s Children, a 2006 anthology of Ukrainian-Canadian writings which she also edited.

I have been awarded the Order of Princess Olha, by Victor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine.

The state awards of Ukraine are the highest form of honor of the citizens for outstanding achievements in development of economy, science, culture, social sphere, defense of Motherland, protection of man’s constitutional rights and freedoms, state building and public activity, for other services before Ukraine. The state awards are set exclusively by the laws of Ukraine.

The citizens of Ukraine, foreigners and stateless persons may be decorated with the state awards.

Decorating is conducted by the decree of the President of Ukraine. The recipient gets the state award and the document which certifies decorating thereof.

– the Order of Princess Olha of I, II, III class – to honor the women for distinguished services in state, production, public, scientific, educational, cultural, charity and other spheres of public activity, bringing up children in family

The “bringing up children in family” is an interesting addendum.

And here is what the medal looks like:

 

 

Here is the cover for Daughter of War, which is coming out in May:

This is the sequel to Nobody’s Child and The Hunger. Here’s the dustjacket blurb:

Teenagers Kevork and his betrothed Marta are the lucky ones. They have managed so far to survive the Armenian genocide in Turkey, and both are disguised as Muslims. But Marta is still in Turkey, pregnant with another man’s child. And Kevork is living as an Arab in Syria.

Kevork yearns to get back into Turkey and search for Marta, but with the war raging and the genocide still in progress, the journey will be impossibly dangerous. Meanwhile, Marta worries that even if Kevork has survived and they are reunited, will he be able to accept what she has become? And what has happened to her sister, Mariam, who was sold as a slave to the highest bidder?

Daughter of War is a gripping story of enduring love and loyalty set against the horrors of Turkey during World War I.