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I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day who is coming into Toronto to do readings during the week of the Silver Birch/Blue Spruce etc ceremonies. She was pondering whether to come in a couple of days prior to her readings just for the hotel room. I can relate! I LOVE writing in hotel rooms. Nothing to clean up, no one to cook for, no phones ringing.

Most of my novels have been written either in a hotel room or in our cozy quiet place in ski country.

When I’m home I do the business of writing. When I’m away, I write.

What about you?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a whack of school readings, signings and other book events,  I’ve had the flu, did a big edit of Call Me Aram (the sequel to Aram’s Choice), broke two coffee pots and had my car rear-ended.

Last Wednesday, the Ukrainian Canadian Professional & Business Association of Toronto (commonly known as the Ps & Bs) hosted a book event for Kobzar’s Children. One of the contributors — Sonja Dunn — was able to attend the event with me.

Before the event, I picked up Sonja and we had delectable borscht and perogies at Amber European Restaurant on Bloor West, then we drove to the new Ukrainian National Federation building on Evans Ave. What a lovely building! It would be a great place to have a wedding!
Before we started, I dug out my stash of hardcover Kobzars and asked Sonja to sign them. I have been collecting the autographs of the contributors as I’m able. I have one book with most of the autographs, and Danny Evanishen has entrusted me with three of his to collect autographs in.

I love doing events with the Ps & Bs because they always do it well. Gene Yakovitch did a great introduction of me and then I introduced Sonja. I talked a little bit about how the anthology was put together and then Sonja got up and read her story, Changing Graves. And what a fabulous reading it was! Changing Graves is a funny true story with lots of black humour about a family that fulfills the deathbed wish of an aunt and has an uncle’s body exhumed and moved to a new gravesite. Sonja had her own TV show for 29 years and she’s a seasoned storyteller. Watching her tell this story was a delight. The audience was in stitches.

Kontakt television was there, and they recorded much of her storytelling.

I have deep admiration for Sonja. Not only is she a gifted writer and storyteller, but she is such a nice person and a good friend. I remember meeting her at one of the first CANSCAIP meetings I had attended way back in 1996. She came up to me immediately and introduced herself, and then took me under her wing, making sure that I was introduced to others. She had been president of CANSCAIP some years ago and is also very involved in The Writers’ Union of Canada.

It was such an honour for me to share the stage with Sonja for this book event. I hope we get lots of opportunities in the future to do this again.

Another busy day!

I autographed free copies of The Hunger at the Dundurn booth. Librarians can smell free books aisles away, so the lineup was satisfyingly long. The Hunger is my first YA novel and it was Dundurn’s flagship YA, and they didn’t know how to market them yet way back in 1999, so it’s my least-known novel.

It was great to chat during the signing with lots of librarians. One teacher librarian came up to me and thanked me for writing The Hunger. “We use it extensively in our school,” he said. “There are so many teaching opportunities.”

I asked him if he had Hope’s War, my personal favourite of all my YAs. “Yes!” he replied. “We have a class set and our grade 8 teacher does a whole unit on it.”

Wow! Comments like that make my day!

Others came up and said they love Nobody’s Child because it dispells the whole idea of “us vs them”. One of the funniest moments was when one teacher librarian turned to my editor, who was standing behind me and said, “Marsha’s a gem, be sure to keep her!” Barry replied, “We share her with several other publishers.”

After the Dundurn signing, I raced over to the Tundra booth and begged (and got) one of their awesome book bags and then raced to my room in the adjoining hotel and grabbed my luggage, then checked out. I carted the luggage up a flight of steps and a ramp in the parking garage and dumped it into my car, then raced back down to the conference just in time for my signing at the Forest of Stories booth for Aram’s Choice.

Again, it was so nice to chat with educators and librarians who had encouraging things to say about my books. One librarian told me that Aram’s Choice is so popular in her school that the boys have all decided the order that it’s taken out of the library. When one checks it back in, the next one is standing right there, waiting to check it back out. I am so pleased that this book has been so well-received. I have always wanted to write a boy historical, but “wisdom” has it that boys read fantasy and girls read historicals.

After the Silver Birch Express signing, I went over to the poster session for the Books and Writers Community. Many private kidcritters helped to put this session together: Marina Cohen, Martha Martin, Hélène Boudreau, Helaine Becker and myself. Not all who helped put it together were able to be there on the Friday, but their work was much appreciated.

And we had material about many of the published and soon to be published writers who have gone through private kidcrit: Pat Bow, James Bow, Valerie Sherrard, Anita Daher, Lynne Supeene, Linda Gerber and kc dyer, to name a few.

Martha says that poster sessions are not always well attended, but ours was hopping! It was great to chat with so many people about this fabulous online critique group for published and aspiring children’s writers.

While the poster session was going on, the CANSCAIP mass book launch was also in progress right beside it. I presented Kobzar’s Children at that, then skedaddled back to the poster session. And then at 2:10, Helaine Becker, myself and TL Sharon Armstrong presented a session on Advocating for School Libraries.

A busy time indeed!!

On the Thursday of Superconference, I was a co-presenter for two sessions. In the morning, I presented “An Adult Writing Camp for your community? You can do it too!”

Sharon Brooks of Kids Can Fly was the co-presenter, and Marina Cohen, one of our adult camp participants from last year, was on hand to answer questions.

It was a lively session with lots of questions. We’re running an adult writing camp again this summer from August 12 to 17 in Brantford. In addition to Kids Can Fly, Laurier Brantford is a co-sponsor. My goal is to get the schedule for these sessions finalized this week. We already have a list of 10 people who want to attend.

After that session, I autographed copies of Kobzar’s Children at the Fitzhenry & Whiteside booth, then met with one of the publicists for one of my upcoming novels. And then Valerie Sherrard and I did a presentation on the Do’s and Don’ts of Author Visits.

We had 100 people signed up for this session and it was very lively. To spice it up, Valerie and I begged some review copies of our own books from our publishers, plus we got a couple of Helaine Becker’s books from the Scholastic booth and coupons for Marina Cohen’s upcoming novel from Vanwell. During our session, we asked the audience questions and whoever got the answer first won an autographed book. It made for lots of interaction and loads of fun.

One thing I must say though is Valerie wouldn’t let me have the microphone very often. (Just kidding, Valerie!!)

I am finally digging out from the OLA Superconference. What a wonderful three days I had!

Wednesday was the official launch of the Forest of Stories reading program. Thirteen hundred students were invited to this celebration and many of the nominated authors and illustrators attended.

As a Silver Birch Express nominee, I lined up with Nancy Belgue, Ken Roberts and Hazel Hutchins. As we walked in, the students were chanting and waving their arms. The town crier dressed in sumptuous red and gold announced each of us, and he even pronounced my name correctly.

As each of us walked off the stage and down the aisle to where we would be signing, kids stuck out their hands to touch us. It was so cute!

After everyone in each reading program was introduced and everyone was at their signing table, we all signed furiously for about an hour. Fitzhenry & Whiteside had made up about 500 small posters for Aram’s Choice for me. I went through those fairly quickly. I had also brought my own postcards and went through about 1000 of those. Some teachers asked for extras for other classes and I gladly signed them and gave those out too.

I was thrilled with the comments kids made about my book. Before everyone came out of the assembly room, one boy snuck out early and came up to my table. “I love your Aram book,” he said. “But I have a few questions.”

“Thanks!” I replied. “What would you like to know?”

“Why was it that the chaperone was being sent back but the kids got to stay?”

Very good question! I explained to him that Canada was not accepting any Armenian men as immigrants at the time. The reason the Armenian children were allowed in was because this was a relief effort — in fact it was the first time Canada ever saved “non-white” children from disaster. The irony of course is that Armenians are white. The other irony is that this first international relief effort (ie the rescuing of 50 Armenian orphaned boys from Corfu in 1923) was called “Canada’s Noble Experiment.”

So, do I own the stuff in my blue box or is it fair game for anyone who happens by?

The reason I ask is because I have a neighbour who goes up and down the street on recycling day, going through everyone’s blue box and commenting on what he finds there. His excuse is that he’s grabbing wine bottles because he makes wine, but why not just ask for the wine bottles, then?

I am extremely grossed out by this behavior. Am I being overly sensitive? I don’t have the nerve to confront him. I do have the nerve to write about it on my blog though!

It’s been a full month since I last posted. Bad bad Marsha!

What excuses shall I cite? Christmas, New Year’s, Ukrainian Christmas, having my son home for the holidays.

And I ate way too much! Kept making bread and buying cake and other sweets for my son but then I would eat it. Bad bad Marsha.

So I have reformed. Or I’m trying to reform. Otherwise I’ll have to take my contact lenses out before looking in the mirror!

As part of my reformation, I was on a quest for Wishbone Salad Spritzer.

I have seen so many ads for this stuff on TV, but they don’t sell it in Canada. We were in Utah last week though, so I picked some up. In fact, all I had to declare at Customs was $18 worth of salad dressing~

Speaking of Utah — we went there for my husband to ski and for me to use the quiet hotel room to write. But we caught beginning of the Sundance Festival. Suddenly, on the Thursday, our hotel became filled with non-average people. There were very tall tanned men with obvious surgical enhancements to their faces. There were women who looked like they should be toppling over because of their improbable flotation devices. There were lots of people wanting to be served first and treated first because they were self-proclaimed VIPs. More fun to watch the people than the films, I bet.

We were in a restaurant on Thursday night and a large group of non-average people came in. The men — who were older so their surgical enhancements were starting to droop — were wearing fur jackets. I don’t mean manly fur jackets, I mean waist length orangey fur jackets that looked like they were borrowed from someone’s grandmother in the 1970s. And there was a woman wearing a Zorro hat and another with a head of hair that was so perfect it couldn’t possibly be real.

But we had a lovely time. The hotel had an outdoor heated pool and it was so refreshing to breathe icy air while basking in steam. And I got a lot of writing done!

CM online posted two reviews of Kobzar’s Children yesterday. One, by teacher-librarian Gail Hamilton, was glowing — 4 out of 4 stars. And the other, by an academic, trashed it — 2 out of 4 stars.

I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Reviews by academics — especially Ukrainian academics — are finding fault because it’s not what they expected, yet teacher-librarians and the general public are loving it because there hasn’t been a book out like this before.

My goal in putting together this anthology was to get little-known incidents of Ukrainian and Canadian-Ukrainian history into story form and into the hands of the general public. History and story are the operative words here. I didn’t want this to be an academic collection. I wanted it to be approachable by someone who had little or no prior knowledge about Ukrainian immigrants and their recent history. I wanted readers to be able to step into the shoes of these people.

The response I’ve had at readings and signings has been overwhelmingly positive. Ditto regarding the emails I’ve been getting. Most people tell me that their grandfather or their neighbour or friend is Ukrainian, and they’re thrilled that there’s a mainstream book of stories like this available. Here’s an excerpt from a recent email I got:

“I have just now.. [read Kobzar’s Children]..  and have been so very moved and educated.  I had absolutely no idea Ukrainian people had been treated so badly.  I know that ..[my new daughter-in-law]  and her siblings will also find it just so interesting and will help them understand the land and stories of their parents and ancestors.
 
I just wanted to let you know how much these books are enjoyed and appreciated.  Thank you so very much for all your research, efforts, and hard work.” 

Here’s another:

“Kobzar’s Children knocked me out. Thank you so much for being part of bringing all this to light.”

and another:

“Bravo !! You are so right. We Ukrainians have been stereotyped in the worst & negative way.”

and another:

“I just finished reading Kobzar’s Children, Well done, Humour, sadness and Ukranian history makes for a excellent read.”

I had heard that Aram’s Choice had a great review in Resource Links but didn’t see it for myself until today. Here it is.

My favourite line is this:

“Aram’s Choice is superbly written to appeal to young audiences while informing them of the history of the world in which we live.”

I stayed in Saskatoon overnight (it was minus 20C … brrrr!!!!)

The next morning I gave a writing workshop at the museum — in the Kurelek room.

You can see two of the Kurelek paintings behind me here:

After I got home, Alison F, one of the workshop participants emailed me and said:

“… your workshop was far and away the best and most informative session on writing I have ever attended! I could hardly keep up with writing down all the nuggets of useful information.”

Thanks, Alison! It was a great group!