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Never again will I buy strawberries at the grocery store.

I generally buy them at the Farmers’ Market or at one of the roadside stands in the country but a few days ago I was having fresh strawberry withdrawal and I was in the supermarket and the produce guy was putting out fresh sparkling red strawberries.

I bought a carton and brought them home. As I cut off the stems, I noticed an odd smell — faintly strawberry-like, but perfumey. I rinsed them extra well, then popped a few in my mouth. They did not taste like strawberries at all. I have never tasted saniflush, but if I ever did, I am sure it would taste like those strawberries.

I put the carton in the fridge and meant to take them back to the store to complain, but didn’t get around to it. Days later, the strawberries looked just as new and unshrivelled as when I bought them.

I went to the Farmers’ Market today and bought myself some real strawberries. These ones are such a dark red that they’re nearly black. And some have bruises and soft spots. And they taste marvellous.

I got a nice surprise in the mail today. A cheque! The Korean rights to Silver Threads have been sold!

Coming up to the anniversary of the “Georgetown Boys” arriving in Canada, we pay tribute to their journey through this beautifully illustrated children’s novel that touches on the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Join author, Marsha Skrypuch and illustrator Muriel Wood, as they welcome the families of the original Georgetown Boys to the official launch of Aram’s Choice.

The launch will be held at:

The Freckled Lion, 87
Main St. S. in Georgetown, ON
June 29 th , 2006 from 1-2pm and 7-8pm

From the New Beginnings series, comes Aram’s Choice, a story that follows the life of a boy who loses his family in the Armenian genocide in Turkey and is exiled in Greece. The book follows Aram while he travels to Canada with forty-seven other Armenian boys in what was Canada’s first international humanitarian effort.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first heard about the Armenian Genocide seventeen years ago while doing research for a magazine article about the first “Georgetown Boys” — a group of 47 Armenian orphans who were rescued by Canada in 1923 and were housed and schooled at a farm in Georgetown, Ontario.

After interviewing the son of a “Georgetown Boy,” Marsha was left with more questions than answers. For example, why were all of the rescued orphans male? Why were they all between the ages of eight and twelve? What happened to their parents? What happened to their sisters?

After years of research, Marsha was able to write Aram’s Choice. Based on true events, this book gives children a chance to learn about effects of genocide through one that the Turkish government has long denied ever happened.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads and Enough as well as her YA novels, 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.

Muriel Wood has been illustrating books for children since 1964, including the Canadian classic, The Olden Days Coat written by Margaret Laurence. Other books that she has illustrated include Old Bird, and the first two titles from the New Beginnings series, Lizzie’s Storm and Scared Sarah.

Aram’s Choice
By Marsha Skrypuch; Illustrated by Muriel Wood
Ages: 8-11, Grades: 3-6
ISBN: 1-55041-352-X hc; Price: $18.95 CAD
ISBN : 1-55041-354-6 pb; Price: $10.95 CAD
Available: June 29 th , 2006
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
195 Allstate Parkway  Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8
1.800.387.9776  www.fitzhenry.ca

Contact:
Sylvia Lesak,
Marketing & Publicity Coordinator
905-477-9700 x 212
slesak@fitzhenry.ca

I got a call from Sonya at Fitzhenry & Whiteside early yesterday morning to inform me that the shipment of Aram’s Choice has arrived! It is always touch and go with full colour illustrated books because they tend to be printed in Hong Kong rather than Canada. Even once they’re printed, it takes a long time for the ship to arrive, then pass through Customs, etc etc.

I am so relieved that the shipment has arrived. We have a book launch scheduled for Thursday June 29th at Freckled Lion Bookstore in Georgetown Ontario. Carl Georgian, who is the son of George Georgian (Kevork Kevorkian) — the Georgetown Boy whose story is the core of Aram’s Choice — emailed me to let me know that a couple of carloads of Georgetown Boy families will be coming down for the launch. It will be something of a reunion! I am so excited.

I think they will be blown away when they see Muriel Wood’s amazing paintings. It is an honour for me to be matched up with such a fabulous illustrator. Her paintings are near-photographic.

That said, I’ve been darned fortunate in the past too. Michael Martchenko has illustrated two of my picture books — and that was a dream come true for me. And Halina Below, illustrator for The Best Gifts, is also wonderful. It is always so neat for me to see what an illustrator’s imagination can paint with my words.

I am delighted that Stephen Harper has formally apologized to Canadians of Chinese descent over the Head Tax issue.

And while that chapter in Canada’s history is grim, it got even worse in 1923 with the Chinese Exclusion Act, when Chinese immigrants were banned altogether from coming to Canada.

Ironically, 1923 was the same year that Canada’s Noble Experiment took place — our first international relief effort with the saving of 50 Armenian boys who were orphaned during the genocide in Turkey when 85% of the Armenians in Turkey were massacred. My book Aram’s Choice, is about these boys, who are now known as the Georgetown Boys.

And my friend Gillian Chan has written a fabulous novel about one girl and her family and how they were affected by the Chinese Exclusion Act, called An Ocean Apart.

Tomorrow I am going to Toronto to do a bit of volunteer work. Last summer, I donated readings to all three writing camps run by Frontier College. It was quite an interesting experience. One of the camps was held in a library, another in a safe home and another at a community centre.

This year, they asked me if I could come in before the camps and teach the counsellors how to conduct writing workshops. Kewl. Of course I can!

It should be a fun day!

As for other things —

Small acts of kindness make my day. The Home Hardware lady gave me a garbage can lid free, to replace mine that had blown away.

And I got bookmarks for Kobzar’s Children. A whole WHACK of bookmarks.

And five kids signed up for Book Camp today. Adult book camp is full, but we’re still taking apps for the kids’ camp.

I drove to Toronto bright and early yesterday morning to get to BookExpo for a nice solid day. I took Brantford novelist Joan Itoh Burk with me. Her first novel is just out with Brindle & Glass, called One Chrysanthemum. She has published a number of cookbooks in the past and she’s the food writer for the Brantford Expositor. We have known each other for quite a long time. In fact, we swapped manuscripts before either of us had novels published. She did a signing at BookExpo and she had a long and satisfying lineup. Her novel looks fabulous. I grabbed me a copy.

I love going to BookExpo! What a book-aholic’s dream come true: being given a shopping bag or three, and being let loose amidst brand new free books. Autographed, no less!

I did a signing of Kobzar’s Children at 3:30pm. I was expecting a non-existent line-up seeing as the whole tradeshow closes down on Monday afternoon, but there was a huge lineup. I heard so many nice comments about Kobzar’s Children too. Many of the people who waited in line for an autograph said that it was wonderful that there was finally a book out like this — stories about Ukrainian immigrants —  spanning a century. Reps from Chapters in Oshawa and Ancaster both asked if there could be a Kobzar signing. Very nice.

Muriel Wood, illustrator extraordinaire for Aram’s Choice was also there. We had hoped to be signing Aram’s Choice also, but full-colour illustrated books are always printed in either China or Hong Kong and Aram is still on the open sea. He’s due to land sometime next week. So instead, Muriel and I signed postcards. I have only one copy of Aram’s Choice right now. I can hardly wait til the rest arrive!!

Last October, I lost my dear friend, Marianne Bluger, to breast cancer. One of our mutual friends, Jocelyn Shipley, just pointed me in the direction to a lovely tribute for Marianne. It includes some of Marianne’s evocative haiku:

http://www.haikucanada.org/id23.html

I miss Marianne so much.

I am now involved in yet another new blog. This one is called YAPs, or Young adult print scribes, OR the Realm of the ex-reject Queens.

Check it out here:

http://youngadultprintscribes.blogspot.com/

Kate Coombs, Linda Gerber, kc dyer and myself have been exchanging crits for many many years. Between the four of us, we amassed an impressive variety of rejections, but we are all now either published, or about to be published. Kate’s first book, Secret Keeper, just came out. Linda’s novel, Now And Zen, is coming out soon, and kc has three books published.

Before we were published, we had been vying for the title of Rejection Queen, seeing who could amass the most rejection letters before getting a contract. I think I won, with 100!

I just got back from Ottawa a couple of hours ago. This has been an incredibly busy week, with Vancouver over the weekend and Ottawa yesterday. I had to get up at 3:30am on Wednesday to catch a 6:30am flight out of Hamilton. Did three school readings plus presented at a teachers’ meeting, then was driven to my hotel to freshen up, then was picked up again and taken to the Armenian Embassy, where the book launch of Aram’s Choice was being held.

Aram’s Choice isn’t even out in Canada until June 20th, but when I was going to be in Ottawa for these school readings, I contacted Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada and he arranged this launch! My publisher got 30 or so copies of Aram’s Choice couriered from Hong Kong for the event. Leishman’s Bookstore of Ottawa was there to sell those and my other books too. They (as well as the others) sold out in a flash. Seeing as I didn’t have a copy myself yet, I grabbed one as my reading copy and told Leishman’s I was keeping it. The F&W rep was there too, so that was okay.

First, the Aram’s Choice is BEAUTIFUL! This is my second book out this month. They are both so BEAUTIFUL!!!

It was really neat to do this at the Armenian Embassy. The place was packed and I was the guest of honour. It didn’t finish until 11pm. I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until I got back into my hotel room.

Muriel Wood, the illustrator for Aram’s Choice, had a limited edition print made of one of the double-spread paintings in the book. She had that couriered to Stephen, the Ottawa Fitzhenry & Whiteside rep. I presented it as a thank-you to Aris.

The Committee gave me the diary of a survivor as a gift (one that I don’t have, which is great) plus an Armenian DVD that I don’t have, plus a dozen long-stemmed roses. The roses were packed really well so I took them on the airplane with me. The security people were intrigued by the flowers and also by my chattervox:

http://www.chattervox.com

which lit up their security lights. When they found out I had just launched a book at the Armenian Embassy, they all crowded round (it was not rush hour for them!) and wanted to see my books. It was pretty funny. They were oohing and aahing.

We’re doing another launch of this book on June 29th in Georgetown Ontario — Aram’s Choice is about one of the 110 Armenian orphans who are known as The Georgetown Boys. That launch will be held at Freckled Lion Bookstore:

http://www.downtowngeorgetown.com/freckled

Muriel Wood, illustrator extraordinare, will be signing too!