Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: Erin Silver. Take it away, Erin! I’d been working really hard on my first-ever children’s book and was so excited for it’s spring 2020 release. Called Proud to Play, it’s about the experience of Canadian LGBTQ athletes in professional sports. The topic was so important and I’d poured my heart into writing and researching the book. But then the…

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*Peeks out from under blanket fort* *Decides it might be safe to emerge* *Checks the news, changes mind*   Hello, 2021. We are off to a rocky, rocky start, which means we could all use the escape of a good book right now. And I am here to help. The Boreal Forest: A Year in the World’s Largest Land Biome, has been nominated for a Yellow Cedar Award in the 2021 Forest of Reading! I…

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It’s mid-December, and you know what that means: New Year’s Resolutions are just around the corner.  I’ll be honest. I’ve never found classic resolutions particularly helpful. In fact, they’re more likely to produce feelings of guilt and inadequacy than happiness and accomplishment. If you’re with me on this, you might want to try something else instead: Identifying Your Top Three Things I’ll explain, but first, credit where it’s due: I did not invent the concept…

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Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s writers! Today’s guest: Carol Matas. Take it away, Carol! I love writing science fiction. My very first four books were science fiction: time travel dystopian novels about climate change, corporations taking over the world, false prophets and utopias. Hmm. That was 33 years ago! Seems like I was either a prophet or nothing has changed. Obviously, it’s the latter. Because those books are…

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Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers and students can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process. Sooner or later, every writer is going to have to interview an expert. Students might be required to do so for an assignment; for creative writers, interviews are sources of…

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Me and the other winners of the 2014 Lane Anderson Award. Photo taken by Emma McIntyre. Welcome to STEMinism Sunday! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be an opportunity for me – and you – to learn more about these intellectual badasses. Two things you might not have known about…

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Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: illustrator Erin Mercer. Take it away, Erin! Now and then illustrators get projects that aren’t straightforward, and not only challenge our technical skills but also our ability to research. I was thrilled when I signed my first illustration contract for a children’s poetry book titled “Recess in the Dark.” The poems follow the children’s perspectives on the playgrounds of…

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Last fall, I was lucky enough to visit the ruins of Pompeii. October not withstanding, it was a hot, sunny day, even first thing in the morning when our tour group arrived. In the distance, the green slopes of Mount Vesuvius rose against the sky: lush, serene, and bearing absolutely no resemblance to the flaming monster that destroyed the city – and several others – in 79 AD. It’s a singularly eerie place.  At that…

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Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers and students can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process. Today we’re continuing our discussion of research, with a focus on a special type of primary source – the expert. First, what do I mean when I say “expert”? As…

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It’s almost Remembrance Day in Canada, so it’s high time for a special edition of Cantastic Authorpalooza. Today, I’m welcoming my not-so-evil stepmother, Jaqueline Carmichael, who is celebrating the release of her newest book, Heard Amid the Guns: True Stories from the Western Front, 1914-1918. Heard Amid the Guns compiles lesser-known stories of World War I, including those of the women scientists, medics, and soldiers featured in this post. Rapid advances in transportation around the turn…

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