Mary McHugh, the author of Good Granny/Bad Granny has made a delightful video on youtube! In the video she talks about some of her favourite Good Granny/Bad Granny examples, and just to show what a way-cool granny she is, she even does a little tap dancing!
You can see more of her entertaining videos here. Damn I wish I had such great-looking legs...
Please forgive the excessive posts about, well, um...me. But you see, book season is gearing up, and I do have a couple books out, so am I going to say no when people graciously ask to interview me and help promote my books? Ummm.........no.
So I was delighted when the very charming Tony Medeiros, proprietor of the online magazine Sandbox World asked me some very interesting questions. And just what is Sandbox World all about? Well, in the words of Tony Medeiros:
Sandbox in a metaphorical sense, is a place that is safe for play or experiment. Sandbox’s main purpose is to entertain both parents and kids to the new books, DVDs, comics, and fun facts and new ideas to share with each other. Like in a real sandbox area, we feel safe and have fun there without harm. So you might discover a token from your past and share it with your kids or you might discover something new from your kids here in the Sandbox World.
So wanna come play in the Sandbox with me, and read my interview? I always play fair, promise.
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as too much Patricia. But if you're not quite sick of me yet, there's a lovely interview to be found in this beautiful and brand spanking new online magazine Lyte.Arts. Just get to the Table of Contents, and you'll find me. There's also a great interview with the very talented and successful illustrator Marcos Chin, who now lives and works in New York (perhaps you'll recognize his work – he's the guy who did those sexy illustrations for Lavalife). How I got to be in the same issue as Mr. Chin just boggles the mind. And do take the time to explore the whole issue – it's a beautiful layout, and a really top-notch design job by a group of very talented students from OCAD. Funny thing is, the Ontario College of Art and Design is the one art school that I really wish I had attended. I was always a tad envious of the cool kids who studied at OCAD. So it's kinda neat to be a part of their first issue. Hell, it's really neat. Thanks, guys!
Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for taking me on a trip down memory lane. Anyone out there remember Moxy Fruvous? After King of Spain, My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors was probably their most popular song. Unfortunately the quality of this video ain't the greatest, but it's the lyrics of the song that you should be paying attention to, not the visuals. Though do take a gander at Jian Ghomeshi's hair in the video. Hi Carumba!
Anyhoohow, take a boo at the video here.
Sick of me yet? If not, the cartoonist and writing dynamo Debbie Ridpath Ohi has very kindly interviewed me over at BlogTO. I mention some new projects in the interview, just in case you're not in the least bit interested....
UPDATE: The fabulous Raincoast Books has very kindly given me a plug on their blog. Can you stand the love fest?
I thought of that title for this blog post because I've been listening to the soundtrack to the movie O Lucky Man! this evening as I plug away, trying to stay on top of my deadlines.
Toronto author Liam O'Donnell is a pretty lucky guy, but that's because he's made his own luck – through hard work, talent and just by being an all 'round sweet guy. So it's only fitting that he should be interviewed by another great talent and wonderful person, Debbie Ohi, who now also contributes her talents to Blog TO.
Check out Debbie's interview with Liam on Blog TO here.
And speaking of being lucky, I think I'm a mighty lucky gal, knowing all these fabulous people!
Are you familiar with CBC's Canada Reads campaign that happens every year? Basically five well-known Canadian personalities champion a Canadian novel, and compete by way of extolling the merits of their chosen book, until after a period of time, one book is chosen as the winner. Sort of a literary Suvivor, I guess. I enjoy the show – it's a great way to encourage interest in Canadian books and reading in general.
But just recently a blog was brought to my attention, and it has made me think a little differently about the Canada Reads campaign. There's this guy, John Mutford, who lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and he's a passionate Book Luster. His blog is very thoughtful and there's no doubt that he loves books, and knows a thing or two about books and authors. A while back he got a great idea for the Canada Reads campaign – why not, instead of only having well-known Canadian personalities on their panel, put one ordinary person, like maybe John, in the mix? He even wrote quite a few blog posts about his idea. In fact, he got so passionate about his idea of getting an ordinary guy or gal on the panel of Canada Reads, that he even contacted the CBC about it, and set up a Facebook page entitled: Put John Mutford On The Air! CBC Radio – Canada Reads 2008. Last time I checked he'd gotten over 600 people backing him up on this idea.
Unfortunately, in spite of what I thought to be a great interest in getting a 'regular guy' on the show, this is the response John got from the CBC:
The plans for Canada Reads '08 are underway and we're aren't making any changes to the show design. We want to continue to draw as many listeners as possible and believe this is achieved with a panel of celebrities and high-profile Canadians, people from various walks of life who have risen to the top in their endeavours. The bigger the names, the more listeners, website visitors, fans and, finally, readers for all the shortlisted books and the chosen title. We'll be announcing next year's campaign in the fall and hope you continue to find it of interest.
I honestly do not think it will make a great difference if one of the panelists wasn't a celebrity – in fact, I think it could increase interest in the show, because people would want to know how 'regular guy' does in the competition. That would create more of a connection with the show, wouldn't it? I can't help but find it rather insulting that the CBC would think that I would only be interested in a program if 'famous Canadians' were featured. It sort of reminds me of the very short-sighted view of children's publishers who publish books written by celebrities regardless of the quality, because they figure "hey, these people are famous, so the masses will buy it regardless". The CBC is publicly funded by all of us 'regular folk' – why can't the public be more involved?
Sadly, as of June 12, John has given up on the campaign, and has taken down the Facebook petition. It's really a shame that such a great idea has to die a quiet death, but let's face it – this isn't the first time the CBC has made a dumb decision. I'll never forgive them for cancelling This Is Wonderland.
Exhausted and nursing a very sore throat from Saturday's festivities, I still managed to get to the Book Expo trade show early Sunday morning. The convention centre was already packed with people waiting in line to get in the trade show, but as soon as it opened up, people moved pretty darn quickly up that escalator to book crack heaven.
Now I know there's been quite a bit of criticism about BEC this year – what exactly is this show really all about, why is it always in Toronto, the fact that it's so expensive and various publishers have really pared down their booths – but I don't care. It was my first time, and I had nothing to comapre it to, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
One thing I was disappointed about – I found out at the Children's Gala party that unfortunately my illustrated book 13 Ghosts of Halloween would not be part of Scholastic's display, and nor would Good Granny Bad Granny be on display at the Raincoast booth (Raincoast is the Canadian distributer for Chronicle Books). Apparently it's all about timing. Both my books come out in August, and the books being promoted at Book Expo are for the most part, Fall books. I just missed getting in by a month. Darn!
But I took some shots of the Chronicle Books display, anyway.
As well as Scholastic's booth!
Hey! Check it out! Grumpy Bird in French!
A bizarre and yet cool display for the Simpsons movie.
If you had the urge, you could get your photo taken sitting next to Homer. I can live without that. Check out the Guinness World Records display for the world's tallest man.
Kinda creepy when you get up close.
Ok, so other than take a lot of pictures, what the hell did I do? Well, I took note of all the great children's books coming out, so that I can get a good idea of what I'm up against. Melanie Watt is a superstar, and her books are amazing. Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko were at the Scholastic booth signing books, and the line-up was insane. Same goes for Barbara Reid and Jean Little (though I at least got to say hello to them). For the most part I decided against standing in line in order to get a free book, because so much time would have been wasted just standing around. Though I did get in line to get my signed copy of Travel with Chirp! Behold the wonderful Bob Kain.
And even Chirp himself was there, getting his chirp on!
Boy do I feel for that dude, 'cuz it was mighty hot in that convention centre.
Hey Chris Tripp! I saw your books at the Lobster Press display!
It's true that Book Expo is a schmooze-fest of sorts, and I certainly tried to take advantage of that fact, and chat up with various folks from the children's publishing booths. Nothing ventured, as they say. What I didn't expect while at Book Expo was that I would run into so many people that I knew! Booksellers (congrats Richard Bachmann of Different Drummer Books for winning the Jack award!) and library folk and various authors. In fact, I ran into a couple of librarians that I had worked for when I was at McMaster University Library. We're talking 22 years ago! Another funny aspect of the Book Expo experience that I didn't expect was that people I didn't know would see my name tag and know me from my blog. Happened a couple of times. I also made an effort to talk to editors not specifically in children's publishing, because you can always learn something interesting and helpful from someone in the book biz.
Near the end of the afternoon I was getting mighty hot and tired, and as luck would have it, I found a booth giving out free beer!! And then after that I hopped back to the Scholastic booth, 'cuz they were about to celebrate their 50th birthday. Couldn't miss that!
They broke out the champagne!
(Like I really needed more booze...but it would have been rude to say no, no?)
And there was cake! (Damn good cake, I might add!)
Let the partying begin!
Did I mention there was champagne?
Ok, so I'm having a lovely time chatting to editors, authors and the like, when suddenly in the aisle a large crowd of people comes towards us. There appears to be security. What the heck is going on? And lo and behold if it ain't one of our former PMs, the boy from Shawinigan himself, Jean Chretien. Yup, even he's written a book. Eventually I wandered over to the Random House booth to check it out, where I got more champagne (I'm a little loopy by now, but still well-behaved, ok? Trust me, I did not want to piss off Chretien) and took some piccies.
Look who else showed up for the free champagne and smoked salmon:
Our former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, and her intellectual hubby dude John Ralston Saul.
That boy from Shawinigan sure looks like he's having a good time!
The lady on the right is the charming and lovely Louise Dennys.
I'm sure I've blathered on for far too long, and I've forgotten plenty of important things to say. I did manage to follow some of Quill & Quire's advice for how to survive Book Expo – I found those precious washrooms, and smartly took the St. Andrew subway exit home! But was it a bad thing to drink the beer before the champagne?
Apparently every year before the trade show part of Book Expo starts, there is this magical wonderful thing called the Children's Gala, sponsored by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Many, many thanks to Scholastic Canada for including me this year! I can't begin to express what a blast it was for me. But I'll try.
This year the event was held at Montana, downtown at 145 John Street. It's a big place with a lovely outdoor patio section which sadly, I didn't really get a chance to enjoy, 'cuz I was so busy yapping with so many people inside!
The evening started out fabulously, because guess who was one of the first people I got to meet? Robin Muller, the author of my upcoming illustrated book 13 Ghosts of Halloween! So many of my children's book friends had told me what a sweetheart Robin is, and he certainly did not disappoint. He is simply a wonderful, charming, delightful and kind gentleman with really, really nice biceps. This picture does not do justice to the man's cuteness factor.
What a thrill to finally meet the man whose magical words inspired my pictures!
I also got to meet many of the wonderful and talented folk who work at Scholastic, and who all had a part to play in creating 13 Ghosts. I'm truly honoured to be associated with such fine people.
Even though Montana is quite spacious, the place was packed, baby! – with oodles of happy children's authors and illustrators and editors and marketing folk, and then put alcohol in that mix, and a good time is definitely had by all! I also had a chance to chat to the adorable Bob Kain, creator of that other famous yellow bird, Chirp! And it's not a fun night unless Naseem Hrab, librarian for the Canadian Children's Book Centre, and lover of all things kid-related, is in the house!
Naseem Hrab and Bob Kain, getting in the party mode.
Those two just can't get enough of each other.
Also in attendance for the festivities were authors Liam O'Donnell and Colin Frizell. Liam is the author of many books, including the famous Max Finder series, plus he has a new graphic novel coming out in October, entitled Wild Ride, published by Orca Books. Colin Frizzell writes screenplays and short stories, and is the author of two YA books published by Orca, Chill and Just J. Both these guys know how to have a great time!
Liam describing the life of a freelance writer – "well...sometimes it's up, and...gee...sometimes it's down!" Colin grimaces in agreement.
Liam says to the bartender – "I'll have what everyone else is having!"
Naseem in a serious moment.
UPDATE: Naseem took some great shots, too, so I thought I'd add a couple. Here's a great one of the three hot boy writers: Colin, Liam and Jeremy Tankard, creator of Grumpy Bird!
And a nice one of Bob Kain, myself and Robin Muller.
It was an amazing night of laughing, kvetching, schmoozing and meeting some of the most wonderful people ever. It may be stating the obvious, but children's book folk really are fun.
For more pics from that night, check out the photo pool from Quill & Quire.
Next post: The Book Expo experience!
