Tag: Guest Post

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Guest Post: Heather Hartt-Sussman

Last Saturday, Heather Hartt-Sussman presented Nana’s Getting Married at Indigo Yorkdale. Children, parents, and grandparents attended the special story time and Heather signed books after her reading. If you weren’t able to make it to the event, Indigo Yorkdale has a few signed copies left – first come, first serve!

Heather Hartt-Sussman even brought in the original artwork by Georgia Graham!

We also have a guest post today, please welcome Heather Hartt-Sussman!

HH-S: I wrote Nana’s Getting Married when my then 5-year-old son asked me why in the world we were at my mother’s wedding. He was confused because it contradicted the order of things. You attend your children’s and grandchildren’s weddings; not the other way around. He knew this to be true, at 5, but I had to explain to him that my mom had been divorced from my father since I was 8, and she had finally, thirty years later, fallen in love again.

It lead me to think about how confused I was when my parents started dating again after their divorce. I, like my son, was upset that this wasn’t the way it was “supposed” to be. I have since learned, and I have tried to impress upon my two sons as well, that you only get upset when you bank on “normal.” If you modify your expectations and stop dictating the way you think things should be, you can have a lot more freedom to enjoy the way things just are.

Further, with the baby boom population getting older, you can be pretty sure there will be a LOT more grandchildren attending their grandparents second and even third weddings, as people are living longer, and benefiting from more vibrant health.

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Guest Post: Nan Forler

Here is a guest post from Nan Forler, author of Bird Child, about her reading at Elmira Library! Photos courtesy of Nan Forler and Kevin Coates.

Nan Forler: Recently, I had the unique pleasure of doing a reading of Bird Child in my hometown of Elmira, with the students of the elementary school I attended so many years ago.  Bette Cummings, the Children’s Librarian at the Elmira Library has passed on her love of books to hundreds of children over the years.  I used to drive my own children up to Elmira for storytime with “Miss Bette,” as they lovingly referred to her, to enjoy her patient and gentle manner.  Bette has followed the path of Bird Child and was eager to have me come in for a reading. 

Bette had everyone and everything well-prepared for the reading.  The display case at the entrance was decked out with a Bird Child scene, complete with snowy roads, tiny houses, a school bus, and a raven perched on a fence.

The children not only had uniquely hometown comments such as, “I know your sister,” and “Do you know my parents?” but also insightful thoughts on how to be a bystander who challenges the power of a bully.  Rather than ideas for taking revenge, responses such as “How would you feel if someone did that to you?” showed a deep understanding of how to take an active and positive role as a bystander.

The children were amazingly attentive and demonstrated a strong sense of empathy in our role-playing.  Empathy, along with the ability to respond with courage and compassion, are learned behaviours that I hope we can all pass on to the children in our lives.

At the end of the reading, Bette presented me with a beautiful, festive wreath she had created, decorated with items from the story of Bird Child, including a school bus, fence, paintbrush, and music, and invited us to a reception of Christmas cookies and juice.  I left feeling that we all need more “Miss Bettes” in this world.

Read Nan Forler’s previous guest post about her first bookstore reading!

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Guest Post: Monica Kulling

Tundra author, Monica Kulling, shares with us in this guest post about her event on Wednesday, November 18, 2009:

Monica Kulling: I had the distinct pleasure last week of participating in my first-ever Canadian Children’s Book Week event. I read my first Canadian book, It’s a Snap! George Eastman’s First Photograph, to a group of grade fours and fives at the Black Creek Branch of the Toronto Public Library.

Clip art credit: www.arthursclipart.org

Since publishing my first picture book, in the U.K. and the U.S. in 1992, I have looked longingly (each November) at the Canada Book Week poster and felt a like the poor match-girl in the fairy tale, uninvited because she has never published a book in Canada. A sad state of affairs. But sad no longer!

Enter TUNDRA BOOKS and Kathy Lowinger and all the talented people who work so hard to produce the beautiful books that Tundra is famous for. And a huge thanks to Bill Slavin, the illustrious Canadian illustrator, whose work is so well-known that doors open for me when I mention his name! Thank you for putting me on the Canadian map! I am tickled pink to be a Canadian author and to have the opportunity to share my books with kids across our great country.

So … with my symbolic invitation in hand, I drove to the Black Creek library located in the North York Sheridan Mall. Driving up Black Creek Drive, I passed the perfectly named, “Photography Drive,” which indicates the street that leads to the old Kodak plant. In 2005 Kodak became a casualty of the digital age and was forced to close down its plant. Until then it had employed hundreds of people for nearly 100 years. All the Kodak film and photography paper used in Canada were manufactured at the place that was called, “Kodak Heights.” Now one solitary building remains-building number 9:

Photo from: "The End of Kodachrome and the Death of Kodak Heights" by Rick McGinnis (July 3, 2009 on www.blogto.com)

The Black Creek Library is on the lower level of the Sheridan Mall, tucked behind an escalator. But the strategy of arriving early, allowed me to get lost, at least once. Anne-Marie Di Lello, the librarian who contacted me, greeted me warmly. She is proud of the library. “This library is a pearl in the mall,” Anne-Marie tells me. “Most people don’t know it’s here. But when they discover it, they keep coming back.” And as I entered its cozy and quiet domain, I can see why.

I was shown the room where the reading was going to be. Nancy Velez, another Black Creek librarian, had gone to great lengths to search the Toronto system for every book of mine she could get. The table at the front of the room, made me feel right at home.

The group was a little late, but worth waiting for. I began my presentation by taking a panoramic photograph of the entire group. So see for yourself what a grand bunch of kids I had in front of me.

And did they have questions? They did indeed! For that Kirkus reviewer who thought that “a few phrases may confuse young readers (“George had a brain wave”),” you can rest easy. Not only did my young listeners understand the term “brainwave,” one astute young man answered my query this way, “It’s when you have a wave of an idea in your brain and then a lightbulb comes on over your head!” Sounds about right to me.

Thank you Black Creek for a wonderful visit!

Note from Tundra: We hope people are happy to see pictures of themselves on Talking with Tundra, but if you would like your photo removed, please contact us at tundra@mcclelland.com. Thank you.

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Guest Post: Susin Nielsen

Author and Blogger, Susin Nielsen, shares with us in this guest post on how she became an author:

How I Got My Start

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. In the very first diary I ever kept (I was eleven, and it lasted one week), this is, I kid you not, the opening sentence:

“This is the first day I’ve really written in a diary. The reason I am, is ’cause I LOVE writing stories, and if I do grow up to be a famous writer, and later die, and they want to get a story of my life, I guess I should keep a diary.”

 Yup. Prescience and arrogance, rolled into one.

Anyway, this is me, reading recently in Edmonton.

But back to the past. My first paid writing gig came along when I was still quite young, in my early 20’s. I’d been hired on a brand-new TV series called Degrassi Junior High, to feed the cast and crew food (a job called “craft services.” Don’t ask me why). This is how the kid actors repaid me in that first season; this poem appeared in a “yearbook” they published:

An ode to Susin, the Bran Muffin Queen,
We eat them,
We die,
Then we turn green.

Thanks, kids.

Anyway, in between first and second season I wrote a “spec” script and showed it to the head writer. Next thing I knew, he and the producer hired me to write my first ever episode of television.

It was really, really, really hard! I was lucky – in the right time at the right place – but I did draft after draft after draft, trying to learn the craft of writing for TV. They were amazingly good to me on Degrassi, and I wound up writing 16 episodes of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. Believe it or not, they were also responsible for giving me my first crack at writing young adult novels: I wrote four books in the Degrassi series: Shane, Wheels, Snake and (my personal favourite) Melanie.

But here’s a little secret that very few people know … for a brief, fleeting period, I was also an ACTOR on Degrassi …

That’s right: I played, in two memorable episodes, Louella Hawkins, the janitor.

Yup. That’s me. Age 22 or so, wielding a wrench or some other tool. In that particular episode the heating was on the fritz in the middle of winter and the kids were boiling hot, and when Joey Jeremiah asked me, “Isn’t it fixed yet Louella?” I got to say, “Good guess, goofball.” In my other episode, Arthur and Yick hide a dog in the boiler room, and when they come to find him, I step out of the shadows holding the dog: “Is this what you’re looking for? Dogs are not allowed in school. You’d better go see Mr. Lawrence.”

It’s a performance both wooden and laughable … Thank goodness I’m a better writer than I am an actor!

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Guest Post: Nan Forler

Here is a guest post from Nan Forler, author of Bird Child, on her first bookstore event! Photos courtesy of Nan Forler and Kevin Coates.

The Freckled LionPoster

Nan Forler: This morning, I did my first official reading at The Freckled Lion Bookstore in Georgetown. What an amazing store! Kate, the store’s owner, has created a warm and happy environment that celebrates kids and books. She and her employees are very knowledgeable about all the books in the store. They spent time with my own kids, listening to their likes and dislikes, to help them find the perfect book. The Freckled Lion is a magical place that resembles The Shop Around the Corner in the movie You’ve Got Mail. Kate even let me try on the Story Lady hat and pretend I was Meg Ryan in the movie!

Sign

Reading

And the reading? Great fun! Kate put me in a comfy chair, surrounded by lots of kids on cozy floor pillows. Afterwards, Kate handed out little flying birds to all the kids.

Bird

Favourite question “about the book”: “Have you ever seen a horse fly?”

Bird Child

My son’s comment from today: “I wish we lived in Georgetown so we could come to this bookstore all the time.”

Nan Forler

Thanks Kate, Bobbi, and Kylie for your warm welcome and a delightful morning!

Tundra Book Group