Well today I was at James L. Alexander school here in Saskatoon to do an author presentation to grades 6-8. Presentations are always fun and can be full of surprises (like that time the firebell went off a few years ago...ha...that was funny). In this case, I had perhaps the kindest comment in ages from one of the students. One of the girls came up after the presentation to tell me that my shoes were "stylin.'" Wow. I'm pushing 40 but I still have stylin' shoes. They're Blundstone boots, for those who are curious. What does this have to do with writing? Hey, it's important to wear good shoes for your public appearances (especially when you have to stand for an hour). Get steel toed boot for meetings with publishers. That's my tip o' the day.
I'm still working away at my "lightning" novel-Worse Than Starkers. I'm in the midst of my 3rd top to bottom rewrite. What I mean by that is I practically throw everything away and start from scratch. Let me see, the first draft was aimed at teens and supposed to be funny and was in 1st person. It wasn't funny enough. I rewrote it, made it a bit more serious and aimed it at a grade 5-6 audience and cut out massive unwieldy chunks. Then, after that I decided the story would be better in 3rd person. Why didn't I start out in 3rd? It's just that sometimes I don't see clearly where the story should be going and who should be reading it. I prefer when everything falls magically onto the page, but I'm still waiting for that to happen. Wait, that's not true, it happened with Monsterology. But hey, that was pure fun. This other writing is work, work, fun, work.
Keep stylin' everyone!
Art
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Megiddo is shaking things up!
Toot toot toot!
No it's not a train, just tooting my horn for Megiddo's Shadow. It picked up a few nominations this last while:
*Shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's 2007 Young Adult Book Award
*Selected for Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2007, a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children’s Book Council
*Selected for Books for the Teen Age 2007, a list of books put together by the New York Public Library
*Nominated for a Snow Willow Award, a reader's choice award in my home province of Saskatchewan (go Roughriders!)
*Nominated for a Red Maple Award, a reader's choice award in Ontario. Vote early! Vote often!
Hey and even a nice review from Children's Literature: "This is a highly engrossing and recommended book for young readers. Slade does not pander to his readers; he instead gives them a book whose message and main character embody the very questions and sorrows that are so painfully pertinent to our present point in world history."
I'm glad to see this book has legs. It's just galloping along. Get it? It's a horse novel and....
Art
No it's not a train, just tooting my horn for Megiddo's Shadow. It picked up a few nominations this last while:
*Shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's 2007 Young Adult Book Award
*Selected for Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2007, a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children’s Book Council
*Selected for Books for the Teen Age 2007, a list of books put together by the New York Public Library
*Nominated for a Snow Willow Award, a reader's choice award in my home province of Saskatchewan (go Roughriders!)
*Nominated for a Red Maple Award, a reader's choice award in Ontario. Vote early! Vote often!
Hey and even a nice review from Children's Literature: "This is a highly engrossing and recommended book for young readers. Slade does not pander to his readers; he instead gives them a book whose message and main character embody the very questions and sorrows that are so painfully pertinent to our present point in world history."
I'm glad to see this book has legs. It's just galloping along. Get it? It's a horse novel and....
Art
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