Karen Krossing, who was the instructor in a picture book writing course I took in the spring, introduces Paul Coccia, who taught us about green worlds. At the Packaging Your Imagination conference for children’s writers, which I attended in Toronto last month, I learned about the concept of a green world from author Paul Coccia. […]
Today is I Read Canadian Day, when Canadian authors are celebrated, especially those who write books for young people. What is really exciting is a noted trend that books written to appeal to the younger crowd are having success with adult readers, too. I just finished a new book like that, by Canadian author Nikki […]
I’m really excited about a literary event I’ll be participating in on June 24th at The Public a brewhouse on Main Street in Steinbach where I grew up. Photo by Aaron Epp for The Canadian Mennonite I’ll be reading from my latest novel Sixties Girl. Mitch’s new book of short stories Pinching Zwieback comes out […]
MaryBeth became a part of our family when we lived in Arizona In the early 1990s we visited our good friend MaryBeth in Massachusetts. MaryBeth had become like one of the family during the year we taught together and lived together on the same compound on the Hopi First Nation in Arizona. The year after […]
My high school bestie Deb Fast was at the launch of my novel Sixties Girl and it was her idea I take a photo with Miriam Toews. Deb and I both grew up in Steinbach just like Miriam Toews did. Miriam has become one of Canada’s most well-known and celebrated writers. I would never have […]
Can you find Sixties Girl in this bestseller display at McNally Robinson Booksellers? I was so excited when teacher, writer and reviewer Spencer B. Miller chose my new book Sixties Girl as one of his top five picks for middle graders from all the new Canadian novels that have come out this spring. What a […]
In the fall of 2022, I got a message from Kathy Kyle who is a regular reader of my blog. She and her husband Russ Bayliss and their family own and operate a cattle ranch near Carnduff, Saskatchewan, close to the Manitoba border. Kathy had bought my first novel Lost on the Prairie. Kathy and […]
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com One of the last chapters in my novel Sixties Girl is about a high school graduation night. Laura, one of the main characters, comes to a troubling realization at her grad party. During her childhood and teen years, there were kids at her school she ignored- other students she […]
Yesterday morning I blogged about how being around children inspires me and gives me hope and joy. And then yesterday afternoon I had one of those experiences with kids that left me on cloud nine. Teacher Amelia Warkentin had invited me to visit her grade four class at The Winnipeg Mennonite Elementary School to talk […]
Photo by Laura Kilgus for the Rhode Island Catholic During the church service yesterday, I was sitting in a pew just behind two families with little children under the age of one. They were both so cute and their mothers were holding them in such a way that they were facing me and the woman […]