Happy About Hackmatack!

I just received the happy news that my book, Rescuing the Children, has been nominated for the Hackmatack Award. This is the children's choice award from the Atlantic provinces. Hooray!!!

The kind folks who administer the award apply for Canada Council grants to bring authors to their region for the award ceremony and for tours in the local schools. This will all happen in Spring 2014 (which seems a long time away), but nevertheless, I am thrilled!

If you are interested in reading more about the Hackmatack Awards, please go here.

By the way, the award is named after a tree (a species of Larch) that grows in the Atlantic provinces. The photo above shows the tree in bloom.

I look forward to seeing the tree in person. :-)

Cheers!

Quote About Writing

I enjoy hearing about other authors' feelings on writing, and I'm always pleased when I come across a quote I haven't heard before. Today, I read this one by Gloria Steinem:

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else."

And that's exactly how I feel.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, so today we salute his contribution to the world of children's books. Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!!

I was reading a bio of him on Writer's Almanac (check out the March 2 entry) and came across a quote that I had not seen before. He said, "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count." 

Apparently, Dr. Seuss spent nine months writing the Cat in the Hat. I'm not surprised at all. It is true that shorter books for younger children often take more time to write than longer manuscripts. What did surprise me, however, was how well it sold. Here's another quote from the article: "Within a year of publication, The Cat in the Hat was selling 12,000 copies a month; within five years, it had sold a million copies." Wow! That is impressive.

Today, I have been trying to pick my favourite Dr. Seuss story and it is not an easy choice. One of the books I read again and again (both for myself and my children) was Bartholomew and the Oobleck (remember the great gobs of green goo that fell from the sky?) But there are many other wonderful stories, too. 

Which one is your favourite?

Happy Birthday, and thank you, Dr. Seuss!