Monique Polak

This time last year I was gearing up for my trip to Vancouver Island. I was there for the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Book Week and did I ever have fun!! I met so many interesting young people, heard so many great stories, and saw such gorgeous rugged terrain. I am also thinking about Victoria because I got an email this weekend from Darinka Popovic, the teacher librarian at Rockheights

Ever have one of those mornings that slipslides away? That's what's happening to me today. Luckily, though, I still have nearly two hours till I have to leave for school -- and I'm planning to use them more efficiently than I used the last three hours (though I did go for a run and I picked up some groceries en route). 

Well, I just finished writing a story for The National Post newspaper about something called "bibliotherapy." Though there are no universities that train people to become bibliotherapists, a lot of librarians, English teachers and therapists know that books can help people deal with difficult problems. I'm going to tell you about a few of the people I interviewed for the story. This

So I promised I'd report back on my evening with children's writer Marsha Skrypuch, who was in Montreal for the launch of her latest book, Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk (Scholastic). As I've already told you in the title of today's entry, my salmon lasagna didn't turn out that great. On the bright side, though, I learned a lot from

Yippee! Now ALL my blog entries say "Posted by Monique Polak." Here are all the people I need to thank: Gord and Gio at Ecohosting here in Montreal, and my new friend Mark in Malaysia. I'm feeling downright computer-literate tonight!!

I should be making salmon lasagna, but I'm still working on getting rid of "Posted by Adminstrator." So here goes! This time, I think it's going to work. This blog should say on top: "Posted by Monique Polak." Let's go, Computer, do it right this time! 

Only time for a quick blog entry this morning. I'm trying to get rid of that annoying "Posted by Administrator" tag that has appeared on the top of each of my blog entries so far. I've been busy figuring out how to do that (with a little help from technical support people) --  and you'll be able to tell from the top of this posting whether I found the solution. Let's just

The thing is, I'm not really in George River (which is about five hours away by plane from Montreal). I'm sitting at my desk in Montreal, but I've been writing about George River, so in a way, I've spent the morning there. 

Starting a new book is a little like falling in love. That's because you're very hopeful and everything seems possible. That's why it's very important to take advantage of the burst of energy that can come with starting a new book (and falling in love)!! 

It's Monique P, writing to say I've now got my very own blog! For one week last month, I was a guest blogger on the Orca Book website -- and I liked it. In this blog, I'm going to tell you a little about the writing life. Only today, I didn't get much writing done. Sigh!! Sometimes, ordinary life gets in the way of the writing life.... But at least I learned how to set up this blog