Monique Polak

Today's been a this 'n that sort of day. Lots of little things to do -- and not a long enough block of time to really work on the final go-through of What World Is Left. Also, I've been busy with the "business" of writing. Today, I had my photograph taken for a Ville St. Laurent weekly newspaper -- my not-so-imaginary school in 121 Express is located there - - and so, theyare doing a story about the book. The photographer, Martin, came up with the idea of doing the shoot at the 121 bus stop on Cote Vertu, and he even waited till a bus came by to snap some of the pictures. I thought that was a great idea -- one I never would have come up with. I guess photographers like Martin have to be visual thinkers.

I had an e-mail yesterday from Don Aker. I had written to tell him that I'd read an excerpt from his book The Space Between to two of my classes at Marianopolis College and that they really enjoyed it. Don said something interesting about how he wrote the particular scene I'd read. I'm going to paste in some of his e-mail message here:  "As I think I told you, I revise and revise and revise as I write (remember that Dorothy Parker line about not being able to write five words without changing seven?). Sometimes, though (and far too seldom), I'll write a scene that, once finished, I know better not to frig with it. That was one of those scenes. (Oh, how I wish writing happened that way all the time....)" Aspiring writers out there, are you listening? Don is saying that most of the time, his writing requires lots of "frigging" around. So don't even think of handing in a first draft to me or anybody else! Revise, revise, revise! (Which just happens to be what I'm doing this week.) 

I've got a nice picture of the students I worked with at Hebrew Academy, only I haven't quite figured out how to include pictures in this blog. Once school is over in May, I'll put that at the top of my to-do list. Melanie Jeffs arrives tomorrow from Vancouver Island. Watch this space to see what kind of tips a YA editor has to offer us.