I SHOULD NOT BE WRITING ANOTHER BLOG ENTRY! (I should be working on my new book project!) But I need to write this entry because I have SO much to tell you about the SPARKS Literary Festival here in St. John's, Newfoundland.
I am going to skip telling you about my presentation in the morning (with two other kids' writers, D.D. Sheppard -- author of Drew's Secret Talent; and Kayla Williams - a Labrador author and illustrator who read from her book Aurora's Journey, and whose son Sam stole the show!) and instead, share of the many notes I took during the wonderful readings and talks I attended yesterday.
First, I want you to meet my new sister-friend poet and novelist Otoniya J. Okot Bitek. I also befriended her husband Patrick, who is hiding in this pic (but who is as outgoing as me!!). You have probably heard of Otoniya's first novel, We, the Kindling, longlisted for the Giller Prize. The book is set in Uganda, where Otoniya's parents were from.
Here are just some of the beautiful things Otoniya said while she was interviewed by Newfoundland 's own author and creative writing prof, Lisa Moore. Otoniya told us, "There are no good guys or bad guys; there are only survivors." WOW! She explained how, when she was living in British Columbia, and horrific things were happening in Uganda, she was related to "all the people -- the ones who were being kidnapped; the ones who were doing the kidnapping; and the ones who were in the army." She also explained that for her, "storytelling is a humanizing process."
Over lunch, I made another friend. And I don't think either Nina Rumbolt-Pye or I would ever have guessed how much we have in common! But like me, Nina found a way to tell the story that one of her parents (in her case, her dad) might have preferred to forget. Her father, Archie, was seven, when he was sent to residential school. (And if you know me, you know that a big part of my life has been uncovering the story of what happened to my mum when she was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.)
Anyway, her's a pic of me and Nina.
Nina's book Labrador Patella: the Archie Rumbolt Story won the Percy James First Novel Award. And in my scribbled notes from yesterday, I have a quote from E.L. Doctorow that Nina shared with us: "The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like." AHHHHH!
Later in the day, Nina and I discovered we have another connection -- my friend, a retired school librarian in Montreal, is related to Nina! (My friend is a Pye -- and her sister was at SPARKS yesterday and put the whole thing together!!)
Because I need to hurry up over here and get ready for my last school visit in St. John's, I'm going to just share a few other of my favourite notes.
Introducing our panel, Natasha Hurley, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Memorial, said: "Children are always smarter than adults." YES YES and YES!
Irish novelist Lisa McInerney asked us, "What is the one thing only you could say? Only you could write about?" For those of you wondering where to start, START THERE!
Author Elizabeth Murphy had this to say about Newfoundlanders: "We're shaped by the seascapes and the landscapes. They make us resilient and stronger. That's the only way we can survive."
Okay, time for me to turn back into a PUMPKIN, I mean an author off to do a writing workshop.
I hope today's blog entry provided a little inspiration. No matter where we are in our journeys as writers, inspiration is always a gift. Thanks to the CCBC for bringing me to Newfoundland and Labrador; thanks to Nancy Pedri and her team for the invite to SPARKS; thanks to the CCBC's Carol-Ann Hoyte for getting SPARKS to invite me!!; thanks to all the wonderful authors and audience members.
Oh, I have one more thing to add. There was a wonderful after-party last night to launch the latest issue of Paragon, Memorial University's literary journal. At the party, I couldn't help scribbling down one more quote. This one came from musician Katie Baggs -- it's a line from a song she performed: "We gotta learn all we can. Practise and grow."
For me, that pretty much sums up what we're doing on Planet Earth. Here's to learning, practising and growing!