Readings and Research

WITS  I love reading out loud, and find taking part in the WFNS Writer's in the Schools Program (WITS) a wonderful and rewarding experience. My presentation for older grades includes a slideshow of my research. For younger grades, after an animated reading, we construct our own smelly pirate on a flip chart. There is also usually time for a rhyme, some riddles and maybe a mermaid story. Bookings for WITS usually take place in September. If you'd like me to visit your school, check the WFNS website for more information. (http://writers.ns.ca/)

Teacher's comments::
"She read her book with passion and made the story come alive as she shared her wealth of knowledge about life on the
fishing schooners." Barb Martell, Sacred Heart School."

Readings and Events

Port Joli Writer's Retreat, 2017

WRITER RETREAT

For the last seven years Jan Coates, Jill Maclean, Marcia Barss and myself have gone on a Writer's Retreat to Port Joli. We write and talk,drink wine and go for wonderful long beach walks on a pristine beach. This year a bear shambled by, Vicki Grant cycled by and PM Justin Trudeau jogged by our cottage. We are pictured here with a flag we made out of a Rubbermaid lid, a white towel and a red paper napkin in honour of his visit.

Loretta Migani (illustrator) and I on a selfie photo shoot for promotion purposes of
Explosion Newsie.

We are sitting on the rocks on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. In the background is Halifax. It is a sparkling Fall day and hard to imagine the devastation caused by the
explosion in this very area, one hundred years ago.

Explosion Newsie Book Launch

Explosion Newsie, Book Launch took place on November 6th, 2015 in the beautiful Evergreen House, home of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum. It was the perfect venue as it overlooked Halifax harbour, the location of the explosion. My heart felt thanks go out to the museum who were wonderful hosts and provided a real top hat for the book draw names and served tea in real china cups. Loretta's original illustrations were on view. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Opening of the new Halifax Central Library

Carrie asked me to join her in a reading of The Terrible Horrible Smelly Pirate at the opening of the wonderful new Central Library in Halifax, 2014

Word on the Street (2014)

A windy, splashy and fun reading of Bluenose Adventure on board Theodore Tugboat at Halifax Word on the Street,

Research

Read by the Sea - Wordplay (2013)

My reading of The Terrible Horrible Smelly Pirate included a piratical craft (paperbag pirates) and some swashing buckling paperbag pirate puppet shows

The Terrible Horrible Smelly Pirate launch party at Alderney Gate Library. (May 2008)

My book dedication was to my grandchildren. I got the biggest surprise of my life when they turned up at the launch all the way from Hong Kong!!!! I'm seen here in pirate attire with amazing co-author Carrie Muller and fantastic illustrator Eric Orchard.

With a grant from Access Copyright, research for my latest historical novel took me to Pictou, Nova Scotia to explore the Hector. Piper my children's novel about the voyage of the Hector is to be published by Nimbus, Spring 2018.

This is a full-sized replica of the original old, rotting, over-crowded ship that brought the first Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia.
(The replica is not old or rotting, of course.)

Research for Bluenose Adventure included a visit to the Fisheries Museum in Lunenburg. Along with a personal tour, Ralph Getson, the curator related some of the gut-wrenching, funny, and amazing stories he'd heard first-hand from retired fishermen who'd actually been throaters, headers and flunkeys on fishing schooners way back in the 1920s.

A teacher's resource website with my Bluenose research is currently under construction.

I love research and the stories it brings. For another novel (that didn't actually make it to publication) I visited Rob Woods, an ex-library colleague, on his Alpaca Farm and helped with the shearing.