October 2013

On October 15, the Ontario Library Association announced the 2014 Forest of Reading nominees. I’m delighted that Yesterday’s Dead  has been nominated in the Silver Birch Fiction Award category for Grades 3 to 6. 

The Forest of Reading program promotes reading at all ages by featuring Canadian books and authors. Children in participating schools and libraries all over Ontario are invited to read the books nominated in their catagory. Bookclub-type discussions are held from October through April, with resources, games and activities supplied. Then, thrillingly for writers, the readers themselves vote online for their favourite book by the end of April. It all winds up with the fabulous Festival of Trees in May. 

2014 marks the 20th year for the Silver Birch Fiction Award. It’s an honour to be associated with this terrific program run by countless volunteers at the Ontario Library Association, and at libraries and schools across the province. By promoting literacy through the Forest of Reading, we truly are planting a seed for the future of Ontario.

In early September, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre named Yesterday’s Dead as one of five finalists for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, one of the 2013 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards to be presented on October 22, 2013 in Toronto. We were travelling when I received this exciting news.

Being a finalist is equal parts thrilling and daunting because all of the finalists are terrific books by incredibly talented Canadian authors:

I’m staggered by the degree to which historical fiction continues to offer compelling stories that young people want to read. Like me, all of these authors are fascinated by stories from the past. Like me, they love the research and the possibilities they uncover, And like me, they probably tear their hair out, too, as they work to get the story right. I encourage you to read all of this year’s nominated finalists and share them with your favourite young readers.

Writing for young people is about being the very best writer you can be, every single day, because our audience has the highest standards of all. I’m honoured to have my first novel stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these outstanding books. Stay tuned for the results from the October 22 gala in Toronto!

When I was a math teacher, I spent a lot of time on equations: writing them, solving them, using them to test my students’ math skills. Knowing how to solve equations is one of the most useful, and comforting, skills we can gain from studying mathematics.

As a writer, I still find equations useful and comforting. After all, you know exactly where you stand with equations: the whole idea is that the bits on either side of the equal sign are … well … equal.

abacus_14056_smHow is that useful or comforting for writers?

Stories are like math problems. Say that my hero, Ms. X, faces a series of obstacles in accomplishing a task. Her story will only be interesting if those obstacles are big enough and difficult enough to force Ms. X to stretch and grow in order to overcome them.

 

In equation language: original Ms. X + growth in Ms. X = size of obstacles

Now I can use my math brain to test my writing equation. If the obstacles are too big, Ms. X will not be able to stretch or grow enough to overcome them, and the story will fizzle out. If they’re too small, the changes in Ms. X won’t be compelling enough to make the reader care whether Ms. X succeeds. The trick is to get the balance right by creating obstacles that are big enough to make Ms. X change in a believable way.

When faced with a writing roadblock, a writer can ask: How big is the challenge facing this character? What action or change will the character have to make in order to overcome it? Does that action or change fall within the character’s capability, or have I created a an equation that doesn’t work?