I’m in a rather reflective mood as summer draws to a close. It was a glorious summer. An enviable summer. Time spent on Pender Island, as well as a magnificent trip to Paris, Normandy, Berlin and Stockholm.
If I’m honest, not a lot of writing got done, aside from the work I’ve been doing on a new episode of “Arctic Air” (which is, truly, so much fun – their story team is grade A. Here is an aside: The show’s creator is Ian Weir, who is also an author – he wrote the absolutely fantastic “Daniel O’Thunder,” which, I should point out, is NOT a young adult novel, but it’s a first-rate literary suspense-thriller-historical page turner – I can’t wait for his new novel, not sure when it’s coming but I will be a-buying!). I did also write a pilot for a half-hour comedy, which, given the subject matter, will likely never see the light of day in Canada, but at least I had fun doing it.
And yes, I have started a new YA novel … started it in the spring … and will get back to it this fall! I can’t say much more about it than that, since I’m not totally sure where it’s going yet.
But in spite of not necessarily doing a lot of book writing, I did have some fun book-related experiences this summer, which I thought I’d share. First, in Paris, I had lunch with my French publishers. Yes. I confess. It gives me great, great pleasure to be able to say “my French publishers.” The company is Helium and of course I think they are fantastic people with discerning tastes! They have translated my first two books. So, my son and I had lunch with Gilberte and Sophie, and it was really lovely. I confess I was a bit nervous, but they really put me at ease. This is us at lunch, in the Quartier Latin!
But you know how I really knew Helium was great? Because my books were in bookstores! Granted, I only went into two different Parisian bookstores – one was a huge shop on Boulevard St Michel, the other, a boutique-like bookshop in St. Germain des Pres – but at both shops I saw this:
Yeah … awesome feeling. Isn’t that a great title, by the way? “Moi, Ambrose, Roi du Scrabble.” “I, Ambrose, King of Scrabble.”
Back in Vancouver, I had the pleasure of going to dinner with a few kids who’d been selected through a program at the Richmond Public Library – these terrific librarians, Cindy and Melanie, arrange author dinners for keen readers. What a nifty program, as my mother might say.
I also started to see a lot of (good) advance buzz about my new book, “The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen.” (I guess I should mention it’s due out on September 11th).
My all-time favourite review so far comes from Shannon Ozirny’s blog, “George’s Favourite Tooth.” I will not lie: I was seriously flattered, beyond belief flattered. You can click on the link to read her review, but I will reprint (without her permission – Shannon, if you ever read this, I hope you will forgive me) two paragraphs that made my head swell to epic proportions and had my husband cursing Shannon’s name for bloating my ego (no, he didn’t really curse her, honest):
“Susin Nielsen is the next big thing. There is an episode of The Simpsons where Bart brings Santa’s Little Helper in for show-and-tell and Milhouse proudly brags “I knew the dog before it came to class!” Not to liken Susin to a cartoon dog, but this captures how most Canadian librarians feel about Susin Nielsen. We are going to feel very smug and brag alot when she gets 200 person signing lines at future ALAs.
She is a mix between Tom Angleberger, Jack Gantos and Susan Juby with just a touch of a teenaged Dav Pilkey (she isn’t afraid of some potty language).”
I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to be compared to Santa’s Little Helper!!! And while I confess I do not know Tom Angleberger or Jack Gantos (that is an embarrassing admission – I just saw Gantos won the freaking Newberry! I will obviously check out both of these authors), I am a big Dav Pilkey fan – heck, I read my son most of the “Captain Underpants” books – and most of all, I am a HUGE Susan Juby fan!! In fact – it’s probably no coincidence that Shannon saw some similarities … Susan and I have … history …
Back in about 2004-2005, I was the lucky, lucky screenwriter hired to adapt Susan’s hilarious trilogy, “Alice, I Think,” into a TV series. Damn, I love those books! I was SO THRILLED to get to adapt them … And really bummed when we only got one season. But the good news is, Susan liked what we did, and we became friends. In fact I’m moderating a panel upon which Her Highness Juby will be sitting, at this year’s Vancouver International Writers’ Festival. Just in case you don’t believe me re my Juby-past (why would you not believe me? I don’t know. I do lie once in a while), here is photographic proof:
Good times!!!
OK, I’d better shut up now … this was a much longer post than expected … making up for lost months, I guess!
