Amy Mathers honours her passion for reading and Canadian teen literature
Imagine reading ten pages every six minutes. Now imagine doing that every day for a year.
Terry Fox could run a kilometre in six minutes during his Marathon of Hope. Inspired by Terry Fox’s and Rick Hansen’s journeys, Amy Mathers will be reading teen fiction books from every province and territory, exploring Canada and promoting Canadian teen authors and books by finishing a book a day for each day of 2014. Not only that, she’ll also publish a review of each book she reads and encourage others to share their opinions, too.
What’s Amy’s goal?
Amy’s goal is to raise money for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC), a non-profit organization that presents the yearly Canadian Children’s Literature Awards gala. This inspiring event includes esteemed awards such as the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. Now, the CCBC hopes to add an award for Canadian books for teens. I’m thrilled that the funds raised by Amy’s Marathon of Books will go toward an endowment for a Canadian teen book award to be presented at the annual CCBC gala. As an author for teens, it’s important to me that their reading materials be honoured and appraised.
What can you do?
Click here to read Amy’s daily book reviews and leave your opinions about the books. Click here to donate to Amy’s Marathon.
Looking for great Canadian teen books to read? Check out Amy’s Reading List, which currently include my novel, Take the Stairs, as well as many other fine titles.
Who is Amy?
Amy Mathers is a passionate reader who hopes to inspires others to share her enthusiasm for funding a teen book award. Although she has faced physical and health challenges throughout her life, Amy has worked as a bibliotherapist, taken part in a high school reading selection committee and co-written and co-taught a college course called “Assisting Families Dealing with Chronic Illness & Disability.” I had the opportunity to meet Amy in January at the Ontario Library Association SuperConference, where she showed her appreciation for Canadian books and readers as well as her ability to inspire. I wish Amy luck on her journey, and hope people throughout Canada will support and encourage her. Best wishes, Amy!
Thanks to Julie Wilson and the 49th Shelf – a site devoted entirely to Canadian books – for this chance to promote three great Canadian titles for kids and teens! It’s my first video post, so please let me know what you think of it. To see the post, go here.
It’s easy to tell the world that Canadian kid lit is well written, intriguing and worth reading. The hard part was to select only three great Canadian kid-lit books to profile. There are too many to choose from!
If you’re buying books this holiday season for kids or teens, please check out the many fabulous titles available at your local bookstore. You won’t be disappointed!
Last week, I retired as President of CANSCAIP – the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers. I’ve spent the last four years volunteering, first as Vice-President in charge of the annual Packaging Your Imagination Conference in Toronto, and then as President, overseeing all CANSCAIP programming.
I’m a born organizer, so I knew I could do some good for an organization that I value. But I also chose to volunteer for personal reasons: to get to know more people in my industry and to practise my public speaking, since I’m an introvert at heart.
I certainly achieved both my personal goals, and I hope that I left CANSCAIP better off. Here’s what I learned from my volunteering experiences:
The more often I speak in front of a crowd, the easier it gets.
Listen to people. Fresh ideas can be found through conversation.
Filter ideas and opinions to figure out what’s next.
Attend industry events – even ones that don’t seem immediately relevant. New connections and insights lurk there, waiting to be discovered.
Efficiency is the key to getting it all done.
Creativity can be stifled by too much efficiency.
Ponder knotty problems for a few days to allow solutions to emerge.
Trust that I’ll be able to find a solution, no matter how challenging the problem.
Nurture the growth of others. Celebrate success everywhere.
Acknowledge how high we’ve climbed, even if the journey is still in progress.
Community feeds creativity and personal growth.
I’ll still be Past-President for two more years, mostly mentoring new volunteers. And I’ll try to approach it the same way I started – with a willingness to stretch and grow in new, exciting ways.
Hosting my final monthly meeting. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Ohi.)
The Dear Teen Me website is known for it’s letters by authors to their teen selves – a terrific endeavour put together by E. Kristin Anderson, Priya Chand, and Miranda Kenneally. Some letters are humorous and others more serious, yet they all honour “teens who have good days and bad days and sometimes really really really bad days.” In fact, the Dear Teen Me anthology, based on the website, was published by Zest Books in 2012 and named Best Teen Nonfiction by the YABC Choice Awards.
I’m glad to be a part of the Dear Teen Me website, and as of today, you can read my letter here. Although I’m not going to get into specifics about my letter, I will say that it was a challenge to write. One of the reasons why I write for teens is that it’s a time of flux and personal growth – rich with possibilities and ripe with dangers that some teens experience first-hand. I hope that teens as well as people of all ages will find their way to the Dear Teen Me website to check it out. It’s a fascinating showcase of authentic teen experiences.
It’s coming! Young Voices 2013 – the Toronto Public Library‘s annual magazine of teen writing and art – will soon available at your local Toronto library branch. As an editor of this magazine, I’m proud of the talents of the Toronto’s teens showcased each year. You can also download a copy of the magazine here.
Art, photos, stories, poems, rants, and more – you’ll find it all within these pages. Young Voices gives the writers and artists of tomorrow an opportunity to publish their creations today.
Thanks to my group of enthusiastic editors from the Editorial Youth Advisory Group for an evening of friendly arguments, loud disagreements, and finally mutual understanding as we determined which pieces to select for the magazine. Thanks to the staff at the Toronto Public Library who give Toronto teens this fantastic opportunity.
This year, the Young Voices launch party will be held at the Toronto Reference Library on Tuesday, October 8 at 7:00 p.m. I hope the event will inspire these teen creators to continue to pursue their writing and art.
Don’t forget – it’s never too early to think about next year’s magazine! Check out the submission guidelines and deadline here.
Teen writers who are looking for hands-on writing workshops should check out the Toronto Public Library’s Young Voices 2013 Writers Conference. This freeone-day event is on October 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. How lucky are we to have the fabulous Toronto Public Library!
You can meet published authors and artists, improve your craft, get your work published in the Instant Anthology blog and magazine, and meet other Toronto teen writers.
My new novel for teens, Cut the Lights, is officially available on October 1. It’s one of three debut titles in the Orca Limelights series on the performing arts. To celebrate, I’m launching my video book trailer and hosting a Goodreads giveaway for one of ten copies of the book. Good luck!
The first review of Cut the Lights is wonderful. Here’s what the Quill & Quire reviewer had to say:
Karen Krossing’s Cut the Lights is a … complex offering, both in terms of storyline and character. Krossing is a confident, engaging writer, and the book’s setting is a kind of Glee-meets-Fame dream school that kids will find very appealing…. Given how many kids dream of stardom, the Limelights series is sure to hold wide appeal, especially if those lofty ambitions continue to be dealt with in ways that are encouraging and down-to-earth at the same time. Quill & Quire
You can download a sample chapter of Cut the Lightshere. Enjoy the trailer!
As I wrote in Part 1 of this post, I’ve been taking a writing break to “fill the creative well” and ponder my current work-in-progress, which was somewhat stuck at chapter six at the start of the summer. In fact, I didn’t know if I had a viable story idea that I could plot through to the end. So I wrote the first few chapters, took a break, and hoped for the best.
In the meantime, I re-finished our kitchen chairs into works of art with my artist daughter, Paige. (Statement of Truth: She’s the artist. I’m just the base-coat painter.) You can see our first three chairs in Part 1, including the themes cosmos, Aztec, and steampunk. As promised, here are the final three chairs: Doctor Who, floral, and collage.
For all you Doctor Who fans out there, we planned a spinning Tardis (the Doctor’s time machine) within billowing clouds coupled with our favourite quotes written in Gallifreyan (the language used by the Time Lords, displayed using a complex system of interlocking circles, hexagons and lines).
Here’s the front of our Doctor Who chair, including a close up:
Can’t read Gallifreyan? Curious what we wrote? Okay, here it is:
Front of backrest: “Do what I do. Hold tight and pretend it’s a plan!”
(The Doctor, Season 7, Christmas Special)
Lower-left seat: “Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good!”
(The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 4)
Upper-right seat: “Biting’s excellent. It’s like kissing. Only there is a winner.”
(Idris, Season 6, Episode 4)
Here’s the rear of the same chair:
This Gallifreyan quote says: “You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!” (The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 2).
Next, we created our floral chair, which is the only one that uses the natural wood grain:
And finally, here’s our collage chair, which includes images of the aftermath of Great Fire in Toronto, some of our favourite pastimes (books, dance, etc.), my family nickname (Karnage), excerpts from “What to Do in Case of an Air Raid” (a funny historical piece I found in a collectibles shop), several dragons (because who doesn’t like dragons), and a lot more.
Here’s a peek at our collage chair:
Now, we are resting on our chairs, irreverently sitting on works of art, and enjoying the fruits of our labours. And maybe, just maybe, that novel is ready to be written.
The writing process is a quirky thing. It’s somewhat like calming a screaming toddler in the middle of a department store while juggling twelve oranges. You’ve got to keep all the oranges in the air without further upsetting the toddler or getting kicked out by the security guards. Okay, I know. Bad comparison.
What I did discover one day in August was that I suddenly knew how to solve that niggling problem in my work-in-progress. One clear sunny morning while reading an information book for pleasure, an brilliant idea found me, told me how to finish the novel, and created a few exciting new characters in the process.
So I’m feeling that stepping away from my desk and letting my subconscious do the work was a terrific plan. Even though I wasn’t sure it would work. I guess those hours of painting chairs paid off in more ways than one.
Neil plays guitar with his family’s band, the Family McClintock, even though he can’t stand the Celtic music they play, he doesn’t dance, he hates the outfits, and every single performance reminds him that he isn’t as talented as the rest of the family.
When his buddy Bert convinces him to form a rock band and enter a local talent show, Neil’s playing improves and everyone notices, including a girl who shares his musical interests. He starts to think that all those years of practice might come in handy after all. But it all comes to a head when Neil has to choose between an important gig with the family band and the talent show. He’s only sure of one thing: whatever he decides to do, he’s going to be letting someone down.
Have you drawn on your own experience at all in writing this book?
I grew up in a small town on Cape Breton Island, where music is a way of life and many talented families perform at community events and outdoor concerts all summer long. I thought it would be fun to write about one of these musical families from the perspective of one of its younger members. I also did a lot of performing when I was younger, as a singer in small three-piece bands like the one Neil and his friends form for the talent show, so I had a lot of fun revisiting those days.
How did you come up with your title? What other titles did you consider?
I don’t want to give too much away, but the title fits perfectly with the story! I will say that Neil’s relationship with his well-known family and his desire to break away and do his own thing are the central themes of the book, and by the time things wrap up, the title makes perfect sense!
Did you find it challenging to describe the thought process behind the creative process?
Yes! I spend a lot of time listening to music, but when I started writing the book I quickly learned that it is incredibly difficult to describe music and dance in words. By its very nature, music is meant to be listened to, not described, so turning the musical scenes that fill the book into part of a compelling narrative was a real challenge. Eventually I got into a groove and began to enjoy the process, but as hard as I tried, a written description of a musical performance will never match the real thing!
Tom Ryan is the author of three novels for teens, including Way to Go and Tag Along.
Have you done any performing arts as a teen or adult?
I’ve done loads of performing. As a teen I sang in a few bands, and I was also into theatre, both acting and building and painting sets. Later on, after university, I worked in the film industry for several years and had the opportunity to meet and work with lots of really interesting and talented people. I still play guitar a little bit and I’ve always enjoyed singing, but it’s been quite a while since I performed in front of an audience.
If you could be proficient at any one “performance skill” what would it be?
I would love to be able to play piano. I took lessons for a couple of years in junior high, but I didn’t stick with it and I’ve always regretted that. I haven’t ruled out picking it up again, someday when I have a bit more time!
Thanks for the insights, Tom. Totally Unrelated sounds like a book that performance-loving teens won’t want to miss!
For an interview with Limelights author Robin Stevenson, visit Tom’s blog. For an interview with me, visit Robin’s blog. You can also read sample first chapters and enjoy the Limelights video trailer (made by Tom) at the Orca Limelights site. Enjoy!
After a year of solidly writing every day, I need to take a writing break this summer. The problem is that I’m terrible at sitting still. For me, resting is torture. My mind continues to spin out scenes that beg to be written down.
But as Julia Cameron says in The Artist’s Way, we all need to fill our creative well every so often. She writes, “In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. We’ve got big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish – an abundance of artistic fish to fry. As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem….Any extended period of piece of work draws heavily on our artistic well.”
Ideally, Cameron recommends that we fill the well with sensory experiences, fun pursuits, intriguing explorations.
So how does this writer take a creative break, other than getting away from my writing desk? By finding a different creative project. One that uses a new set of creative muscles. And I had the perfect idea.
First, I enlisted my daughter, Paige, to help. She’s a fabulous visual artist – a skill she didn’t inherit from me. I shared my plan to revive our boring kitchen chairs, re-making them into painted, themed works-of-art. I would act as creative consultant and base coat painter; Paige would supply the art.
Here’s the set of chairs we started with. Dull, I know.
We brainstormed ideas for how to paint each of the six chairs, which was a lot of fun. We settled on these ideas: cosmos, Aztec, steampunk, Doctor Who (yes, we’re geeks), floral/nature, and collage. Now I’m doing the grunt work: stripping and sanding each chair, painting the undercoat and colour coats, and painting the polyurethane after the artwork is complete. Paige does the glory work, and her art is anything but boring!
What I’m finding is that painting gives my mind time to process what I’ve written and what I plan to write next. It gives me a way to relax my mind without sitting still. Like a long walk, painting is a terrific way to unwind and contemplate.
The best part is that, in the end, I’m left with gorgeous and unique chairs. Don’t hang your art on walls – sit on it!
Here’s our cosmos chair:
And our Aztec chair (front and back):
And finally our steampunk chair (front and back):
The last three chairs – Doctor Who, floral/nature, and collage – are in progress. I’ll post later with pictures of them. In the meantime, I’m off to paint a Tardis-blue chair, contemplate life and fill the well!
