William's first story.

Rather than entertain William with computer games and videos, I decided to open Word and write a story together. It ended up being less of a collaboration and more of him dictating to me while I prompted him with "and then what happened". So here's the story. I don't think it's publishable yet (the narrative thread needs work), but it's quite impressive for a first try.


William and Craig and Hunter

Once upon a time, there was a boy named William who wanted a hockey stick. Craig plays hockey with a hockey stick. William wanted to join in so he said to his uncle Craig “play hockey with hockey pucks!”


“Great idea!” said uncle Craig and they got some hockey sticks and hockey pucks and they played for a whole hour. Just then, Hunter came by.


Hunter got a hockey stick. Hunter got a hockey puck. Hunter went to play hockey with Uncle Craig and William. William got the puck in the net. “Score!!! I win!!!!” he yelled.


Then Hunter and William and Craig got guns. Hunter got a new gun, a ball gun that shoots paper. They shot at shooting guys. Craig and William and Hunter were mad. The shooting guys made them mad.


Then Hunter and William and uncle Craig went to watch some tv. It was Toopy and Binoo. They were happy.

Cleavage has arrived!

I've always thought of myself as a fiction writer, but strangely I've never had any of my fiction published. Unless of course you count that story that got printed in a kids magazine when I was eleven, or the time my husband paid to have one copy of my book published. But now, I have a real short story published in a real anthology: Cleavage: Breakaway Fiction for Real Girls. So now I'm a genuine fiction author.

If you buy the book, or just flip through it in the book store, you can find my story ("My So Not Ballerina Boobs") on page 133. It isn't so much a "story" as it is an account of all the times I went bra-shopping with my mother rolled into one embarrassing excursion. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. "I hope I'm not as loud as the mother in your story," Mom said. Of course not, Mommy, I exaggerated in the name of fiction.

If anyone lives in the Toronto area (and actually cares), there will be a book launch on September 24th, from 5:30pm to 8:30 pm at the Canadian Children's Book Centre (Suite 101, 40 Orchard View Blvd, Toronto -- Yonge & Eglinton).

Now I'd better go read all the other stories quick before the boss wakes up from his nap.

Fame and Fortune Here I Come!

When I came home from my camping trip, I went downstairs to check the mail and found the box full of professional writery things. Well, two writery things and junk mail. The first was a cheque paying me for an article I wrote for Today's Parent Toronto (isn't it great when the cheque is actually in the mail?)

The other, more super exciting, thing was a letter from Sumach Press. They're putting out an anthology about mothers and daughters and body image. As part of my goal of becoming a serious professional author person, I'd written and submitted a semi-autobiographical story about bra-shopping with my mother (though I changed the names to protect the innocent). Well they accepted it. They loved it. Finally having both ginormous breasts and a louder than life mother has paid off! (I love you Mom).

Now that I'm a professional fiction author, I spent the day doing writerly things. And by that I mean we went to the Eden Mills Writers' Festival. For those who don't know, the Eden Mills Writers' Festival is a writers' festival held every year in the small town of Eden Mills (maybe that was self-explanatory). Anyway it involves spending the whole day listening to authors read and (in my case) showing my baby off to all my mom's friends and colleagues. Every year it's super hot and there's no shade and we almost die. Well this year it was super cold and rainy and we almost died. But I had a good time anyway.