Friday, May 29, 2015

Two new books: Arctic Calls by Charlie O'Connell and The 3R's – Read Rap and Rhyme with Grammy and me by Betty Groff

Hi, Brian.
I was born in Placentia, Newfoundland, in 1923 and brought up in Corner Brook. My father Dr. John I. O'Connell was a country doctor who make house calls in his old Ford or on horse and sled over the ice and on motor boats in rough seas. He was my inspiration.

I graduated  in 1953 at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ireland and did post grad work at  Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Kingston Ontario, and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and I did a six month stint in the Canadian Arctic DEW Line.

My self-published memoir, Arctic Calls is one of my attempts to relive these times, with my tales of med school and hospitals and the Canadian Arctic with  DC-3 plane crashes and igloo house calls. You can check it out here.

Cheers,
Charlie O'Connell
Kitchener

Hi, Brian.
I have self-published my first children's book! The 3R's – Read Rap and Rhyme with Grammy and me has 2 rapping and rhyming stories, “Big Feet, Little Feet” and “Here There and Everywhere.”  It's colorful pages take the reader along with a Grammy and grandson on their special days together.  
It's available from Amazon.ca here.
Thank you,
Betty Groff
www.bettyvgroff.com

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Book signings and readings of new bilingual children's book If I Were an Octopus… / Si j’étais une pieuvre…

Hi, Brian.
Thank you so much for your support of my new book.  Please find all relevant information below...

Sarah Kathryn Thatcher’s debut children’s book, If I Were an Octopus… / Si j’étais une pieuvre…, was created to support parents with children who are learning French as a Second Language. Its fun illustrations and simple vocabulary introduce beginners to numbers and ocean animals in both languages.

As a French Immersion teacher and parent, Sarah discovered a lack of engaging and age appropriate books for her students and her own children. Sarah has received wonderful feedback from children, parents, teachers and librarians all explaining how they used the book in a creative way to facilitate language learning.

Sarah also opened The Grey Leaf Publishing House to encourage the creation of multi-lingual books for children. For more information visit: www.greyleafpublishing.ca

Sarah
Author and Illustrator Book Signings
May 31, 2015,  2 – 4 pm at The Bookshelf, Downtown Guelph
June 6, 2015, 11 am – 1 pm at Chapters, Stone Road Mall Guelph

Book Reading by Author
June 7, 2015, 1 pm at YMCA Healthy Kids Event, Woodlawn Glen YMCA, Guelph

If I Were an Octopus… / Si j’étais une pieuvre… is available for sale here. And check out the video promo clip here.
 
Thanks again,
Sarah Kathryn Thatcher

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Love letters ~ Where your fellow writers are getting published

Hello, Brian.
I have a new young adult book coming out in September. The title is Hope's Journey. The publisher is Ronsdale Press. This is the fifth novel in what is now known as "The Forging Canada Series. Here is a bit of a blurb: 
 At thirteen, Hope Cobman must leave the orphanage where she has lived since her mother’s death one year ago. Alone in the world, she dreams of finding her father and three brothers –all complete strangers to her, for even before her birth the American Revolution had scattered her family. But finding her father and brothers must remain a dream. 
Forced into becoming an indentured servant, she is little more than a slave to a lonely man and his bitter, crippled mother. Their home is an isolated log cabin on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where Loyalist settlers struggle to rebuild their lives. Then a death and a betrayal leave Hope suddenly free to pursue her dream. She sets off on her own. But instead of finding a father and a brother who will take care of her, she learns that it is up to her to help them recover from the wounds of war. 
All best,
 Jean Rae Baxter
Note: Jean also has two short story collections (for adults) and a collection of her stories translated into Hebrew, plus a literary mystery. Jean will be my guest speaker at the “Writing Great Characters” workshop July 11 in Burlington (see here).  ~ Brian

Greetings, Brian!
I am pleased to advise you that I have self-published my sister's biography with Archway Publishing. The book is titled, Miracle Loops: A Biography Based on the Life and Writings of Fanaye Dirasse. For those interested, it is available from Amazon here.
With best regards.
Laketch Dirasse

Hi, Brian;
I am pleased to have heard from Nancy Kay Clark at CommuterLit that a nonfiction story of mine, “Day of Grace” will be posted on CommmuterLit..
The classes with you are always enjoyable, and they have been helpful in polishing the craft of this still very rough unpolished writer.
Looking forward to starting the next round Thursday.
Brian Connelly
Brian’s story “Day of Grace” was also published on Quick Brown Fox here.

Hi, Brian:
By attending your writing courses, I am beginning to find small successes. Am delighted to share my story Kill Bill with you on CommuterLit. This story was also a semi-finalist in the 2014 John Kenneth Galbraith literary contest.
Many thanks for all your help, Brian.
Heather Rath
www.heatherrath.net
Read Heather’s story on CommuterLit here.  
For information about submitting to CommuterLit, see here.
 

Hi, Brian.
I'm doing a happy dance this weekend because I placed third in the Elora Writer's Festival Short Story Contest for my story “Closer.” This piece was originally written for one of your classes and has been much critiqued by my fellow Brian Henry alumni. Many thanks to you and to all who have critiqued my work over the years. You have made me a better writer.
Best regards,
Rita Bailey
Note: The Elora Writers’ Festival and short story contest is an annual event. See details of the 2015 contest here; I imagine the rules will be much the same come 2016.

 See my schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Intensive Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons, June 30 – Aug 18, in Burlington

Intensive Creative Writing
8 Tuesday afternoons
June 30 – Aug 18, 2015
12:15 to 2:45 p.m.
First set of readings emailed June 23
Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who have been writing for a while or who have done a course or two before and are working on their own projects. Over the eight weeks of classes, you’ll be asked to bring in four pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on.

Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.

See all three weekly classes offered this summer here.
Check out a review of the Intensive course here. More reviews here.

Fee: 158.41 + 13% hst = 179
To reserve your spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Literary agent Moe Ferrara of Bookends seeks science fiction & fantasy for all ages ~ children to adults

Bookends literary agency

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

Moe Ferrara is the newest member of the team at Bookends and like all new agents, she’ looking for authors.

Becoming a literary agent was fitting for the girl who, as a small child, begged her dad to buy her a book simply because "it has a hard cover." Growing up, she had a hard time finding YA books outside of Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine, and instead tackled Tom Clancy or her mom's romance novels. Though her career path zigzagged a bit – she attended college as a music major, earned a JD from Pace Law School, then worked various jobs throughout the publishing industry – Moe was thrilled to join the BookEnds team in May of 2015 as a literary agent and the foreign rights manager.

A Pennsylvania native, she is the proud owner of one rambunctious guinea pig who is a master at stealing extra treats. When not reading, she is an avid gamer and always awaiting the next Assassin's Creed release. Follow Moe on Twitter at www.twitter.com/inthesestones

Moe is interested in science fiction and fantasy for all age groups (no picture books). She loves a bit (or a lot!) of romance in her fiction, so the right contemporary or historical romance will spark her interest. She's LGBTQ friendly, so send her that male/male erotic romance in your back pocket! At this time she's not looking for nonfiction, women's fiction, or cozy mysteries.

Martha Magor Webb
No attachments. Full submission guidelines here.

Brian Henry will lead "How to Get Published” workshops in Windsor (for my American readers, that's just across the river from Detroit), on Sunday, May 31, with Martha Magor Webb of the Anne McDermid Agency (see here) and in Mississauga on Saturday, June 20, again with Martha Magor Webb (here).

Brian will also lead “How to Write a Bestseller,” with New York Times #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, June 13, in Toronto (here).

For more information or to register, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Kelley Armstrong
Other upcoming workshops, include “How to Build Yout Story," Saturday, May 30 in Guelph (see here),  “Secrets of Writing a Page-turner,” Saturday, June 6, in Georgetown (here), "How to Write Great Characters," Saturday, July 11 in Burlington (here) and Saturday, July 18 in Kitchener (here), and "Writing Your Life," Saturday, August 15 in Midland (here).

But the best way to step up your game or get your manuscript ready for publication is with a  weekly class. This summer, Brian will lead a "Welcome to Creative Writing" course on Thursday evenings and two "Intensive Creative Writing" courses, one on Tuesday afternoons, the other on Thursday afternoons, all in Burlington. Details here

For more information or to reserve a spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

See Brian's full schedule 
here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

“A Story to Tell,” by Dale Kern

There they sit. On the bookshelf in full view every time I sit on the couch. They call out to me with their recognizable yellow spine and their alluring titles – The Secret of the Old Clock, The Mystery at Red Gate Farm and my favourite The Clue in the Diary, beckoning just as they did decades ago. I devoured these stories as a youngster and read most of them under the tree in the backyard on hot summer days. They still bring back memories when I see them now.

My father donated my collection to the Salvation Army when he sold his house, not realizing the connection I still had to them, even as an adult. Since then, I’ve spent many years scouring garage sales and flea markets replacing my Nancy Drew collection one at a time. Why did I love them so? 

Every young girl in the 60s wanted to be Nancy Drew – and why not? She was smart, witty, and independent and had a brain for solving mysteries to boot. She had a father who supported everything she did and she never got in trouble, even when she got in an accident with her convertible car – how cool was that? What 19 year old young girl had her own convertible?

She was envied by girls my age.  She had faithful friends, Bess and George, who tagged along on her adventures, and of course there was Ned, the good looking young man who had a crush on her.  At 19, she had the world all wrapped up. So, who wouldn’t want to be Nancy Drew?

Me, that’s who.

I had bigger aspirations. I did not want to inhabit the world of Nancy with all her intelligence and charm or her ability to identify a clue that would solve a mystery from a dropped diary or a fleeting stranger.  

I wanted to be Carolyn Keene: the one who put the words to paper; the one who brought the secrets and elusive conclusions to life. I longed to see my name on the front of a hardcover book – to be the envy of all my friends and prove something to all my teachers who continued to write on my report cards “talks too much in class.”

Well, perhaps that was because I had a story to tell.

I mentioned this to my mother one day and got “Mm-hmm, that’s nice.” Even though my mother was the one who took me faithfully on the bus to Woolworth’s to buy the newest Nancy Drew instalment, perhaps she had little knowledge of who wrote the books. Obviously, she didn’t understand just what those $1.50 purchases meant to me.  

The more I read, the stronger my desire became. I was certain that I could do what Carolyn Keene had done. I had read some books and they seemed fairly straightforward; they had characters and a story. That should be easy enough. My confidence was growing.

I thought I would try to explain this again to my mother. Tenacity is in my nature. I stood in front of her with a Nancy Drew book in hand, perched under my chin with my finger on the authors name and asked; “Mom, do you think I could write a book like Carolyn Keene?”

She studied me for a moment, tilted her head to one side and said, “Really?” My head was bobbing up and down energetically – my neck was starting to hurt. Knowing how determined I could be she said, “All right, want to find out?”

Success! I was on my way to being a real author!

So off we went on the bus to Woolworth’s, this time on a different mission to buy supplies. Not just ordinary paper and pen, but those worthy of a promising 11 year old author. I could barely contain my excitement!

I held my purchase closely with eager anticipation on the way home; my sweaty little palms making marks on the brown paper bag. I nearly jumped out of my seat to ring the bell when we got near our stop. 

After the short walk home, I headed straight for the tree, opened my brand new notebook and with my best printing, carefully placed my name on the inside cover. Then I wrote my name in cursive, practicing how I might do so once I got famous. Every author needed a cool autograph.

Now, down to work.

I waited for the words to come. Nothing. Hmmmm … maybe a grape popsicle would help get the creative juices flowing. Then perhaps a ride around the neighbourhood on my bicycle. I was feeling a little sluggish from the heat and the bus ride.

Yes, that was the trick. I started writing. I don’t recall exactly what I wrote but I remember the freedom and the excitement I felt. The words flowed like the water from the outside hose I used to drink from. My hand hurt and I shook it like I had seen my dad do when he was writing cheques to pay the bills. I glanced over my pages – I had written a lot!

Write, write, write. Days and days and days.  I had to keep stalling my mother who was asking to read it. Good work takes time, don’t you know?  Perhaps it was more than nosiness she was displaying. Perhaps she had faith in me. That helped to spur me on.

I stopped writing and read it back to myself.  Something was missing – what was it? I had characters, dialogue and even a mystery to be solved. Then it came to me – the plot – that’s what was missing!

I had methodically painted myself into a corner and couldn’t get out. Now what? How to  bring all the parts that I had written together? I wished I could dial up Carolyn Keene to ask her but I didn’t know her number. Besides, she probably didn’t live anywhere close by and long distance calls cost money. I had already spent my last few weeks allowance on writing supplies.

Maybe a few days away would help. I should take a rest from it – yes, that was what I decided to do.

As any child knows summer days pass too quickly, and as the light was leaving the sky earlier and earlier each day, I knew that September was fast approaching. How would I ever get my novel done before then? Daily, I stared at the pages and read it over and over until it was etched in my brain and yet could not find a conclusion to my dilemma. I was stuck!

I have since discovered that this is not unusual for authors. Could I have worked my way through it? I’ll never know.

I don’t know what happened to that notebook. It may have ended up in the garbage when my dad was cleaning out the house. I do know that it sat regally in my closet on the shelf for many years, and on occasion I looked at it wistfully, remembering those days under the maple tree and wishing I could finish my novel.

They say that things come full circle. I don’t know who they are, but maybe they are right because here I am, once again, hoping that I have a story to tell.

Dale Kern lives in Ancaster and is a college educator whose love of reading has always lured her to write. It took many decades for her to put pen to paper – or finger to key stroke. She may not be Carolyn Keene, but her lifelong reading experiences left her with appreciation for the work of authors. She hopes to be one someday. When she is not writing, she enjoys the outdoors, spending time with family and friends and being a passenger on her husband’s Harley.


See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant, reviewed by Sally Wylie

The Jaguar’s Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, Hard cover $18.77 (here) or $14.99 Kindle (here)

John Vaillant authored a work of non-fiction in 2005 titled, The Golden Spruce: a true story of myth, madness and greed.  It is a treasure of Native Canadian history, the logging industry and issues of who owns the land.  The forests of Haida Gwaii are matched by the story of Grant Hadwin, who felled the last and only living Golden Spruce.  The tree took two days to fall; it was 300 years old.

Vaillant brings the same dedicated attention to detail and riveting expose of controversial issues to his new work of fiction, The Jaguar’s Children.

Hector is a young man who grew up in a rural area outside the city of Oaxaca, the second poorest state in Mexico.  He is Zapotecan.  In Mexico, that means he is a second-class citizen, and more impoverished, exploited, and punished than others in the Mexican population.  To his advantage, he speaks some English, and his father believes he can escape to El Norte. 

We are thrown into the story with Hector and his friend Cesar who are inside an abandoned  water truck in the desert where the temperature rises to over 100 degrees during the day and freezes cold at night. The smugglers – the coyotes – have left them and 14 others to die when the truck broke down in a remote area of Texas.

John Vaillant
As the hours (and days) drag on, Hector tries, using the one cell phone left to them, calling the one name with an American code, AnniMac.  He begins telling his story to AnniMac by time frames during the day, and then, as days go by, the two bars of the cell phone dwindle to one bar. He no longer uses the phone for hope, but as a lantern to see briefly into to the misery of their existence.

He distracts himself by thinking of his mother, father and the life in the older days of Mexico. Here is where Vaillant is at his best describing in Spanish and English the language of the downtrodden, how the old days and the new betrayed the poor, the relevance of corn to the culture and their dedication to their ancient religion.  Vaillant tells Hector’s stories so convincingly; any reader must believe he lived there.

With each passing day Hector feels the slime growing thickly on the inside walls. The smells choke him, and the people trapped in the truck’s steel bowels cry and moan. He tells himself more stories, and we learn of Hector’s family and the link to their ancestor, the jaguar. 

In one story, two brothers see a jaguar approaching and think it will attack them.  They raise their weapons.  The jaguar says, “Is that any way to greet your grandfather?” That night the jaguar takes them into the hills and valleys to the mountain where he says, “This is my home.  I invite you to share it with me.”  “How can we repay you for this kindness?” they ask the jaguar.  He responds: “Remember who brought you here.” 

“Aha,” you say, convinced the ancestral story gives the book’s meaning, but wait.  Vaillant’s ironic voice asks us to put a “J” in front of the word agua – water – and an “r” after it.  Is he speaking about the illegals—the   Jaguar’s Children—inside the agua truck?  It is yet another layer of mystery which Vaillant creates while we bake with Hector in the dark heat of the jaguar’s belly daring to hope with only a capful of water a day.  

Quick Brown Fox wants your book reviews. Details hereRead how to write a book review here.

Sally Wylie is co-authoring the fifth edition of a text titled Observing Young Children:  Transforming early learning through reflective practice with Nelson Publishing.  She is currently writing a story for middle grade readers, plus other works.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.