I’m off to Naramata for a few days of sun and sand. (Did I mention it’s a wine-growing region?) I’ll post a note when I get back. Cheers!

This is my dog, Blaze, my loyal and faithful companion. The photo shows him at Long Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, waiting for me to throw his ball into the surf. Chasing a ball through the waves is his very favourite activity (other than eating).

Blaze set off with my son on a roadtrip today, and was very excited. When the two of them left, I began to think about why a writer (me especially) needs a dog. Writing is a solitary activity, often done in the seclusion of a writer’s home. If there wasn’t a dog to curl up under the desk, the writer might get lonely. Secondly, a dog needs to go for several energetic walks, every day, in all kinds of weather. This gets the writer up, off her chair, away from the computer and out into the world.

Beyond the benefits of exercise and sociability, walking allows the writer an excellent opportunity to let her mind wander. I came up with the final sentence in my story, Lily and the Mixed-up Letters, on a dog walk. The wording had eluded me for months, and then one day, out on a walk with Blaze, the words appeared like magic in my head: “Feeling as light as a kite on the wind, Lily skips all the way home.”

I owed Blaze a big dog cookie that day!

In May, I had the good fortune of being in New York for a few days. While there, I visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The museum features restored apartments that depict the lives of newly arrived immigrants — people who travelled by ship to New York’s Ellis Island from Europe in the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. In the room I visited, a family of 10 people had squeezed together in a tiny two-room apartment, sleeping on the floor, chairs and a shared bed. I was struck by by the tenacity of this family and the hardship they must have endured, leaving the familiarity of their home country and coming to America to build a new life in a new land. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, two other children’s writers and I were invited to speak in Whitehorse at the annual Canadian Science Writers’ Conference. The three of us (who had never met before) shared a family apartment at Yukon College, and were most congenial roommates. How lucky! Check out this photo of us with science journalist, Jennifer Kaban (second from left). Jude Isabella (left) is the editor of Yes Mag, the science magazine for kids. Pippa Wysong (right) has a Q&A website for kids called Ask Pippa. We three roommates spoke together on a panel about writing science books and other publications for kids. We also were the hosts for Family Day at Beringia Centre, a day where local Whitehorse kids came to learn about our books, us and the amazing land and creatures of Beringia. Aside from our enjoyable speaking responsibilities, the three of us founds lots of time to stay up late under the midnight sun, eat some tasty Mexican food and tour the stunning Yukon wilderness. What a wonderful trip!