Issue #21 - June 2019

Dear Readers,

Oh, May! What a wonderful month you were!

I had SUCH a great time touring PEI as part of the TD book tour at the beginning of May. The TD book tour is organized by the Canadian Children's Book Centre in partnership with the Storytellers of Canada and this year 30 different Canadian children's book authors were sent all over the country to visit schools and libraries.
I got to go to Prince Edward Island--home of Anne of Green Gables :)!!

Because Ori is so little still, I decided to bring him with me, and I also brought my mom and dad along too to help look after him while I did my presentations. I was a little bit nervous about it all, but it went 100 and 10 percent better than I could have EVER imagined!

Partially because the coordinator, the Youth Services Librarian, who organized my tour in PEI was amazing and had everything planned, even down to details like stopping at handmade pie companies after our visits, and partially because PEI is just SO beautiful, and partially because I got to do a book launch for the second title I got to write inspired by L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, called Anne's Kindred Spirits. Tundra Books, my publisher, actually flew Abigail Halpin to PEI to join me for the launch which was run by the bookstore, Bookmark. It was fabulous.


It was extra special to meet Abigail at long last. She was the illustrator of my very first children's picture book, The Melancholic Mermaid, which was published in 2010. So it is really amazing that we are coming together again to work on this series. We both adore Anne, of course, and talked a lot about how special L.M. Montgomery's text is to us. It's also just so special to actually chat with Abigail. It's very rare to get a chance to chat with one of my illustrators. I am in awe of how talented she is. I have come to really respect not talking too much to illustrators as they work on a book, as I think I can be bossy and I don't want to influence an artist's vision, but it means I rarely get to know an illustrator! I only wish Abigail and I had more time together. We were instant Kindred Spirits and we decided we must, must come back to PEI again.

We ALSO chatted for quite a bit about fairy tales and how there needs to be more of them in the world... I have a middle grade novel that is based on the selkie myths that I have been meaning to dig my pen into... maybe now is a time to start...

I must also give a shout-out to my fabulous parents for looking after Ori so wonderfully. He loved PEI too, except he ate so much he actually made himself sick one night. I guess he REALLY liked the food. (It was delish!) And he started walking too... so that is a new adventure.

This month is all about watching our house come together--the roof is on and heating and flooring happening.

And I have lots of editing and writing to do, which I'm looking forward to. That, and spending time at the playgrounds with my little guy.

xoxo
Kallie