You're on my foot! How two friends meet in the BOOK TRAILER for Mr. Byrd ...

Enjoy the BOOK TRAILER for THE LOVE SONG OF MR. BYRD, my 15th book for children, and my first chapter book, for readers ages 6 to 9. The Love Song of Mr. Byrd is available wherever you purchase your favourite books!

The book trailer is made by me, and features the lovely book illustrations by Caroline Clarke. The music is by yours truly (me again) and Allister Thompson, friend, editor, musician, and author. I've made a book trailer for almost all my books, you'll find more of them on YouTube. 

A sweet story about friendship and love over one summer, I hope you enjoy Mr. Byrd's song, and sing your own song, too!

 

A piece of music to celebrate the sustaining life of women ...

 

Here's a photo of a cherry tree in my neighbourhood last year, in full bloom, scenting the air, filling our senses with wonder and delight. I had to stop to take her picture today. 

On this (almost) May Day, I will take a moment to celebrate all the women I know who change the landscape they inhabit, just as a beautiful tree changes the landscape around her.

I have a piece of music for that! Please enjoy Rivkah's Dance on YouTube, or on Bandcamp (please leave a small donation if you can). You can also hear it on Spotify, iTunes and other streaming sites.

Rivkah's Dance is from my latest guitar album   Morning Fox (2023) with editor and musical collaborator Allister Thompson. 

I hope you'll give a listen, and think about the women in your life who have changed and sustained you. 

 Liner notes for Rivkah's Dance: 

"Rivkah's Dance is from my latest guitar album "Morning Fox,"  and is the closest I've come to writing a symphony for guitar. One of my longest pieces, it is meant to imitate the life of a woman as she grows, just as a tree grows. In four movements, the music begins softly, then builds as she grows tall and strong and vibrant, sustaining life, sheltering, and withstanding seasons, storm and wind. May she live long, and change the landscape she inhabits."

When authors and editors write music together

http://thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/album/fifth-season

Reposted from 2015: listen to SPRING 

My wonderful editor, Allister Thompson, and I have made an album, Fifth Season. You'll find seven mellow, warm, inviting instrumental pieces, good listening for a cold winter night.

Allister did all the work, including the suggestion of putting this album together.  I provided the composition and acoustic guitar (okay, I did some of the work), and he added his signature vocals, gorgeous electric guitar and keyboards to create this beautiful collaboration which makes me incredibly joyful. I've been so lucky in my friendship with Allister, a brilliant editor and a wonderful musician (and all-round nice guy).

Please give a listen, download (free or pay what you wish), and enjoy: Fifth Season, by Philippa Dowding and Allister Thompson.

OCT/2017 update: Album Number two released! Please enjoy Birches with our gratitude.

An Italian videographer uses my guitar piece SUMMER ...

 

... and it's really lovely! Thank you to Dino Chierichetti for the uplifting images of Summer: beach, surf, wind, water. This is exactly what the song is for, to celebrate the energy and joy of the warm weather.

This song is from my first album, Fifth Season (2015), with editor and musical collaborator Allister Thompson. To hear more of our music, visit Spotify or YouTube.

Enjoy!

All posts about my music on this blog.

Songs from Birch Island is streaming on Spotify!

 

It's a first for me, but I'm really pleased to say that all of my instrumental guitar music from the past 7 years is now streaming on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Apple Music and probably wherever you listen to music.

Here's the Spotify link: Songs from Birch Island

Songs from Birch Island is a compilation of all three of my guitar albums, a total of 26 short, jubilant pieces, in collaboration with Allister Thompson, who is also the editor of my books. 

Or find  Songs from Birch Island on YouTube.

My favourite tune from Songs from Birch Island is probably All the Stars (at least today). But that could change! I hope you'll listen and choose your own favourite. The songs are inspired by a wide variety of guitarists from John Fahey to Bruce Cockburn, from Django Reinhardt to Adrianne Lenker. The beautiful compilation cover art is Birches in Autumn, paper collage by Baye Hunter. Check out more of her lovely art at bayehunter.com.

And someone has asked me if there is a particular Birch Island? There is (mine is in Algonquin Park), but I think most Canadians have a favourite lake with a Birch Island on it, so this music tries to capture that Canadian ubiquity: hearing music through the birch trees wherever you may be.

I'm delighted to bring you this compilation, especially right now during the pandemic. Creating is a great release, artists have it luckiest at this time, I think. I hope you'll listen to Songs from Birch Island, and gain a little calm in the storm.

Update! You can also listen to Songs from Birch Island on CD!  If you'd like a CD, contact me via email (contact info in the sidebar at right). 

More about my music on this blog.

Songs from Birch Island is a compilation of
the following albums and one single:

The Crow's Nest, April/2021
10 songs, click link to listen on Bandcamp

Cover art by Shawna Daigle

Birches, October, 2017
8 songs, including me singing on Moonlight
Click to listen on Bandcamp

Cover art, Birches in Summer, by Baye Hunter

Fifth Season, October 2015
7 songs on Bandcamp

Cover art, Lake Nipissing, photo by Allister Thompson

The Gargoyle Shuffle, April, 2019
Single on Bandcamp

Cover art by Emma Dolan

Release day for The Crow's Nest, a new instrumental guitar album by Philippa Dowding and Allister Thompson!

 

Today is RELEASE DAY for The Crow's Nest, my latest instrumental guitar album, with musician and editor Allister Thompson.

Listen on Bandcamp now: The Crow's Nest 

This is my third album with Allister, and our first since 2017. These 10 songs are inspired by my guitar heroes like John Fahey, Django Reinhardt and more recently, Adrianne Lenker. 

I love all these tunes, I hope you do, too. If I had to choose a favourite (and tomorrow it may be different), listen to Fahey. 

Or All the Stars.

Or any of them! I have been incredibly lucky in my musical and writerly collaborations with Allister. He has edited 12 of my children's books and counting, and made my music sound so good. Many thank yous, once again, to him.

Also, the lovely cover art for The Crow's Nest is by the wonderful Shawna Daigle, who illustrated all six of my Weird Stories Gone Wrong series of horror stories for kids. Thank you to Shawna, too.

I hope you'll visit Bandcamp, and give our latest album a listen! Enjoy!

Also today, our complete work of 26 songs is released on SPOTIFY: Songs from Birch Island
Beautiful cover art by Baye Hunter.

Includes 3 albums:

Fifth Season (2015)

Birches (2017)

The Crow's Nest (2021)

The Gargoyle Shuffle (single, 2019)

CM Reviews RECOMMENDS Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet

"Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet is a timely tale about what can happen when we destroy the only home we have ever known. Sadly, most children are aware of the issues surrounding our very own planet, and so they will see many similarities between our home and that of Quinn and his friends. 

Writing in clear and concise language, Philippa Dowding has done a great job at taking a very serious topic and making it age-appropriate. Overall, a very enjoyable read. RECOMMENDED." 
-- CM Reviews, May 8, 2020

Thank you to CM Reviews for this good review of my latest book, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet, the 6th and final book in my award-winning, middle-grade horror series, Weird Stories Gone Wrong.

Read the full review: CM Review, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet

BOOK TRAILER, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet

Read more reviews of Quinn on Goodreads

More about QUINN on this blog

Purchase a copy of Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet AMAZON INDIGO

A final thank you to Shawna Daigle, the amazing series illustrator for all 6 books in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series. By my count, that's 51 illustrations in total, including covers. And thank you to my long-time editor, Allister Thompson. Between us, we have edited 12 books together!

And of course, thank you to publisher Dundurn Press for allowing me to write this weird series, and to all the many friends, family and fellow authors who read the books, gave me feedback, and showed up for events and signings! Also, if you've read and enjoyed any of these books, many thanks to you, too.

Without music, life would be a mistake ...

Saturday night guitar party, 28/03/2020 (I'm top, 2nd left)
10 guitars, 15 friends, including a friend from Tokyo

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele at age 9 (which I still play), and graduated to a 6-string acoustic guitar at age 12. I've written quite a bit about my guitar life on this blog.

Read my guitar and music posts here.

Music has lifted me up my whole life. I've made lifelong friends, even met my husband one night almost 40 years ago, because of my love of the guitar.

Author at 17, playing at a
high school coffee house

This spring as humanity finds itself in the grip of a pandemic, each of us must find solace where we can. So last night I ventured boldly with my musical friends onto the internet!

I was skeptical when a friend suggested we try it but in the end, I found joy in the deep connection I have to my friends, and to the music we have played together for decades.

That's me with my husband, top row, third from left

It was so beautiful to see everyone, all together in one place. One of us joined the party while sitting in his basement in Tokyo. One of us held his newborn son, so in one family three generations were present on the screen. Some of us were in isolation alone, some of us had our partners or children with us.

But in the end, we were all together.

It wasn't perfect. The internet was slow. Sound was intermittent. Sometimes people dropped out and had to reconnect.

Click to hear BIRCHES
With Allister Thompson

But we sang. We played. We listened. We chatted. We kicked at the darkness, as our guitar hero Bruce Cockburn once sang. We found solace in each other, and in the music we've always shared. It reminded us of warm summer nights around a campfire, of beautiful harmonies, of the passage of time and the impermanence of everything except music and friendship.

I played 3 original tunes, including The Gargoyle Shuffle. 

So find solace where you can, everyone. For me right now, it's in friends, music and a wonky internet connection.

With love to you all.

PD

You'll find me on Bandcamp ...

BIRCHES (2017) with Allister Thompson

I finally opened a Bandcamp account! 

Here it is:  Philippa Dowding, Bandcamp

You'll find a few tunes from my two guitar albums with my editor, Allister Thompson.

You'll also find recordings from my first book, The Gargoyle in My Yard. The book just turned 10 years in April 2019, and to celebrate I recorded me reading two chapters. 

You'll also find The Gargoyle Shuffle on there.

More to come, stay tuned!

SUMMER, from the album Fifth Season (2015)
with Allister Thompson

The first time I touched a guitar, I was 10 years old and I had just snuck into my older brother's room to crouch before his brand new birthday gift: an acoustic guitar. I drew my finger tips across the strings, and was shocked into wonder by the beautiful voice, the gentle whisper. That was it. Hooked for life.

I've played guitar ever since, and made friends for life through music. I've written dozens of instrumentals for the guitar since then, and have a handful of songs which I sing for friends (usually reluctantly) when pressed. You'll hear me singing in only one place that I know of: on Birches, Moonlight, a song I wrote for my sister-in-law, a song which Allister pressed me to record.

Does any amateur musician like the sound of their own voice?

I still play guitar for about 20 minutes every day, and I record new compositions all the time. Recording acoustic is hard though. You have to be perfect, you can't suddenly get itchy, or have to sneeze. The neighbours can't be cutting their grass, the dog can't bark, the front door can't slam, the cellphone has to be off ... it takes patience!

But there may be a new collaboration soon, so perhaps more tunes to come. Happy listening, everyone.

MORE ABOUT GUITAR on this blog.

10 Writing Tips for the 10th Anniversary Celebration!

It's been a decade since my first book was published in April 2009. What have I learned?

Here they are, the first 5 of 10 writing tips learned from my decade as a writer, on my publisher's blog:

1. 1. Write the story that torments you. Writing is a lonely, often difficult journey, so tell stories you love, that inspire or even torment you, and keep you up at night. That passion will carry you through to the finish line.
2. 2. Finish it. There’s a lot of craft in writing endings. Also, sometimes it’s only when a manuscript is finished that I realize what the story is actually about.
3. 3. You’ll despair. Creative doubt is a real thing. There may be a writer out there who never doubts their skill … but I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve felt like I have no idea what I’m doing, especially at the start of something new.
4. 4. Hang out with other writers. Talk books, story, and craft, because writers will get you. They’ll inspire you, too.
5. 5. Brace yourself: you’ll get a bad review now and then. We all do, it’s part of the job of being a writer. BUT … you’ll get good reviews, too. Here’s a 10% rule: even the most beloved author of all time (insert favourite writer here) has about a 90% approval rating (give or take) on book sites. So on average, roughly 10% of readers won’t like a book, no matter what it is. There will be people who DO love your book though. Embrace them. Thank them. Remember them.

For the rest of my "10 Writing Tips", read on at my publisher's website: 

10th Anniversary Writing Tips from Philippa Dowding

Thanks everyone for the fantastic ride, it's been a great 10 years! Also, many thanks to the Dundurn Press marketing team, and publicist Elham A., for all the hard work this month helping me celebrate!

More April 2019/10th Anniversary Celebrations on this Blog:

Listen to The Gargoyle Shuffle, music by the author and editor (Allister Thompson)

Listen to the author read two chapters of the book:

Chapter 5, Ballerinas and Daisies

Chapter 4, Moonlight Dance

More About The Lost Gargoyle Series on this blog.

Introducing The Gargoyle Shuffle

Gargoyle Image Courtesy Emma Dolan
www.emmadarkandweird.com

My first book was published TEN YEARS AGO today, on April 1, 2009!

That book was The Gargoyle in My Yard, about a grumpy, 400-year-old gargoyle lost in downtown Toronto. To celebrate, I'm posting all things gargoyle here throughout April. 

FIRST UP, MUSIC: The Gargoyle Shuffle 

I wrote this music in 2014, and I've performed it to thousands of kids across Canada ever since. My editor, Allister Thompson, a terrific musician, recorded this new version with me.

Listen to The Gargoyle Shuffle free. 
ENJOY!

Author going door to door
with champagne, 2009.
PHOTO: Andrea Gutsche

Here's a video of children dancing as I play the song in 2014: 
Kids Dance the Gargoyle Shuffle 

Thank you to author Rebecca Upjohn for the video.

Fast forward a decade, and later this year I'll publish my 12th book. Thank you to publisher Sylvia McConnell at Napoleon for getting this party started a decade ago!

I'll be posting more throughout April, including chapters from the book, "10 Writing Truths" on my publisher's website, and more. For now, take a look at the rapturous author, holding her FIRST BOOK, 10 years ago!

More about The Gargoyle in My Yard on this Blog
More about The Lost Gargoyle Series

Next Week, April 8: I'll post a reading of Chapter 4, MOONLIGHT DANCE

Thoughts from a 3-Book Year, Paris finally, top blog post and more from 2018

Weird Stories Gone Wrong, Books 4 and 5

OCULUM, September 2018

Here it is, 2019! Somehow, 2018 has come and gone and we are left looking back at the year that was. Faster and faster, the whirligig of life goes.

So, in no particular order, here are five things that seemed important to me about 2018:

1. Thoughts on a 3-book year. I've been incredibly lucky to publish two more books in the award-winning Weird Stories Gone Wrong series (Alex and The Other and Blackwells and the Briny Deep) in 2018. That's 5 books now in that series, with another coming in fall, 2019 (a resistance story, Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet).

PLUS, I also published OCULUM, a new middle-grade dystopia, in 2018 with Dancing Cat Books. Thank you to the publishers, I'm honoured and very lucky.

It was tough though, working on 3 books, and really tested my professional abilities to the limit. It brought back memories of being in graduate school, since I wrote into the wee hours a few times (not my regular writing time), particularly in November, 2017 and February, 2018. Luckily, my intrepid editor, Allister Thompson (who has been my editor from the start in 2009), helped, as did the amazingly smart editors at Dancing Cat. Can't thank them all enough!

If you read any of my 2018 published book efforts, my sincere and humble thanks.

Author and husband, Paris (baby), Oct. 2018

2. Paris, ah Paris, we finally meet. Okay, I came to the Paris party later in life, but it's been a bucket-list item for decades, and my husband and I finally booked two tickets in October 2018. (He retired, and I had a big birthday.) May I say that Paris really is an experience not to be missed. Everyone should go once, if they can, even if just to see a beautiful medieval city built to be seen, felt and experienced on foot.

The Gargoyle In My Yard,
In front of Notre Dame
by boat, OCT 2018

We went in October: no crowds, BEAUTIFUL weather, and not too hot. We walked 20+ km a day, ate like kings, rested in all the parks we could find, traipsed through all the museums and galleries we could walk to, and of course, hit the iconic spots too. I cried, at least once a day: at the Louvre, first sighting of Eiffel Tower, first walk beside the Seine, seeing St. Chappelle cathedral, at Notre Dame (twice, first sighting then again listening to an organ concert a few days later), and finally at the Rodin Museum. I'm not talking sobbing or making a spectacle of myself, just quietly moved to tears by the beauty of the place and the art and the blue, blue skies.

Also, at the bottom of this post you'll see that The Lost Gargoyle books (my first series), were optioned last year and were being presented in CANNES at MIP JR at the same time I was in Paris, so I carried a copy of the first book, The Gargoyle in My Yard, with me every day.

Author, summer 2018

3. Sailing. I love sailing. I've sailed all my life, and it's just one of those things I will always love. Here's a picture of me at the tiller of Short Circuit, our grand old lady (45-year-old C&C 27), sailing out of Toronto last summer. And in 2018, I finally got to set one of my stories, Blackwells and the Briny Deep, on a sailboat, which was a joy to write!

4. Magazine copywriting is still a thing.

In my earlier career, I was a magazine copywriter, first at Maclean Hunter (remember them?) and then at Rogers, then freelance. I've managed to continue to write copy at least a few times a year for my clients (old and new), even though the past 15 years in the magazine industry in Canada have been pretty lean. BUT ... in 2018 I noticed a definite uptick in freelance activity. I had some interesting new clients this past year, including Inuit Art Quarterly, Briarpatch and Canadian Art among them, and 2019 looks like it might be busy, too.

Why? I think quite honestly that magazines WILL survive (just as smaller publishers and independent bookstores are beginning to thrive again), especially the more targeted titles, for their longer, slower reads and even perhaps just for the retro joy of holding a magazine ... or maybe because people aren't getting what they need on the internet and an information-laden magazine is just the ticket.

ALSO, the marketing of magazines is kind of retro too, since mailboxes are definitely de-cluttered these days--when was the last time you got a magazine solicitation in the mail?--so it's a bit novel and new-feeling to receive a direct marketing/mailed sales pitch.  Everything old is new again.

And finally, magazines are figuring out how to access the new Heritage Fund formulas, so there is a little more money around to invest in copywriting and circulation marketing.
For a nice testimonial from one of my recent clients: Magazines Canada, Direct Mail Success
For more on my copywriting life: Copywriter, Philippa Dowding

5. Top 5 BLOG POSTS from 2018. Finally, I usually post my top blog posts each year right around now as a look back at the year that was (in blogging anyway). What I like about this list, is how it spans my entire (almost) ten-year, book-publishing career, from my first gargoyle books to OCULUM, my latest book. I'm grateful, thank you all for dropping by and all the best in 2019!

So here they are, the top five 2018 posts from this writer to you:

#5. CM Magazine Recommends Alex and The Other POST
#4. The Lost Gargoyle Books Are Going to Cannes POST
#3. Loneliness and the Evil Twin ... Happy Book Birthday to Alex and The Other POST
#2. Introducing OCULUM POST

AND #1 ... OCULUM is in the HOUSE! POST

Guitar music for Winter Solstice and a long snowy walk home

Image courtesy artist Baye Hunter

Welcome, Winter Solstice!
Time to curl up and read by the fire, indulge in carb-loading, and open that annual bottle of port.

Also, time to listen to music. Here's a guitar piece I wrote with my editor, Allister Thompson (The Gateless Gate), a few years ago. It celebrates a sleigh ride, or a long, cold walk in the snow, and the return to hearth and home on the darkest day of the year (or perhaps on Christmas Eve).

Listen to WINTER free. Enjoy! 

More Posts about 
MUSIC on this BLOG

Moonlight, for loss and love

Birches in Summer, paper collage, by Baye Hunter
www.bayehunter.com

This week reminds me that my lovely sister-in-law has been gone for almost two years now. It's gone so quickly, and so slowly too.

Here is the song I wrote for her, this time last summer: Moonlight

I hope you give a listen and remember those you've loved. If you've ever wanted to hear me sing (and channel my inner hippie), now's your chance!

Many thanks to my editor, Allister Thompson, who sings with me and added all the other lovely instruments to the track.

Here is Allister's Bandcamp page (he's a wonderful editor and a fantastic musician).

If you'd like to hear the entire album, (with thanks) you can download it free or pay whatever you like: Birches. 

All posts on this BLOG about BIRCHES

BIRCHES in Bristol street art video!

 

Really very honoured to post this: my guitar piece, BIRCHES, has been used (with my permission of course), in a video about Bristol street artist, Andrew Burns Colwill. The video is created by Scuba Lux Creative, Bristol.

Andrew's painting, "Artic Scream", is a heartbreaking comment about our complicity in environmental crisis. It's quite moving, and I'm proud to have my music be part of it. 

BIRCHES is from the larger album of the same name, released in October 2017 with my collaborator (and long-time editor) Allister Thompson.

Here's the entire album on the Free Music Archive: BIRCHES. You can also listen to it on Allister's Bandcamp account (and if you want to toss a few dimes our way, many thanks).

This album has had quite a bit of exposure in the past few weeks. Songs have been in a Free Music Archive playlist, a drone video of St. Leon, Quebec and on a canoe trip on the River Wye in England. In all, the music has been listened to or downloaded almost 20,000 times since early July. 

Many thanks for listening! Enjoy!

VIDEOS AND MORE ABOUT BIRCHES ON THIS BLOG

COVER ART: Birches in Summer,
by Toronto-Islander, Baye Hunter
www.bayehunter.com

Mountains of Madness on the Free Music Archive Playlist

Birches in Summer, by Baye Hunter. Paper collage.

Been away in the wilds of Ontario all week, without wifi or my computer. 

Came home to this lovely surprise: my acoustic guitar piece, Mountains of Madness, was selected as part of the Listening Party Playlist this week on the Free Music Archive.

HOW COOL! Thank you!

Here's the complete Playlist Link: 
Free Music Archive Listening Party, "Mostly Unhyphenated Folk", Vol. 57, July 16/2018. 

I love that this week's selections are mostly by female musicians. I ALSO love the cover for the playlist appears to be our cover for Birches, the beautiful art is by my friend (and flute and guitar duet partner), Baye Hunter.

"Mountains of Madness" was of course inspired by the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name, which I read at the suggestion of my editor, Allister Thompson, a few years ago. I wrote the song after reading that chilling ending, then Allister added his own musical genius to it (that's his voice screaming) and produced it on the album Birches, our second musical collaboration, from October 2017.

You can also listen and pay what you wish on Bandcamp, if you want to throw some money at us (with our thanks)! Hope you give a listen to the playlist and enjoy some tunes!

More about BIRCHES on this blog:
Videos using BIRCHES
Music with Allister Thompson
Fifth Season, Philippa Dowding and Allister Thompson, October 2015

My acoustic guitar music goes on tour ...

The author at a coffee house at 16 years

Here are 3 new artist videos that use my guitar music:

Canoe Trip on the River Wye, England
Drone tour of St-Leon-le-Grand, Quebec
Lovely Fall trees 

In my non-author life, I play acoustic guitar.

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele that someone thoughtfully gave me when I was nine. I begged my family for a guitar (my older brother had one, it seemed only fair), and when I was 12, I got a Sears guitar for Christmas. I played it until it bent in half (admittedly it wasn't a great instrument, more of a toy really).

For my 16th birthday, I got a truly wonderful instrument which I still have and record with even today: a solid body acoustic Yamaha dreadnought, mahogany top, made in Japan. Glorious deep voice, still. It's in the picture, above.

My first guitar album with
editor Allister Thompson, 2015

But before that, when I was 12, I started guitar lessons with the Sears toy guitar on Wednesday nights with Ursula Davidson, an amazing Russian woman who loved guitar and loved teaching kids how to play. Each student dropped a $2 bill in the jar at Ursula's feet, then sat in a circle and tuned (which usually took a long time). Then we played great old tunes, a new one each week, including some Monkees, Beatles, Jim Croce, even some America and CSNY.

It was perfect for me. Not too intense, no one-on-one unless I needed it, just learned some fun music every week and realized I really loved the instrument.

Ursula told my mother one spring night that I should go and audition for another guitar teacher because I had promise, and she couldn't teach me much more. So I did. I'll never forget how nervous I was auditioning for this man in a stern beard.

My second guitar album with
editor Allister Thompson, 2017

He assured me that I knew how to read music because my mother had assured him that I could. I assured him that I couldn't read music. He sighed. He said he didn't teach beginners anymore. Then he had me follow some complicated picking that he showed me quickly and I thought, sure, I can do that. I'm pretty sure I couldn't, and didn't, but he must have seen something in me because he told me to turn up for lessons the next week.

And that's how, at 13, I met my Julliard-trained guitar teacher. He patiently started at the beginning and taught me how to read music for classical guitar. He cajoled and bullied me, a fairly lazy student, into someone who could actually sight read reasonably well, and play acceptably. But I wasn't up to his standards, not really. He and I both knew that I was never going to play in Carnegie Hall. So at 16, I stopped lessons. But I never stopped playing.

2010, author and daughter doing our favourite things 

In fact, learning new songs and creating music of my own has been incredibly important to me my whole life. I've played with friends from university on a regular basis for almost 40 years now. I have a classical duet flute partner, and we practice regularly and play in public from time to time. And I also record music with my editor, Allister Thompson.

And people use the music in their videos to celebrate whatever it is they are doing in their lives. Honestly, that makes me so happy.

I think it would make Ursula Davidson happy too, and even my old Julliard-trained guitar teacher might say a quiet "well done." Or he might just be able to listen without wincing.

Thank you to them and to my musical friends, for the gift of music.

Here's a link to MORE VIDEOS using my music
More musical posts ON THIS BLOG

Introducing OCULUM, a middle grade dystopia

AVAIL. APRIL 22/2018 from
Dancing Cat Books | ORDER NOW

Oculum (noun): Latin for eye; in architecture, a circular
oculus allows light through the top of the Roman
Pantheon and similar ancient domed structures.

Oculum aperui: I opened an eye.

I could NOT be more honoured to announce that my new
middle grade dystopia, Oculum (Dancing Cat Books) is now available! 

Here's the synopsis:

"I'm Mann, just Mann."

The world is slowly recovering after environmental collapse, and the children of the automated, domed city of Oculum have begun to awaken. Miranda, William and the 998 other children wake to tend the fruit trees and gardens behind the thick, opaque walls of their world. Some speak quietly of Outside, which is forbidden. Until William finds a door ...

The children outside the dome of Oculum — Mann, Cranker and others raised by Grannie — live in the rubble of the old destroyed city. They live with hunger, hard work, and stories about a time before the fall, of buggies without horses, light without fire and magical fruit called "peaches." But it must be lies, until one day Mann and Cranker get close enough to the ancient dome to find a door...."

I absolutely love the amazing cover of Mother of Miranda1 holding out a peach, by Emma Dolan. Thank you Emma! 

Thank you also to Barry Jowett and Marc Cote at Dancing Cat Books for inviting me in. And thanks once again to my intrepid editor, Allister Thompson, who was there from beginning to end (and that's eleven books we've created together now). 

More to come about Oculum in the weeks ahead, but for now ... love and peaches.

Oculum is now available everywhere 
For Media and Preview Copy Contact 
ORDER a copy now
For more about OCULUM on this blog

A few thoughts on signing my 12th book contract ...

Weird Stories Gone Wrong, 2012-2018+

Warning: this blog post is totally self-serving, but hey, it's my party. Today I signed my 12th book contract and dropped it in the mail! It hardly seems possible.

How did that happen, really ....

One spring day in 2007, Sylvia McConnell, the publisher of Napoleon Publishing, emailed to tell me about my manuscript submission. Thumbs up or down?

Her tone was apologetic, bemoaning the slow nature of publishing, and I was fully expecting yet another rejection letter (albeit a pleasant one by her tone). Imagine my surprise when half-way through the email, I read the line...

"However, we are still interested in publishing your manuscript, 'Gargoyle.' Please let us know if it is still available."

I read those two sentences over and over.  My brain didn't get it, did somersault sequences of "Wait. What?" Slowly, much too slowly, I got out of my chair and gasped, that full body-gasp where you throw your hand over your mouth, close your eyes, shake your head a little.

The Night Flyer's Handbook series, 2014-2016

Then I burst into tears. 

Tears streamed down my face, I tasted them, I let them roll before I rubbed them off my chin. How often do you get to wipe tears of joy off your face, really? Then I ran from the top of the house to the bottom (a long way, four stories and 38 stairs), jumping up and down, fist pumping all the way, like a 10-year-old, heart racing with shock and something like ethereal joy. Tears and snot rolled freely, and I shrieked for the cat since no one else was home. (I did realize how crazy I looked but cared not.)

The cat cared, however, and quite rightly took one look at me and ran away to hide.

It was quite a moment. There are really only a few moments like that in life, at least for me. How often do dreams come true, anyway? Other than marrying the love of your life, or holding your child for the first time, or possibly winning the lottery (that one is just a guess), hearing that a publisher wants to publish your first book is right up there. Top five, anyway. Thank you Sylvia, Allister and Emma, you'll always have a special place in my heart!

The Lost Gargoyle Series, covers by Emma Dolan

That first gargoyle book, The Gargoyle in My Yard, was published in 2009 followed quickly by book two, The Gargoyle Overhead (2010), and The Gargoyle at the Gates (2012). I was so honoured and immensely grateful each time Sylvia agreed to publish the next book.

Writing The Lost Gargoyle series was one of the greatest joys of my life. I learned so much about writing, so much about character development, so much about story-line and narrative sleight of hand. I loved my main character, Gargoth, a grumpy but lovable 400-year-old gargoyle who had lost his greatest friend. In fact, Gargoth looked over my shoulder all the way. He taught me that I could write. For how Gargoth came to me, read an earlier (and also totally self-serving) blog post: Birth of a Children's Author

Then the writing floodgates opened and between 2012 and 2017, I published five more books: The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden and Jake and the Giant Hand in 2014, Myles and the Monster Outside in 2015, Carter and the Curious Maze and Everton Miles is Stranger than Me in 2016. Those books were all published by Dundurn Press, thanks for all the hard work and beautiful books guys!

Talented and smart people have helped me all the way: publishers like Sylvia and the good folks at Dundurn, editors like Allister Thompson, my editor through ten books now and counting, marketers, production experts, illustrators like Emma Dolan and Shawna Daigle, sales people, retailers, wholesalers, nominating committees, librarians, teachers, and kids too. Thanks to all of them. It's incredibly humbling to have so many people believe in me and in my books.

A cover by illustrator Shawna Daigle

Fast forward to today, November 29, 2017.

I have just dropped the contract for my 12th book in the mail.

I remember going to the OLA SuperConference in Toronto (a big library event) in 2009, and autographing my first book. A woman was watching me carefully, and when I'd finished, she came and introduced herself. She was children's author Marsha Skrypuch, and she asked me some great questions, and said welcome to the author world. When I asked her how many books she'd published, she said "Twelve. You'll get there, faster than you think."

How could anyone possibly write twelve books, I wondered?

I guess now I know. I've done it. And it happens fast, just as Marsha said it would. The secret, if there is one ... is just keep writing. Sorry it's not more interesting, but that's really all I can tell you. Keep listening to that inner 10-year-old, or manic creative voice, or hyperactive pen monkey, or whatever it is that inspired you to write in the first place, and trust it. Do it, despite the creative doubt, the loneliness, the dark thoughts that no one is going to ever read it, that it's trash, that you should just give up ... but you don't. 

Next year, 2018, is a year in which I publish three new books, which meant that 2017 was a year of intense writing! I wrote all winter and spring, and all summer too. In total, I wrote 110,000 words and hundreds of chapters. I wrote about an evil twin (Alex and The Other), a family of shipwrecked kids (Blackwells and the Briny Deep), and a destroyed world populated by children and robots (Oculum). I wrote into the night, slept little, wrote until my hands ached and my fingers seized up. I had to stop playing guitar for most of July, because I only had so much hand strength.

Author touring the neighourhood with
her first book, 2009

I went a little bonkers, to be honest. I dreamed about my characters. I woke up after a few hours of sleep, seeing words on the page, knowing exactly what had to be fixed. I grabbed my journal and scribbled down my fixes, or crept into my office at the back of the house, and typed. I only worked on one story at a time (some people can manage several manuscripts in the same day, I'm not one of them), but I'd switch back and forth between stories every few weeks.

I can't say I ever saw the dawn creep into the window of my office, but I came close a few times. It was the most intense writing I've ever done, with the possible exception of a term studying Moby Dick in grad school.

And here's the thing: I'll do it again. 

Author at 10

Every time I sign a contract, I'm still that 10-year-old running around the house, scaring the cat (except now it's a dog). I don't burst into tears anymore, though, which I guess means my heart has weathered a little, probably a good thing for everyone's nerves. At a reading recently, a boy asked me how many books I'm going to write in my life. I smiled. I've heard this question before, or something very like it. I looked up at the ceiling and said, "Twenty. I think that sounds like a good number."

Somehow, I'm already more than half-way there. My 10-year-old self has some writing to do ...