Time out on Manitoulin Island

"Give me nights perfectly quiet, and I looking up at the stars." Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)

There is very little to cheer about this year. I still take time, however, to try to remember what I love about summer, and to do the things that make me happy.

Here, in no particular order, are some of those things:

1. Reading. I've been reading and re-reading Whitman, Melville, Shakespeare, Virgil, alternating each with modern authors. Reading is my greatest love and in this horrible time of pandemic, I've revisited old favourites and discovered new ones: I finally read Middlemarch! 

Here are Goodreads reviews and books I'm reading.

2. Playing guitar. My second great love is to create music. I've played guitar since I was eleven, and I've put out three albums with my editor, Allister Thompson, over the years. 

You can listen on YouTube here: Philippa's Guitar Music. Spotify and other links at right.

3. Manitoulin Island... this place is quiet, peaceful, and I try to visit every year or two. COVID kept us away last year, but this year we managed to visit. We've been visiting for 20 years now, the same cottage, the same fields, the same wildflowers. I sit on the porch and read, or write, or play guitar. Then, walk the lane to the farmhouse with Molly the farm dog. Or go for a swim. Or look at the night sky ...

4. Writing. I've been writing a lot during the pandemic. I can't promise that what I've written has been terribly good, but I have had a weird urgency to keep writing. Poetry, short stories, a novella, two middle grade novels (need polishing before I can submit them anywhere). AND, big news, I finished the sequel to OCULUM. 

It's OCULUM ECHO, and I've been working hard at it, although honestly it's been weird writing a book about a post-apocalyptic world with a ruined environment and a plague stalking everyone. I wrote the first book in 2016 and DCB published it in 2018 ... it's a little creepy to be so prescient and accurate, but writers are futurists, observers, smart liars. In fact, writing OCULUM ECHO has been cathartic too, since I get to imagine my characters healing and starting a new world, by being brave, and kind.

Here's more about OCULUM ECHO.

I've been so lucky to be able to write, and escape into my head. I hope that you have a creative outlet too, dance, music, art, soap bubbles, whatever it is, embrace it. Art will carry us through.

5. The Olympics, Tokyo 2020! I know, I know, it seems frivolous, to watch young athletes athleting their hearts out right now during a pandemic, but that's exactly why we SHOULD watch it. Human endeavour, challenge, striving, small acts of humanity, coming together as a global community to compete in play, joyous in winning or gracious in defeat. It's what makes us human, I think, and we can't forget to watch, to remember, to celebrate. 

I love that the IOC didn't change the name of the competition year, it's still Tokyo 2020 even though the events are happening in 2021. I think it's a small act of defiance in the face of COVID; the pandemic has taken so much from us all in the past year, but still we celebrate and compete as though it hasn't, and strive and live, read and write, play music and walk the country lanes, despite it. 

Or look at the wildflowers on Manitoulin Island, right after it rains ... 

All posts on this blog about the Pandemic

FREE Teacher's Guide for OCULUM, online resources for parents and kids, and more

Silver Birch 2020 nominee;
SYRCA Diamond Willow 2020 nominee 

Hi all, since school is starting again for most Canadian kids this week, I've re-posted this for everyone keeping kids engaged and inspired at home during this global crisis. 

EXTENDED FOR 2021! Free Licensing Agreement for Read-Aloud Canadian Books Program with Access Copyright. 

Teachers, librarians, parents: you may now post video readings of many books through a temporary license agreement with publishers and Access Copyright until June December 31, 2021. Simply goodwill required. You'll find OCULUM on the list, under my publisher, Cormorant. (All of my books are now available to read aloud, check also Dundurn Press.)

READ VIDEO LICENSE AGREEMENT HERE

ALSO, below are free Teacher's Guides from my publisher, with critical thinking, discussion and more activities parents and teachers can use to inspire kids. These focus on my books, but most authors and publishers provide free resources for readers and teachers, just check their websites.

Here are links to the Ontario Library Association and the Canadian Children's Book Centre, with more links to Canadian author pages, resources for at-home learning, games, puzzles, and much more. 

AND here is a link to the Peel Virtual Forest of Reading celebration in June 2020, where I answer 25 questions about OCULUM from kids, in a live 30-minute Q & A. You will also hear from excellent authors Helaine Becker and Zetta Elliot. I begin @43 minutes.

These are free curriculum resources for you created by publishers, authors and educators. I hope this information helps you in the months ahead.

FREE TEACHER'S GUIDES for my books:

OCULUM Teacher's Guide, DCB Young Readers
A middle-grade dystopia, ages 10-13 (grades 5-8)

Sample question:

Q6. Grannie can remember Cambridge and the boys’ choir there. How old does that make Grannie? How far in the future must we be? (38) (See author's answer HERE)

FIREFLY Teacher's Guide, DCB Young Readers

A young girl escapes a difficult life with her mother, to live with her aunt in a downtown Toronto costume shop.

Sample question:

"Of all the costumes that Firefly wears, which is your favourite? Why?"

For all other Teacher's Guides, please VISIT 49th SHELF for free downloads of the following:

Weird Stories Gone Wrong series, Teacher's Guides

Alex and The Other, Teacher's Guide (doppelganger, evil twins)
Carter and the Curious Maze, Teacher's Guide (time travel)
Myles and the Monster Outside, Teacher's Guide (anxiety, road trip)
Jake and the Giant Hand, Teacher's Guide (urban legend)

An award-winning series of horror stories for middle-grade readers.
Great for reluctant readers, or hi/low readers. Ages 8-12.

The Night Flyer's Handbook Series
Family, flight and magic realism, a young girl realizes that her family history as a Night Flyer can bring clarity and a new community to her life. Ages 10-13. Nominated for the OLA Red Maple Award.

The Lost Gargoyle Series (2009-2012)
A young girl befriends a gargoyle lost in downtown Toronto. Series garnered 8 international awards, and has been optioned for television and film. Ages 8-12.


MORE EXCELLENT FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU:

FOREST OF READING: 

Register for the Forest of Reading, a children's reading program from the Ontario Library Association, which is now free for everyone as a response to COVID-19. They provide LOTS of great resources to keep kid's reading, author talks (including mine) and much more.

For my Forest Friday 1-hour talk about OCULUM, click here: FOREST FRIDAY WITH PHILIPPA DOWDING (you will need to download AdobeConnect at the prompt). There are so many Canadian authors here talking about their award-winning novels, please check it out.

THE CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK CENTRE: A growing list of free resources from Canadian authors and publishers, check the new READ CANADIAN AT HOME resource guide from Canadian Children's Book Centre. They have links for many author's websites, book talks, and more added every day.

YOUTUBE: Here is my YouTube video channel, with book trailers for some of my books, and a few videos of me talking about writing and more. Ask your child to make their own book trailer for a favourite book, it's fun! Also, most authors have book trailers, youtube channels or livestream readings going on, visit their websites to check.

MUSIC: Also, visit my Bandcamp account for free book music (downloadable) and book readings by me. I'll be adding more readings and music in the weeks ahead.

WEBSITE: Also, visit my website for more free information and ideas. I'll be updating and putting more information on this blog and on my website regularly.

MY PANDEMIC MOTTO: 

We can't hold each other right now, but until we can, it might help to hold a book.

PD

Here's a Pandemic Poem for 2020, Have you?

Have you?

Have you cried
in the street yet?

Have you?

Or watched a family
walk past, masked,
heads down,
the littlest child in arms,
the only one looking out?

Have you seen anyone
burst into tears,
and grasp their heart,
bent double, breathless,
grief the truth of everything?

Have you wandered at
the edge?
Tears leaking into your mask,
and you thought it was
soggy before?

Have you stumbled?

Have you stubbed your toe,
dropped your phone,
dipped to the other side
of the sidewalk,
stepped in front of a car
or almost been killed
by irony, yet?

Have you lost your mask?
What else have you lost?

Have you noticed there are
fewer neighbours to greet you?
Have you wondered where
the humans are now?

But let us yearn for each other still,
Before we have forgotten how.

PD/Dec 2020

Well friends, 2020 is blessedly almost behind us (not fast enough, frankly). 

How have we all coped with this, the Great Pause, the calamity of our time? 

For me, I've spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the classics (Donne, Milton, Jonson, those guys knew a thing or two about plague, boredom and loss). 

I finished a book, FIREFLY is coming out in February, 2021. I also finished a sequel to OCULUM, which is currently with my publisher. I've also worked on two new novels, still in early stages.

So, I coped partly by disappearing into my head and imagination. I suspect a lot of artists found solace in their art this year. Even if they didn't do their best work or found it slow going, creation is balm.

I also played a lot of guitar, composed enough and recorded 11 new songs which will be out in an online album early in 2021. My musical partner is once again the wonderful Allister Thompson, stay tuned!

I walked through the city. I worked out every other day. I watched too much NetFlix. I missed everyone.

AND I wrote A LOT of poetry, some of it pretty bad, some of it mediocre, and some of it might be reasonably good (impossible to say, really, since the poet can hardly be objective). 

However we cope, I hope, as we all do, that 2021 brings us all some relief through vaccination and targeted treatment. Until then, let's hold on to what we can (including books!), and try to stay at least partly human, however we manage to do it.

Please enjoy my recent poem about life at the moment, above, "Have you?" See you in 2021.

More PANDEMIC posts on this Blog

More POETRY posts on this BLOG

Top 5 Memories from Forest of Reading 2017

Here's a post from a few years ago, to celebrate the Forest of Reading week May 12-14, 2020, which is postponed this year. My book OCULUM was a Silver Birch nominee. I hope this post reminds us all of better days ahead.

Original Post, May 24, 2017:

Well, the OLA Forest of Reading adventure is over for another year. My 6th book, Myles and the Monster Outside, was nominated for the Silver Birch Express award, and WON HONOUR BOOK!

A thousand, thousand thanks to the OLA for  running such a spectacular reading program for tens of thousands of young Ontario readers. Thanks also to the super-hero librarians, teachers and educators who bring Canadian books into Canadian schools and libraries, and to publisher Dundurn Press for letting me tell such a weird little story. SUPER thanks to Shawna Daigle, the wonderful series illustrator.

Thank you to the school who posted this!

Finally, thanks to Ontario school kids, who read so many books, and picked the story of anxious Myles and his monster, as one of their winners!

The Forest of Reading is always a major event in the life of any writer, and here are my top 5 memories from this year:

1. FOREST FRIDAYS. This year, the OLA ran a pilot project, called Forest Fridays, which was entirely online. Each week, one nominated author presented in the Friday lunch time slot, using Adobe Connect, talking to kids across the province, and across the country, in lunchrooms, gyms, libraries and classrooms, for 45 minutes. My Forest Friday was March 24: here's the link to find out more.  We had @ 100 schools and close to 1000 kids listen in.

Best FOREST FRIDAY Question: What would you say to an aspiring writer?
A: Keep writing, write what you're passionate about because your readers will feel that passion and enjoy your story, don't let anyone tell you you can't be a writer.
2020 update, Watch a free Forest Friday (OCULUM) with Philippa Dowding

Myles WINS the London Regional Award!

2. LONDON FESTIVAL OF TREES: Driving to London for the first of the 3 major festivals in early May, I got a ride with the Executive Director of the Forest of Reading and author, Richard Scrimger (Lucky Jonah). We laughed all the way (Richard will do that to you!). That night I had dinner with authors Teresa Toten (Shattered Glass), Helaine Becker (Worms for Breakfast), Kira Vermond (Half-Truths and Brazen Lies), Niki Tate (Deep Roots), Richard Scrimger, Karen Bass (The Hill), and we talked late. The Festival the next day was fantastic, with 1700 kids, and Myles WON the Silver Birch Express London Regional award! Thanks to all for a great day!


Best London Festival of Trees Moment: a young boy came up to me after my presentation, to tell me that Myles and the Monster Outside, "blew him away." When I asked why, he considered very carefully, then said, "It's the care you put into it." Awww. Thanks young man, that's a keeper.

Rock Star Moment on stage with Shawna (L) in Toronto
Photo courtesy Riley Murray

3. TORONTO FESTIVAL OF TREES: If you've ever wanted to feel like a rock-star ... the Festival of Trees in Toronto is just the ticket! This year, I got to share the experience with my awesome illustrator, Shawna Daigle, who rocked the stage wherever we went. We did a signing, a presentation, and the award ceremony together. It was Shawna's first Festival, and it was so fun to share it with her.

Best Toronto Festival of Trees Moment: Standing on stage with Shawna at Harbourfront, and holding up our favourite books: Charlotte's Web and Animalia. I said, "Books unite us, inspire us, and stay with us, our whole lives." Thanks Toronto!!

Second Best Moment: telling Kevin Sands (The Blackthorne Key) about my Star Trek: TNG script from 1987, and apologizing for it being so weird. His response? "We're writers, nothing is weird."

Thanks Maggie Ewert for the pic; Chi-Cheemaun, Toronto

4. SAULT STE. MARIE Festival of Trees:
Part of the excitement of being a nominee for the Forest of Reading, is travelling and talking to kids and librarians in other cities  you've never been to before. This year, I joined the Festival in Sault Ste. Marie. Yep, I'd never visited. It was so fun to fly in over the lake, to talk to the hosts, other authors, and the local librarians at a party the night before.

Me with my sign holder and presenter, in Sault Ste. Marie!

 It was fun to be part of the literary and school community in a fairly remote part of my home province.
And ... Myles won the Algoma Regional Silver Birch Express Award, THANK YOU!

Best Sault Ste. Marie Festival Moment: talking to my sign holder, Matteo, who was SO EXCITED about talking to me, because he loved my book. It's just so inspiring to meet a young reader like him.

At left: What authors do after the Festival of Trees!
L to R: Vikki VanSickle (If I had a Gryphon), Joel Sutherland (Haunted Canada 6), Me, Helaine Becker rocking her pink bag, (Worms for Breakfast), Rob Laidlaw (Elephant Journey), Shane Peacock (The Artist and me)

5. Winning Silver Birch Express Honour Book.
Yes, I can honestly say, that winning Silver Birch Express Honour Book 2017, was one of the thrills of the year. Congrats to all the nominees this year, and to Jess Keating for her Honour book win (Pink is for Blobfish) and to Andree Poulin who won the Silver Birch Express top spot for The Biggest Poutine in the World. We chatted afterward, I congratulated her, and she said (because she is totally cool) ... but we all win right?

View from the stage, Toronto Festival of Trees Ceremony

And that's pretty much the whole idea.

We do all win, the nominees, the libraries, the schools, the publishers and mostly, the kids. Thanks to all for another fantastic Forest of Reading year! Keep reading, everyone.





Forest of Reading Posts from Previous Years:
Red Maple, 2015: The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden
Silver Birch Express, 2014: The Gargoyle at the Gates
Silver Birch Express, 2012: The Gargoyle Overhead
All Forest of Reading Posts

A writer's life during the pandemic crisis...

Dear Friends,

Do we all have a picture of ourselves in a mask by now?

We make one and then check out what we look like in this new reality. Mine is made from pieces of my son's old flannel pyjamas and hair bands, it's totally serviceable and reasonably comfortable.

Here's the link to how to make this simple no-sew mask: No Sew Pleated Face Mask

So here we are, facing months of isolation and mask-wearing and how, really HOW, are we all doing with this? I'm not a therapist, and I can't tell anyone how to cope, only that I hope you ARE coping, however that looks for you.

Here's what I've been doing most days:

1. Sleep. I've watched the moon cross the Toronto skyline from my porch at 2 a.m. I've also slept in until past 11:00 a.m. and napped on and off. I'm not really a night owl, a napper or a particulary late sleeper. But right now, sleep comes and goes and I just accept it.

Author and her husband on the street,
photo by daughter at 6 feet away ...

2. Stretch. When I do get up (!), I start most days with a gentle tai chi or yoga stretch in a sunny part of the house, for me that's the kitchen. I usually have a coffee and music going too. I face the window, look at trees, breathe, stretch, but mostly breathe.

3. Watch. The back of my house faces an alley, and there's a lot going on back there. Families out riding bikes, older folks going for brisk walks, people washing their cars, kids playing road hockey, cats slinking around. Lots to see actually, if I just slow down and watch.

4. Create. I've finished writing a sequel to OCULUM, and now I'm editing a book coming out next fall (more about Firefly here). The safest place for me has always been in my head, frankly. I hope you have a safe creative space too, whatever that might be.

Making puzzles, reading, making music, writing, working with food or paint or dance or whatever it is you do or would like to try.  For me, creating really is a way to beat back the fear, the aloneness, the anxiety of not knowing what's going to happen. When I create something, I'm completely in control of it and the world, at least for a little while. I hope you find a creative outlet that helps you feel in control of something.

5. Music. I play guitar and piano. I've had people gift me classical guitar music books for most of my life, so I'm slowly reading through new music. It's completely absorbing to try to learn something new. Here's more about my musical life on this blog if you'd like to listen free: Philippa's Music

The last time I was out in public at a conference,
(Feb 2020) and met a friend who wanted a picture

6. Visit with creators. I've looked at paintings online, listened to music, and spent my fair share of time watching Netflix, of course. I've decided not to worry about the quantity or quality either. There's lots of letting go right now. I've also found podcasts and stories I've liked, as you have too no doubt.

Here's something I really enjoyed, listening to Stephen King: Stephen King is Sorry you Feel like you're stuck in a Stephen King Novel

I like writer and pundit Chuck Wendig, who's been writing about being a writer during COVID. All of his posts are interesting but start here if you like: Being Broken In Half (but wanting to be whole)

7. Read. This is of course, a given! Again, I haven't worried too much about the quality or quantity, but for the record, my quarantine reading so far: Battle Royale (Koushun Takami), The Tartar Steppe (Dino Buzzatti), Love in the Time of Cholera (GG Marquez), Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Paul Hawken). 

I've also read several of the Silver Birch books nominated with OCULUM this year. I've got one more to go, then I've read all ten books, they've been fun to read. Sadly, we won't be doing the Forest of Trees this year, I was looking forward to meeting all the writers and the kids. Tough one to miss out on, but we gotta go forward.
There will be some online celebration though, so stay tuned for more on that.

8. Do nothing. Sometimes, you just have to do nothing. It's not actively doing nothing, it's just a moment where you catch yourself actually doing nothing. I think that's something we used to do a lot as kids, and frankly it was okay to do nothing. It's when we daydream, or at least I do. It's when we accept we can't change the big things, but just have to sit with ... nothing in particular. And it's really okay to do nothing.

9. Friends. Ya, I've connected with friends in all the ways we do right now. Zoom, sure, and facebook and instagram and messaging and groups of us meeting on whatsapp and so on. But we all know it's a pale imitation of real life. I've written poems lately about how much I want to hug someone, anyone, and run my filthy, unwashed hands across their beautiful cheek. I wonder if that will ever happen again with the same freedom we once had? I realize that I've never actually run an unwashed hand across anyone's face ... but suddenly it seems sad that I haven't.

Zoom guitar party, fun but hard to be apart

10. Family. My kids are both on their own right now, in apartments in different cities, trying to finish their university year however they can. Online exams are the new normal. I can't even express how much I miss them, but it occured to me yesterday it could be a LONG time before I can hold them again; September, December, next spring?

The last photo I have
of me hugging my kid!

If you're with your loved ones, please hug them for me.



Until we're all running our unwashed hands over each others cheeks once again ... be well. Please. Read, write, sleep, do puzzles, dance, sing, cry, hug each other, watch too much terrible television ... whatever it is you need to do to get through, I'm doing it too.

PD

More Pandemic Posts on this Blog
Oddly this isn't the first time I've been quarantined in my life. Read here for a post about my Brush with Mortality ... and Measles

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

Writing in the time of Coronavirus

Dear Friends,

It's March 2020, and the world is in the grip of a pandemic. No one alive today has been through anything like this, the last similar virus was in 1918, over 100 years ago.

So we're all watching the news, reading the reports, trying to stay calm in the face of the worst kind of news imaginable: this virus is a super-spreader, it kills somewhere between 2% and 6% of those infected, older people aged 60 and up are more likely to develop serious illness and die. If there is any good news, children are largely unaffected, but remain a reservoir of disease, so should avoid older people.

In Canada, and in Toronto where I live, we've all been asked to self-isolate for two weeks, even though the numbers of infections in Canada remain low at least for now, at under 200 confirmed cases and one death in B.C. (a man in his 80s) as of today. Schools are now closed, large gatherings, conferences, sports events, libraries, and much more are closed down. We are living in our homes, hoping we have enough frozen vegetables to last the storm which authorities assure us is about to come.

We believe them. Just look at poor Italy, South Korea, and China. It's coming, all we can do is hold on. The idea now is to "flatten the curve" of infection by self-isolating, so hospitals don't become overwhelmed with the sick.

I lived in Toronto when SARS came through and claimed 44 lives in 2003, but this is much worse. It's worse because it is ALL of us. Everywhere.

Oh Earth, what have we done to ourselves?

As a writer, my job is to look around me and make predictions about what I see. In 2015, five years ago, I started writing a dystopia for children, ages 10 and up. I wanted to tell a story about love, and equity, and also about the collapse of our society through environmental crisis, loss of bees, and yes ... pandemic.

My book is OCULUM (2018, DCB), which has been nominated for two awards (thank you SYRCA and OLA) and has been optioned for television and audio-book. In this story, two separate groups of kids interact 80 years after the collapse of society. They either live a comfortable life inside a domed, dystopian world with robots and peaches, or they live a hardscrabble existence outside the dome in the rubble of the cities.

This may seem gloomy for children, but the main message of my book is one of hope and love. The story is a very loose echo of Shakespeare's Tempest, which is ultimately, a story of love and community.

OCULUM is a story about how we have each other, and we are better together, no matter what happens. The final words of the book come from one of the first-person narrators, Mannfred (Mann for short). He is dreaming about the orchards he is going to plant once he gets to the farm.

He says, "It'll take a long time, my whole life and then some, but I got only one wish: one day, when I'm a man, me and my friends, my family, everybody there is, will pick peaches big as barrels, sweet as honey, from trees tall as the sky."

That's my wish for all of us today and in the weeks to come: that we may plant, grow, and enjoy the bounty of this amazing planet together again one day soon.

In the meantime, I'll be reading, writing, and thinking about spring. Hold fast everyone, hold each other, just hold on.

With love for all of you,

PD

More about OCULUM
FREE Teacher's Guide for OCULUM
Goodreads Reviews
More about Oculum on this blog