6 Questions about OCULUM ECHO answered ...

OCULUM ECHO, (DCB Young Readers, 2022), is my dystopia  for kids, about war, climate change, and community. What we can do now to support future generations on the planet? Can we choose technology that supports and sustains us?

With every new book, I do a Q&A here to answer the top questions I think readers will want to ask. Enjoy ...

Q1. What is OCULUM ECHO about?

OCULUM ECHO is book two in the Children of Oculum series, and is the sequel to OCULUM (2018, DCB). It starts where book one ends and continues the themes of climate collapse, pandemic, and adds the theme of war.

The story focuses on three main characters: Miranda1, Mannfred and Echo1, a new character and an AI from the past whose purpose is to check on "earth, the children, humanity and the Oculum domes." When the UnRuly show up with their bombs, the children scatter. Echo1 must find them.

This story is really a road story: one group of children heads north to safety, one group heads south to spy on the UnRuly, and one robot wanders the wasteland looking for all of them. What is the book about? Suffering I suppose, but also love, and how we are always better together.

Q2.  The story has climate collapse, revolution, and war in it. What was it like to write a speculative book for younger readers, which reflects reality?

Well, in many ways both the books are prescient. In OCULUM, which came out in 2018 but was written in 2015, I wrote a middle-grade dystopia which included pandemic and climate collapse. In OCULUM ECHO, I have also added war with a group called the UnRuly. The manuscript was delivered to my publisher in 2019, months before the latest war in Ukraine.

To be honest, it IS a little unsettling to write a book that starts out as speculative fiction, then pierces the veil of reality. But any writer paying even a tiny bit of attention to the world and historical events could see the climate was in crisis (even decades ago), and that humanity was way past due for the next pandemic. And sadly, as a species we are never far from war.

Plenty of writers wrote their "pandemic" book pre-COVID, only to have a real pandemic land in our laps. American author/pundit Chuck Wendig (Wanderers, 2019), wrote about that very thing: So You Wrote About A Pandemic. Canadian author Hilary St. John Mandel wrote about pandemic and society collapse, in Station Eleven (2014). Ken Oppel released his cli-fi children's series Bloom during the pandemic. There are other examples.

But an author's job is to point toward truth. To stay awake, watching, reading, throwing the bones, seeing the signs. Writers are nothing if not futurists. And as a children's author, it's my job to provide thinking about the world around us in an age-appropriate way, although in a slightly gentler form than Wendig and St. John Mandel provide it, plus with a dash more agency and hope. I think the next generation needs these speculative stories more than ever.

Q3: What are some of your influences for this story?

When I was a little kid, Mr. Spock from Star Trek (the original series) was my hero. He wasn't just a television character, he was alive for me (find out why here: Spocktoberfest).

I also loved Mr. Data in Star Trek/The Next Generation. The battle between Data and Lor, the "originator" story of Dr. Noonien Soong ... all so inspired by Mary Shelley and her delicious, heartbroken, flawed creation in Frankenstein. I also love Martha Wells' latest books about the self-actuated Murderbot (if you haven't discovered this series, it's pretty great). 

So I've always loved science fiction, and as a student of English Literature (two university degrees worth) I'm particularly fascinated with stories about self-realization, our responsibility to ourselves and to future generations. We are forever fascinated with our creations, right back to Prometheus. And the whole exploding world of AI, the question of sentience, is taking off right now. As an author (see #2 above) watching the signs, it's fascinating to see how we interact with our creations. 

Where will it all go? What IS the point of all our technology, anyway? 

Some early books that influenced me: The White Mountains trilogy by John Christopher (a dystopia I read at age 11); The Chrysalids by John Wyndham; The Hobbit/Tolkien; The Giver/Lowry; The Left Hand of Darkness/Le Guin; Paradise Lost/Milton; 1984/Orwell; The Handmaid's Tale/Atwood ... and so on. Lots of movies too, from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) to I am Mother (Sputore), and everything in between.

My influences land on the science fiction and fantasy side, with questions of humanity, what makes us human, what are our responsibilities to ourselves, to our creations, to the next generation, at the core. 

Q4: Which character in the book is your favourite?

Well, after the information dump above in Question 3, I guess I have to say that I really love Echo1, my newest creation! Echo1 is a culmination of all the reading I've ever done, all the science fiction robots I've ever been intrigued by, all the books and movies that have ever moved me to tears or made me think deeply about what makes us human. What does being almost-human feel like (cue Mr. Spock and Mr. Data and Murderbot and Hal and so on)? 

Ultimately I wonder: what makes us us? Who or what are we?

Echo1 wonders the same thing on page 4 of the book and asks Guide (Echo1's inner voice), "What am I?" Guide answers: "You are a creation, but what you become is up to you Echo1. You will learn as you go. I will help you."

Echo1 then asks, "Am I alive?" And Guide says, "You have free will, Echo1. You decide what a life is, and what to do with yours." Pretty succinctly existential. I hope you love Echo1, too.

Q5: What is the main message you want this book to leave with young readers?

There are so many big themes in this book: climate collapse, pandemic, war, how technology can be a tool for both destruction AND survival (a big one). 

But the message that I really want to stay with readers long after finishing the book comes in the form of a question that Miranda1 asks Grannie: "I ask Grannie, what do we become? How do we grow? Why do we live? Grannie tells me much, about family, about protecting one another, about trying to be content and endure hardship together. There will be sorrow, but we should also welcome joy. And love too. She talks about how we must learn all that we can, to pass wisdom from one generation to the next, to live for each other." p. 78, Oculum Echo.

Author at Book City Toronto, 2022

More existential love. As I say above, the main message of the book is that we must love each other, and live for each other too. We're better together.

Q6: Final question, will there be more books in the Children of Oculum series?

I'm working on the third book, OCULUM SCRIBE right now. Thank you to my amazing publisher, DCB, for letting me tell the rest of the story. Stay tuned!

All posts about OCULUM ECHO and OCULUM on this blog.

INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS:

5-Star CM Review, Oct 2022

Guest Blogger, KickButt-Kidlit

"rich world-building and determined characters give it an originality that sets it apart" Quill & Quire

It's a 5 Star Review for OCULUM ECHO!

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"A very well-written and an imaginative description of a future world struggling to survive, the story ends on a positive note and a hint, at least to this reader, there could be more to come. 5/5, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"

CM Magazine September 30/2022

Well, a wonderful review for OCULUM ECHO is out, and it's a FULL 5/5 STARS! 

Thank you to CM Magazine, a review site dedicated to reviewing Canadian books for young readers. In 13 years of publishing books, this is my first 5/5 star rating from them. Although I've come close before, it's pretty special to get a top shelf rating from them, they seldom give five stars.

Waiting for reviews of your new book is always a study in patience and fortitude, so I'm very appreciative and grateful for this review for OCULUM ECHO. Thank you to my wonderful publisher DCB Young Readers, for inviting me back into this world!

Author signs copies at Book City, Oct 2022
(Toronto, Bloor West)

As the cover suggests, ECHO is an intelligence created by us, a robot, part Mr. Data from TNG (iykyk), part Shelley-an creation, part Murderbot, part every AI I've ever met or read in a lifetime of reading, watching and absorbing literature and science fiction. I hope you are fascinated and moved by Echo1, Peregrine (Echo's video drone falcon), and Guide, Echo's teacher and well, guide.

Call me Echo ... and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. I'm feeling very cryptic today!

Here are all posts about OCULUM and OCULUM ECHO on this blog, books 1 and 2 in The Children of Oculum series.

 

OCULUM ECHO is a CCBC Best Book 2023!

 

What an honour to see my latest book, OCULUM ECHO, noted in the Canadian Children's Book Centre's BEST BOOKS 2023, thank you! You'll find the review in the Spring 2023 edition.

This book is the sequel to my middle-grade dystopia, OCULUM, which was nominated for the OLA Silver Birch award and the SYRCA Diamond Willow award, thank you to those nominating committees. The series is called The Children of Oculum.

It takes courage and skill to write a speculative dystopia for children, to explore big issues in an age-appropriate way. I think Lois Lowry's The Giver does that well, so do books like Ender's Game and even the first dystopia I ever read, The White Mountains (by John Christopher, a bit dated but still relevant). You probably have your own favourite middle-grade dystopia, and if so, please send me a line and share it with me.

OCULUM ECHO has had terrific reviews (including this 5-star review in CM magazine), and has been well-received, also getting the CBC nod for The Best Books for Kids in 2022. The book is relevant, close to what is happening in the world right now. I think that's our job as children's authors: to tell the truth, to be honest in an age-appropriate way, to get the next generation to think about the world we live in, and the world they'd like to create.

The story has a non-binary AI, Echo1, a sweet amalgam of all my SF influences, from Frankenstein's creature to TNG's Data, Martha Wells' Murderbot, even ChatGPT and more. The book also further explores the themes of climate collapse, pandemic, and privilege from the first book. That book, OCULUM, was published in 2018 and written in 2015, long before many took the climate crisis very seriously or had ever heard of COVID19.

In another stroke of prescience (and what are writers if not futurists?), in OCULUM ECHO I also included a warlike group called the UnRuly, who have found an ancient weapon but have no idea of its power. Again, I wrote this book mostly in 2020 and 2021, long before the latest war erupted in Europe. Will there always be war? Maybe. Was it a stretch to create this element of the story? Not really, looking at our recent and distant history.

I think children need this book right now, and other well-written dystopian books like it. They need funny books, and scary books, and light-hearted books too, but they also need someone to guide them through some of the big issues with characters they trust. I hope Miranda1, Echo1, and Mannfred are those voices, offering guidance, courage, and hope to the next generation of readers.  

There is a third book in the series, OCULUM SCRIBE, the end of the trilogy. The first draft is finished, so stay tuned!

More about OCULUM AND OCULUM ECHO on this blog

Enjoy an excerpt from OCULUM ECHO, available now...

 

OCULUM ECHO is out today! October, 1 2022!

It's book two in The Children of Oculum series. Book one, OCULUM, was published in 2018 and was nominated for the OLA Silver Birch and the SYRCA Diamond Willow awards. It's also been optioned for a television series. Thank you to my wonderful publisher, DCB Young Readers, for inviting me to revisit this world.

Please allow me to introduce the charming ECHO1, and to share a little of Echo's first chapter with you:

"ECHO1 

Wake, Echo1. 

I wake.

Open your eyes, Echo1. 

I have eyes. I open them. Light. 

Now try your hand, Echo1. 

I lift my hand. I have never had a hand before. 

The voice in my head speaks again, Hello, Echo1. This is Guide. Are you ready? 

Yes, Guide, I am ready. I can answer Guide inside my head! 

Then there are more instructions from Guide, the voice in my head. 

Find your feet, Echo1. 

I lift my boot. I take two shaky steps. 

Jump, Echo1. 

I jump. 

Touch your nose, Echo1. 

I touch my finger to my nose. 

Speak out loud, Echo1. 

I say, “Call me Echo.”

Then I do many physical and mental tasks, as Guide requests. 

When I am found to be functioning well, Guide says, Echo1, are you ready for your journey? 

Yes, Guide, I am ready, I answer in my head. 

Then step outside and leave your outpost, Echo1. I open the door. 

I step outside. It is very different from inside. There are trees, a small mountain, and clouds in the sky above me. I blink in the sunlight. My outpost is a hard, domed metal shell slightly larger than me. The silver letters above the door read “ECHO1.” 

There are many words and ideas that I understand, but I also have many questions for Guide. 

Guide, how long have I been asleep? Guide answers, Eighty-three years. 

Who put me here? Guide answers again, The Makers.

 Where am I? Guide says, Your birthplace, the ECHO1 outpost. 

What am I? Guide doesn’t answer right away, then says, You are a creation, but what you become is up to you, Echo1. You will learn as you go. I will help you. 

Am I alive?"

I'll stop there, but you can read the rest of Echo1's first conversation with Guide here. This is a middle-grade, post-apocalyptic story about climate change, war, technology, and a near future that I hope no one has to live in. There is love, friendship, and sacrifice in this story, it is age-appropriate, yet the main message is something like, "technology may be one of our greatest achievements, but at what cost? And where will it lead us?"

Order OCULUM ECHO here. For media copies, interviews, events, please contact DCB. I'll be holding a book launch soon, stay tuned for details on that.

All posts on this blog about OCULUM and OCULUM ECHO.

OCULUM ECHO is a CBC Canadian Middle Grade Book to Watch For ...

 

OCULUM ECHO is on the CBC Fall list of Books to Watch for!

"Will the children of Oculum survive the violent, destroyed world outside the dome? The explosions come in the night. Miranda1, Mannfred, Grannie, and the one thousand children of Oculum must flee their farm, chased by the UnRuly. But there is hope: an old friend sends word of a book that may hold the secret to their survival." CBC

I'm SO honoured that CBC has chosen my latest book, OCULUM ECHO, as part of its fall list of Canadian Middle-Grade Books to Watch. Thank you to them! There are 36 books here for kids aged 9-12, all by wonderful Canadian authors, a perfect start for gift-giving. Go check out the list, and enjoy.

Here is the CBC book page for OCULUM ECHO.

All posts about OCULUM ECHO on this blog.

Introducing OCULUM ECHO, coming October 2022

 

What happens to Miranda1, Mannfred, Cranker, Grannie and the other children of OCULUM now they're outside their domed world?

Robots, freedom, war and FatRats. And ECHO.

I'm SO happy to reveal the cover for my next book, OCULUM ECHO! It's book 2 in The Children of Oculum series.

PRE-ORDER NOW. 

Coming from DCB Young Readers in October 2022, it's the sequel to OCULUM (2018), my middle-grade dystopia, which also features pandemic and climate change. 

In OCULUM ECHO, the story of the children of OCULUM continues. There is still pandemic and the planet is slowly recovering from climate collapse, but now there is also war with the UnRuly. (I was sadly prescient on this one, I'll be writing more about that in upcoming posts, just know that the story offers hope, glimmers anyway.) 

BUT ... there is also a voice from the past. There is also ECHO.

More to come soon, but for now I'm just really excited to reveal the cover of my next book! Thanks to my publisher DCB and to cover artist Emily Weedon, for the great new book cover.

OCULUM was nominated for the OLA Silver Birch Award and the SYRCA Diamond Willow Award and is optioned for a television production.

More about OCULUM on this blog.

OCULUM ECHO is recommended by The International Educator

 

"The setting is vivid and the main characters are compelling [in] their drive towards their goals of protecting the children of their world from an impending war. The story, written from multiple perspectives is rich and [with] descriptive language and multiple twists..."

-- The International Educator, blog, Dec/2022

What a lovely review for OCULUM ECHO from The International Educator (TIE) this month. My post-apocalyptic story about the children of Oculum is one of four books from around the world chosen in this month's Global Book Recommendations, thank you! 

OCULUM ECHO addresses issues of climate collapse, war and technology, and introduces young readers to one of my favourite new characters, an AI named Echo1 (on the cover).

Here's the TIE link: Global Book Recommendations

Find a copy of OCULUM ECHO here (and a review = book love!):

Independent bookstores near you

Indigo

Amazon

OCULUM has a sequel coming September 2022, OCULUM ECHO!

 

SEQUEL NEWS! I could NOT be happier to announce that my 2018, multi-award nominated title, OCULUM, has a sequel coming in September 2022. 

Welcome OCULUM ECHO!

Here is the full announcement in Quill & Quire.

Many, many thank yous to my wonderful publisher, DCB Young Readers (the children's imprint of Cormorant Books). They are a terrific publisher, and I'm very lucky to be part of their family of great writers. 

It's been an interesting experience, writing more about the post-apocalyptic world of Oculum, a world which has fallen due to environmental collapse and pandemic, during well, climate crisis and pandemic.

Life imitating art, again. Art imitating life, again. A mobius loop of story.

More to come on OCULUM ECHO but for now, here's a video of me answering 30 questions about OCULUM in 30 minutes. Thanks to the PEEL District School Board for the YouTube video, from June 2020. I start at @43 minutes: Enjoy: Philippa answers kids questions about OCULUM

All Posts about OCULUM on this BLOG

Here's the gorgeous cover for OCULUM ECHO, coming October 2022!

This new book baby went to press last week! WELCOME OCULUM ECHO!

"From the Governor General's Literary Award-winning author of Firefly.

The explosions come in the night. Miranda1, Mannfred, Grannie, and the one thousand children of Oculum must flee their farm, chased by the UnRuly. But there is hope: a voice from the past sends word of a book that may hold the secret to their survival.

Just as they begin their journey through the wasteland, Echo1 wakes up after an eighty-three-year sleep and is given a mission to find the four domes of the children of Oculum, and to find the First One, whatever the cost."

What gorgeous covers for OCULUM ECHO, thank you to artist Emily Weedon. The book will be out in the world fully on October 1, 2022. I'll be holding a book launch, or a signing depending on the state of the pandemic I guess, stay tuned for more. As always, thank you to my fabulous publisher, DCB Young Readers, for letting me tell this second story in The Children of Oculum series! It was a gift to go back into this world, and explore what happens to the children next.

It's not a simple story, but I am glad that I wrote it and that you'll get to read it. Once again, the children face pandemic, climate crisis, and this time war (sadly prescient on all three) ... but there is hope in this story. Kindness. An effort made to mitigate at the last minute. And a new character. Can't WAIT for you to meet Echo1.

SOON!

To request a copy for review, an author interview or more, contact DCB Young Readers.

 

OCULUM ECHO is in the house ...

 

OCULUM ECHO is coming out on October 1, 2022, you can preorder now!

What happens to Miranda1, Mannfred, Cranker, Grannie and the other children of OCULUM? You'll be able to find out on October 1, when my latest book is available in stores. You can preorder it too of course (preorders = love). There will be a launch too, more information to come on that. 

OCULUM ECHO is the sequel to OCULUM, which was nominated for the OLA Silver Birch and SYRCA Diamond Willow awards. The first book has also been optioned for a television series.

I

Author and her 
book baby,Aug. 2022

t's been a summer filled with great joy (kids finished university!), and sorrow and deep loss, too. But today, my new book baby is in the house. That's something to celebrate, for sure.

I can't wait for you to meet ECHO1, a new character who is inspired by every AI I've ever met, from Data to Murderbot to Mary Shelley's creature. Every dystopia needs its hero, thanks to my wonderful publisher, DCB Young Readers, for letting me create mine.

Please contact DCB for interviews and media or review copies.

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

OCULUM ECHO is a CBC Best Canadian Book for Kids 2022

So honoured to say that OCULUM ECHO has been selected for the CBC Best Canadian Books for Kids 2022 list, thank you!

This CBC list comes out once a year, and names the top 20+ books over three categories: picture books, middle grade (that's me), and young adult. If you are buying books for young readers this year, this list is a good place to start, plus they are all Canadian writers. 

Here is the full list: The CBC Best Canadian Kids Books 2022

Please support your local bookstore if you can, and if you read any of these books and enjoy it, please review it somewhere (reviews help sales).

Happy Holidays!

Echo1 becomes an endearing character ... BOOK REVIEW!

"With unmatched compassion for those he wishes to save, Echo1 becomes an endearing character you surely will admire...Readers are rewarded with an unpredictable plot that moves along swiftly. 

The pair of books would make a perfect gift for the science fiction loving kid in our present world." -- Always in the Middle, US Blog, Dec 16, 2022

OCULUM ECHO has been out for 6 weeks now, and the reviews are starting to roll in. This is just a lovely review from US Blogger Greg Pattridge, thank you!

Here's the full review: OCULUM ECHO reviewed

Philippa's Books

 Philippa's Books

NEW in 2025:

The Love Song of Mr. Byrd
DCB Young Readers

49th Shelf, Fall 2025 "Most Anticipated Early Chapter Book" 

FIREFLY (2021), DCB Young Readers

The Chat, 49th Shelf Q&A

OpenBook, Review & Excerpt

Highly Recommended, CM Reviews
Q&A with US Blogger
CBC Books Best Books
CanLit for Little Canadians

The Children of Oculum Series

OCULUM (DCB, 2018) and OCULUM ECHO (DCB, 2022)
FREE TEACHER'S GUIDE (grades 4-8)
​49th Shelf Most Anticipated Books
CCBC Best Books Spring 2023
CBC Best Canadian Kid's Book 2022
​The International Educator
5/5 Star Review

The Weird Stories Gone Wrong Series (2014-2019), Dundurn Press

Click here for information

The Night Flyer's Handbook (2014-2016)

Dundurn Press

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The Lost Gargoyle Series (2009-2012)

Dundurn Press

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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

The moment of truth for a new manuscript ...

Author with her manuscript. 

"The main challenge of researching and writing this book was learning to cope with the daily, relentless exposure to the horror of war ... " 

- P Dowding, Final Grant Report Excerpt, May, 2024

Yesterday, I printed out the manuscript for my next book for the first time. It's a WWII story for middle-grade readers.

This is a big step and part of the process for me, but it's scary. 

My writing process is always to take a story as FAR as I can on screen, then when I've got a real first draft with a beginning, middle, and end, I print it out. It's also a tipping point when I feel like I JUST can't look at this book on the screen anymore, because I can no longer see it, connect to it, love it.

It's a moment of truth to hold a printed manuscript for the first time.

So many questions...

Does this neural capture of symbols work? Do the symbols I assembled on the page in this particular order add up to something that is moving, interesting, reflective of my first impulse to assemble them? Will this particular assembling mean something to me, to others, and is it an assemblage that I can be invested in for all time?

Is this symbol assembly (all 230,866 of them) ANY GOOD?

This manuscript is a war story for middle-grade readers set in WWII, and based on my father's experience as a 15-year-old on a particular day in 1941. There's a new genre of auto-fiction for me here, plus a deeply personal family story. The story also explores a fictional German's experience, which is frankly terrifying. I learned a lot more than I expected about Nazi Germany and how it manipulated children. 

Author at the Gloucestershire Archives,
Gloucester UK, September 2023

A massive amount of research has gone into this manuscript, including a trip to England last fall to visit various archives and bomb sites. 

Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous Research and Creation grant which allowed me to write this book. I'm planning upcoming posts about the experience of writing a Canada Council for the Arts grant proposal: what to do if you get the grant (take it!); doing the research; writing the final report. For me, it's been a truly fascinating and rewarding 18-month cycle from grant proposal to the photo above, me holding the printed manuscript for the first time. 

Per Ardua Ad Astra, Bomber Memorial, UK, 2023

Obviously, there's still much to do. Massage story, fact-check every historical item with my notes. Here's a tip: do not trust your memory of the researched facts to be accurate. It almost never is, which is astonishing. I have two university degrees (one is an MA), I've researched dozens of papers, but this is completely different. Further steps also include creating a "backmatter" section with links and addenda. I need to get the manuscript to my editor soon-ish, for his first read. Time presses on!

I'll leave you with my final sentences for the CCA report. The question was, "explain your main achievements and challenges in writing this book." The achievements were easy, the challenges not. 

A partial excerpt of my answer to the last part: 

"The main challenge of researching and writing this book was learning to cope with the daily, relentless exposure to the horror of war. What seemed like a story worth telling, became a constant battle to not look away. I had to learn to limit my exposure, to find ways to mitigate what I was discovering ... "

That's the truth of it, friends. Writing historical war fiction for kids is a constant battle to not look away. But it seems like a more important challenge than ever. Let us not look away from war, let's look at war together and remind the next generation, as gently as we can, that they can choose alternatives. I truly hope that this is what the manuscript I hold in my hands suggests, that was my intention. Stay tuned!

I have another book about war for kids, OCULUM ECHO (2022). It's a dystopian cli-fi, with war and pandemic, the sequel to OCULUM (2018), which was nominated for several reader's choice awards. Read a 5-star review here.

All blog posts about this new book and the Research and Creation Grant.

FYI, I haven't settled on a final title for the book yet! Stay tuned on that too.

My first in-person OLA SuperConference in 3 years ...

The Ontario Library Association SuperConference is coming, and for the first time since February 2020, I'll be there!

Where: Cormorant Booth, Exhibitor's Hall
When: Friday, February 3rd, 2023, 11:20 a.m.
What: Signing free copies of OCULUM ECHO (2022) 

Author with her
publisher, 2019

This annual librarian and literacy conference is held at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre from February 1-4 this year, and it's an incredibly important event for publishers, authors, educators, and librarians. There are talks and seminars about all things books, libraries, literacy and more.

It's also a fantastic place for authors to catch up with our friends and peers. It's been three long years since we last met in person, let the joyful reunion begin! If you're at the convention, please come and say hello!

Here's a complete list of all the author events at the OLASC this year: 
OLA SuperConference Authors