Words
Enrich your vocabulary!!!
Feed your mind.
You can have a more exciting vocabulary than "like whatever."
cacophonous - adjective - Having a harsh, disagreeable sound.
Used in a sentence: "The pilot woke up to a cacophonous din coming from the baggage compartment."
Presentations and Tour Highlights
In addition to appearing as a guest on CTV, CBC TV and radio, New RO, City TV and dozens of television and radio stations across the country, there are moments of my book tours that I will remember always.
October 2004 Ottawa Public Library Literary Gala - guest of ING Bank - I love this fall event.
May 2004 - Taping of two shows with John Moore of Mystery Ink - Great fun and we were actually treated to lunch.
June 2005 - Taping of interview with Omar Majeed for BookTelevision - Omar inspired confidence. I think I blabbed too much.
October 2005 - One of ten authors presenters at the Kids' Lit Gala - Nepean Chambers, Ottawa - What a thrill to appear on the same program with the likes of Brian Doyle and Alan Cumyn.
May 2006 - Judge at the national finals of the Can-West Spelling Competition. My fellow judges were Her Excellency, the Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor-General and Roch Carriere, author and former Director of the National Library of Canada. Once, I even had to remind the GG to turn to the right page. We couldn't even pronounce half the words the young competitors had to spell.
April 2006 - Keynote - Calgary Young Writers' Conference, Calgary - I will never forget walking onto the stage before 1400 young Calgary writers. The energy in the air almost made my hair stand on end. I felt so honoured to be part of this wonderful and flawlessly organized event. I've been to Calgary so many times with my books that I feel it's like coming home.
January - June 2006 - Author for the Kiwanis Read-a-thon - in addition to my regular visits to schools, I was thrilled when Lee Scott asked me to be the Kiwanis Club's author for the 2006 Read-a-thon. Volunteers drove me to the thirty schools I visited as part of this important program. It was great fun, but I completely depleted my store of books.
October 2006 - Ottawa Public Library Literary Gala - guest of The Gordon Group - another successful gala for the OPL honouring Patrick Watson who was the keynote.
June 2006 - Presentation at the Library of Parliament - first children's presentation in the library's history.
January - June 2007 - Author for the Kiwanis Read-a-thon. Another successful Read-a-thon. Only this year I had other authors taking most of the load off.
I have met amazing kids who write or email me from all over the world, and in all of the more than 400 schools I have visited in Ottawa, Barrie, Orelia, Kingston, Toronto, Oakville, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Charlottetown, Halifax, Montreal and surrounding areas.
If you'd like me to visit your school, the school can contact HarperCollins in Toronto, or me directly at:
The fees I charge for school visits are used to visit inner city schools whose students really need author visits.
