NaNoWriMo advice (and useful for other MOs too)

I realize NaNoWriMo is well underway, but I always have students (and adults) ask me for writing advice.

I love giving any advice I can - and the two Golden Rules are... READ and WRITE (even if it stinks... because it always stinks for a while.)

But I also thought it might be useful to collect my various in print musings on this question here.

So.... here are some articles, interviews, etc. in which I've tried to offer some advice.


My friend (the awesome Debbie Ridpath Ohi) asked me to answer 3 questions for her BLOG. One of those questions was "advice for young writers".

I met Bridget (from Bridget and the Books) at Nerd Camp and we chatted about writing.

Open Book Toronto asked me to answer 10 questions about my writing. This was a while back but I still stand by everything I said.

The National Post asked me to edit their Afterword section. I included this tidbit of advice... TAKE A BREAK.

KINDER LIT asked me to take a Proust Questionnaire.

A few years back I was a judge on the Seepe Walters contest and made this VIDEO with some advice.

Comic Day

A few years back, I was asked to do a Neil Flambé comic for charity. I did one based on The Chef manga which opens Neil #4. It was never published. So, in lieu of a NF #7 (which may never happen) I present THE CHEF!!!!

I have caught the NerdCamp bug

This was my fist ever NerdCampMI.

My friend - the awesome Debbie Ridpath Ohi - has been going almost since the beginning and has praised the meet-up. This year, I finally made it. And... wow, was she right.

I thought it might be helpful to talk a bit about what it was like to be there for the first time, and why I found it so hopeful and transformative. (And trust me, this is a hugely condensed version of all my thoughts.)

These are strange days in education. I've written on this blog before how saddened I am by the loss of libraries in schools. Well, this was  gathering of people who are dealing with that (and more) first hand and are fighting against the trend.

The Nerd Talks opened up day1. All the speakers were amazing, but a few really knocked me for a loop. (I doodle while I listen to people talk instead of taking pics.)

Colby Sharp and Donalyn Miller are two founders of this whole thing and welcomed everyone by talking about how crucial books and stories are for giving kids the skills they need. Donalyn even suggested cancelling fines for kids who return books late as a way to level the playing field.

Chad C Everett gave a speech saying that the times for some books for some kids are over. All kids need to have access to stories in today's revolutionary times. It was a call to action across all the boundaries that separate us in schools and in the world of kids lit.

Sarah K Ahmed
talked about being a hyphenated American and what that means in today's world. Look out for each other. Tells your stories and listen to other people's stories, not just the ones you already know.

Pernille Ripp talked about how books can offer paths out of depression and sadness for kids, especially ones experiencing bullying. (She's been sharing some tough personal stories on her blog which you should definitely check out.)

Then we broke into the day1 sessions.

If I have one criticism it's that there are TOO many interesting sessions. I gave one on using humour to trick kids into learning. But I also snuck peeks at others, including Arree Chung talking about his beautiful (and wickedly clever) new book Mixed.

Then it was an hour of book love from Mr. Schu. When he gives out books he loves to a hepped-up crowd it's like watching The Price is Right. Maybe the Print is Right?

And then it was one of my heroes Dav Pilkey, who closed out day1. I've had a chance to meet him a couple of times and he as down-to-earth and nice a guy as you can ever hope to meet. He also writes great books.

He gave a tribute to him mom, who helped him adapt to his ADHD and dyslexia by letting him read whatever he wanted to read. (I actually, appropriately enough, nerded out on him in the hallway after the speech to tell him how moving it was.)

All the speakers hit the note that we seem to miss in so much "high-level" education chatter about standardized tests and quality metrics - that each individual kid has individual needs and talents.

And books are one of the best ways to get those kids to find their own path to knowledge and curiosity.

And, yes, there is a lot of talk here of "fighting" and "revolution"and the people at NerdCamp did come to the  event to arm themselves - with skills, strategies, ideas - to fight.

BUT not to fight against anything but for every single kid in their classrooms or libraries or (from an authors perspective) their readership.

And this is all done by Volunteers. VOLUNTEERS. Using their summer vacation to gather and share info on the best way to get kids to read, to learn to think.

The theme of "fighting" continued in informal discussions with educators about the battles they are having to keep books for "different" kids in their libraries and schools. But they are not giving up. And we authors need to keep writing those books and keep visiting and supporting those schools.

So, I'll be up front. I went into this NerdCamp experience slightly depressed about the state of the world, and also very cynical about talking about education. Every single person I met there helped me feel better. One teacher I spoke with the first night said she feels like she's coming home to her family the second she arrives at Nerd Camp. I get that 100%.

And meeting all these people inspired me. This is where the battle for a better world will be fought and eventually won. It's the long game. And I'm in.

Take a Breath

Like many city dwellers (Toronto being my hometown) I am saddened but not surprised at the rise in pedestrian and cycling deaths on our streets.

Everyone is in a hurry and walking, cycling and driving in a silo.

As a cyclist, walker and occasional driver it's intersections and crosswalks that are the main areas of conflict (no kidding - just check out this story from The Toronto Star).

So, as an experiment I've been trying to (A) brake when a light turns yellow - in a car and on my bike (B) stop crossing by foot when the "don't walk" countdown starts and (C) coming to a complete stop at stop signs on my bike. It's like my heart rate is now slower. I'm less angry and frustrated.

Anyway, all that is to say that I've come up with a mantra I tell myself now. "Take a Breath." I even made a poster. Feel free to share. #TakeABreath

This has been in my head a while, but I didn't think to make a graphic about it until now.

The idea popped into my head a few years ago. I was sitting with my friend Peter (after a death-defying bike ride to his house) and he mentioned an ad campaign from Australia called "Dead Right" which stressed that you might legally be in the right crossing a crosswalk, but a car can still kill you if you aren't paying attention.

Can't find the details on that campaign BUT I did find this weird and wonderful safety video from an Australian rail company called "Dumb Ways to Die").

Acknowledging what's going on

I always try to use the Acknowledgements sections of my books to tell something about the world of the book - rather than just listing the (many) awesome people who make a book happen. I also want to make it something that someone will actually want to read.

(My dedication for MINRs3 is this....)

So, given what's going on in the world these days (I've signed this petition for example) I thought I'd post my thoughts on what the conflict in the MINRs trilogy is about. That way you don't even need to buy the book!

So, here's what I wrote. (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Acknowledgments

First of all, a thanks to the types of people who read dedications.

I always try to make this bit of the book a little different, and thanks for paying attention to the details.

To be one hundred percent honest, I never thought this book would happen. You can check out the old posts on my blog if you want the full story, but the bottom line is that I owe a gigantic THANKS to you—the readers who fought to have this book written and published.

You helped spread the word about MiNRs, and that, in the end, is the only way a story can spread. 

Fighting for what you believe in is never easy. It can drain you. It can demoralize you. But you did it, which means the world to me. And maybe more so for MiNRs than it would for any of my other books.

MiNRs is many things, but above all it’s a story of fighting, even when we don’t want to. But we always need to fight for the things we believe in, the people we love. Or else someone else will fight to take them away . . . and we’ll let them.

For Chris, Elena, and Fatima, that fight is with weapons. They don’t choose this or want it, but they accept it.

It’s a fight no child should ever face. But real children are forced to fight in our world today.

For the MiNRs, what separates them from others aren’t the rules of their fight but the way they choose to face it. They choose love, family, and mercy over cruelty, violence, and hate. There’s no fairy-book magic to this—they lose a lot along the way—but they don’t sink to the level of Thatcher.

Not all fights are violent, or even battles in the traditional sense. In fact, for me, the toughest ones happen in your head and are fought with words and ideas.

There’s an exchange in this book where the kids talk about scapegoating. Fatima argues it’s worse than violence. And my editor (the awesome Patricia Ocampo on this book) and I had a back-and-forth about this.

Because, for me, the scapegoating is worse. It’s foundational to any violence that happens later. Attacking someone we see as the same as us? That’s horrible! We recoil in shock.

But attacking someone who is different is way easier, and people will join in and support it because “they deserve it.”

Try saying “we deserve it.” Now try saying “they deserve it.” Which is easier?

And it’s so insidious. It doesn’t actually begin with hate. It begins with searches for simple answers. The world is complicated, and that can be a really hard truth to recognize. And it makes it really hard to figure out what you need to do to make good choices.

So we pretend that isn’t the way the world works. It’s easier to see the world as simple.

It starts when we blame them for their problems. It’s their fault they are poor, they don’t work hard enough. It’s their fault they are violent, because that’s what they are like.

So much easier than saying, “Wow, the world is complicated, and some people are poor and violent for all sorts of reasons. Maybe the two are even related and poverty breeds the sorts of desperation that leads to some types of violence.” And that’s just the tip of the complexity iceberg, as they say.

And once you accept that simple worldview of them vs. us, the rest can devolve quickly.

They don’t just cause their problems, they cause ours. They are opposed to what we stand for and are a threat to our way of life. This type of prejudice is what Thatcher exploits to turn people against grinders, and toward him.

But they are you.
We are we.
And above all, love is love. That’s what breaks the cycle—loving others.
Loving them and not judging them.

It’s easy to hold on to hate.

Pavel does.
Thatcher does.
But Chris doesn’t.
Elena doesn’t.
Fatima—a member of a “they”—doesn’t.

And that makes all the difference.

Hate might win sometimes, but it makes the world a worse place.

Love might lose, but it still makes the world a better place.

It’s tougher to actually promote love.

You need to fight to push yourself, and push others, to do just that.

Blast from the Past

I was cleaning up some files on my computer today when I found this letter to the editor (of the Toronto Star) from 2011. It was in response to a school board dropping school libraries, and the Star's coverage of the story.

It shook me.

I thought I'd post it verbatim because public and school libraries are about to be attacked again in this province (Ontario), as they are around North America.


Dear Editor,

As someone who writes for children and visits about forty or so schools in the GTA each year I was (as you can imagine) alarmed at the story about the Windsor-Essex school board’s decision to drop its libraries.

Yes, the library should be the heart of a school. It should be a place where children go for information, for relaxation and for support. Librarians are the original search engines, and can still do something Google Chrome can’t… they can enter a discussion with the students about why they are looking for something in particular.

Would you rather have a human being or an algorithm helping you child write that essay on Leonardo da Vinci?

Some of the suppositions of the people making these decisions have me really worried, because they seem to make sense.

There’s an assumption on behalf of the school board, and of many people, that the book is a fading bit of nostalgia (a term used by at least one educator in the Star). Computers are replacing books as the source of literacy, the thinking goes.

As a writer, I can tell you that I don’t miss the manual typewriter and I own an iPad and a Kobo. But the computer is just part of an education puzzle. I’d like to point to the recent Forest of Reading celebration which was held this week down at Harbourfront.

More than 8,000 school children packed the site to celebrate their favourite authors. These are children who have been raised to be computer literate from childbirth – children who have easy access to video games, laptops, cell-phones.

Yet, books were held like cherished teddy bears or held high as the winning books were announced. (It’s worth pointing out that the press coverage of this was practically nil. How can we decry the loss of a school library if we adults ignore the value of kid’s reading? C’mon media, catch the wave.)

This is an event coordinated, supported and celebrated by school librarians. The students qualified for the event by reading most of the nominated books. These are not all high-achievers but a real cross-section of the school system. And there were many kids in that crowd who would fall by the wayside without the encouragement and guidance of the school librarian.

Besides, who says the computer can’t find its way next to the books in a well structured and well-SUPPORTED school library?

I just returned from the TD Book Week tour of Quebec. While there, I visited a number of loaded private schools. One thing they all had in common, whether they were all-boys or all-girls… each had a full-time librarian (or two!) They had iMacs set up at comfortable desks, comfortable seating areas for the younger students.

Yes, they have the money to make that choice. Maybe the question is, why doesn’t everybody?

Kevin Sylvester

Author/Illustrator

Toronto

May 16, 2011

MINRS3 has landed!

UPDATE: June 21st.

I was overwhelemed by all the pics of readers with #MINRS3 (@SimonTeenCA) But I put the names in a helmet and will send my original pic to *drum roll...) @BrockPS_Library THANKS to everyone for reading!

ORIGINAL POST FOLLOWS:
If you've been following my social media (or this blog) you'll know that getting MINRS3 out there has been a bit of a journey.

But the book is finally here!

To celebrate, I spent the final pre-launch week working on an original drawing of Elena and Christopher. (You can check out my Facebook page for some of the live-doodling videos.)

So here's my idea. If you are a fan of the series, just fire me off a pic of you reading MINRs3. In two weeks or so I'll put all (or any) names into a hat and pick a winner. Yes. You can have this one of a kind picture... for your very own! Suitable for framing! Paper airplanes! Burning!

Tag me on Facebook, twitter... Instagram... fire me off an email through my website.... whatever!

Twitter @kevinarts

Instagram @sylvesterartwork

MINRS3 release date! (Please pre-order)

So there is now an official page For MINRS3!!

Here's the one for the U.S. MINRS3.

Here's the one for Canada. MINRS3 eh?

And we have a release date of May 29th.

And since this book was made possible by YOUR hard work (see earlier posts ) I'm asking for something I've never asked for before.

Please pre-order the book. 

There are links in the official pages to do that in whichever way you prefer. You can pre-order from wherever you normally buy your books.

If you are looking to buy it for yourself, a friend, your school or library, it would be amazing if you could do that now. I'll even give you a few minutes before typing the next paragraph.

.........


This "please pre-order" pitch is a kind of experiment for me. I feel like I've been begging for reader support for this series since the first book launched in 2015. That's not a feeling I like very much.

It can be very hard as author/illustrator to know how best to help with the business side of this business. (I direct you to two of my friends who do an amazing job of charting this side of things - Art Slade and Debbie Ridpath Ohi ).

AND - just after I originally posted this, the great Colby Sharp posted a video about how important it is to pre-order. Here!

(My comment on that video BTW: "What he said! And in this day and age it helps an author you like stand out - which is important because publishers are squeezing lists and bulk-order giants such as Amazon push big sellers over mid-range authors, further squeezing our abilities to make a name.")

Yes - pre-ordering is one BIG way readers can show support for an author/illustrator. In fact, please pre-order books for ANY author you like. Pre-order numbers are one way publishers gauge the potential for a book.

And it's a way to make a bit of a splash, and to say "thanks" to the publisher (Simon and Schuster Canada) who was willing to take a chance.

In fact, to close...  I'll repeat a few lines from my earlier begging.... (and feel free to substitute the name of any book series you like for MINRS... the message is the same).

The reality of the book world is that publishers need to sell books to make money to pay authors to write more books. MINRS has done well (named a CLA Honour book, nominated for a Red Maple, MYRCA award, Tome Society award and more), but the series hasn't hit the sales numbers that my publisher (or me) wanted or hoped for.

That's fair enough. Publishing is a business and publishers need to make money.  The only way to do that is to sell books. The truth is that no one has the secret to what makes one book a hit, and others just do okay. We tried, and I keep trying. 

and again, THANKS to everyone who has helped champion this series.

THANKS

In case you missed the update on my other feeds, MINRS3 is a done deal!

The book will be out this spring. I've seen the cover proposal and it is amazing! So stay tuned for the reveal sometime in the next few weeks.

The biggest THANKS has to go out to you, the readers who helped spread the word.

I am truly blown away!

Fight for libraries

(This is the slightly edited text of a speech I gave October 24, 2017 to children's library staff for the Toronto Public Library.)

I’ve been asked to talk about what libraries have meant to me – especially when I saw the world at kid level.

And there are a number of directions where I could take this little talk.

I could talk (ad nauseum) about how important libraries have been in my life (and, in recent years, my career).

I could blow smoke about how awesome you librarians are... I obviously believe this is true. I did dedicate my novel MINRS2 to librarians, and I meant it. You get books into the hands, and minds, of kids in ways no one else can… and certainly in ways no algorithm will ever do.

But it's the end of your meeting and you probably all want to grab a cold drink and some nachos somewhere - so let me be blunt and get to my main point right now.

Fight.

You are the keepers of the very last refuge for kids in this increasingly structured world. A world that is structured according to adult wants and needs. The refuge where kids can access their own empowerment on their own terms.

You are the only people left who are there for them and with them.

And I know teachers care about kids. Parents, are supposed to…. etc. But what I'm saying is that teachers care for kids (increasingly) within the constraints of curriculum, and under the strictures of cost-cutting school administrations – and more and more without access to libraries. 

School, in our public discourse, is more and more about training the employees of the future and less and less about creating fully-formed human beings. This seems to be happening at  every level (including University).

I love teachers (MINRS2 is also dedicated to them). They are as creative and giving as they can be in their classrooms. But outside forces have skewed things so that as the school year turns from fall to winter – it’s time to get the kids prepped for standardized testing and the adult-expectation based results.

(Don’t get me started on standardized testing. It’s based on the idea of kids as little machines that respond to inputs and then make outputs that can be measured and tweaked.)

This creeps into our own lives as well. I’m not a giant fan of reports that talk about children as “clients” – or, in my other life at the CBC, listeners as “consumers of media”. These abstractions allow us to treat “people” like abstract principles with up or down measurable results – like Gradgrind does in Dickens’ HardTimes.

  

But YOU have the power to give them the power. The kids.

I’m focusing on schools right now because it’s where kids HAVE to be much of their lives. And we are failing them.

I do about a hundred school visits a year. And what I'm seeing more and more in our public schools is school after school with a one-day-a-week librarian IF THEY ARE LUCKY. 

The Forest of Reading, the amazing OLA reading program for kids – is sometimes getting whacked as an unnecessary perk.  (Hint about why – it’s also largely run by kids who get to decide which books and how many they can read. Adults don't like kids having much power methinks.)

It's very disheartening. 

You see, the library is the only, and I stress this, the ONLY place where kids have the power to help decide what, and how, they will learn. It is the only place that lets them self-direct their own learning. They search the stacks. They decide what to read, and they gain the sense of confidence in making their own choices.

I know this first hand.

The library is the place where I learned to be a reader, a student and a writer.

  

I was not a very good reader. I was given books all the time by teachers, my parents, even friends... and there was a library in my elementary school.

But that library was a static, boring place. Musty. Row upon row (in my mind’s eye) of grey dusty books lined up in uniform rows on metal racks. Like the books were in prison.

Going there to find a book to help with a school assignment was like visiting a dentist’s office. Important? Necessary? Yes.

Enjoyable? No.

And it was not a place or space that promoted lingering. As a result, it contained the wisdom of ages - but it was all trapped like a genie in a bottle.

Then a miracle happened - at least for me.

The public library in my town (the Youngstown Free Library) underwent a renovation. I was 10 years old.

What they did first was take all the stacks (lovely oak, some metal) and pushed them to the side walls in the children’s section. The result was two-fold. The huge windows flooded the room with light.

And there was now a huge empty space in the middle of the room.

They filled the space with giant pillows. Bright colours. You could sink into them like you were being hugged. There were even a couple of bean bag chairs (which the younger kids would sometimes throw around).

Wow.

It was (and still remains in my memory) the most comfortable, wonderful spot I've ever had to read a book.

As I sat on the luxurious pillows, I finally noticed the actual books around me.

Beatrix Potter at first. Sports books. Then the Hardy Boys. Then the Hobbit. (There was a progression here from books with lots of pictures to books with fewer and fewer). They became my best friends.

This is from Neil Flambé 6 - but is clearly inspired by the artwork in the Hardy Boys.

I went there after school, on weekends, and for evening book clubs. This was to a place I never would have visited willingly until the renovation. Drawn by the comfort, I finally gravitated to the actual books.

It was no coincidence that the Beatrix Potter books were stacked at the eye level of the kids sitting on the floor. 

The books became more complex the more you stood up - not according to alphabet or Dewey decimal system but according to the height of a kid looking for those books.

Chaos!

Later, the experience was mirrored (and built on) by my high school library Lewiston Porter in Western New York. It was a newer building with a librarian who cared about the space. It was hung with artwork. It felt like a weird witch's cave - macrame plant holders, tapestries and paintings (I later learned most had been made by students – when I got involved in the art clubs, probably thanks to being exposed to the art in the library).

And it had reading spaces too - cleverly tucked in all over the place, in odd angles against the concrete walls – or in odd configurations of the stacks.

These felt enclosed and hidden (which appealed to the teenager’s cat-like desire for a "private cubby") but were still visible from the librarians desk.

AND - she introduced a MUSIC ROOM. A room where students could go and sample music - with headphones and listening cubbies with individual turntables.

There was this one tough kid  – who was like a dude from The Outsiders - and one day I saw him coming out of the music room and he’d left behind the record he’d been listening to. 

Which happened to be the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky. Pretty sure that wasn’t a musical selection he would have avowed in front of his friends, so the music room allowed that kind of eclectic investigation and experimentation.

It also tweaked a life-long interest of my own in unexpected things – because it was the first time I listened to that Overture. Canons!

It's where I fell in love Tchaikovsky – and then Beethoven and Gershwin. That room gave me the ability to listen without the pressure of outside scrutiny. 

Now, I'm old - and so a music room and comfy pillows might seem quaint against the bells and whistles available today.

But my point is the same no matter what era. These were librarians who viewed these spaces through MY eyes. Through the eyes of kids.

Librarians structured the spaces according to what would make me more comfortable. Not what makes the books more comfortable.

Chaos!

But what amazing chaos. You’d take books out and just not restack them. They would sit on the tops of stools, tucked into the curved impression of a kid left behind on a pillow.

And that was cool too, because often you’d walk in and see a book cover with a ghost or pirate on it – and you’d just start reading that book. Of course the librarians could have restacked them… or ordered us to restack them – I’ve certainly been in libraries where you could get kicked out if you didn’t put your book on those wheely metal pushcarts.

But why? Kids don’t necessarily access the library that way. I think (in fact am pretty sure) the librarians would choose some of their favourite titles and purposefully leave them out in the open so that we would discover them.

Think about what the kids want. They might wreck books. They might mess with the systems. They might do a lot of stuff.

Good. That will make them readers... passionate lovers of books and the knowledge and wonders they contain. Because they aren’t left with the feeling that the object is more precious than what’s inside.

This is a hard thing for an adult to say.

Sometimes we have to fight our own adult wants and needs. I'll use the library in Harry Potter as an example. Readers love the idea of the old libraries with cobwebs and chained books. I’ve been to those places – The Bodleian at Oxford. The Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin. Amazing places… FOR ADULTS. Yes, kids sometimes romanticize those places, but do kids really like them?

You know the only kid who ACTUALLY likes the library? Hermione. Sure. She’s great. But she’ll read books in a library filled with Boggarts – so why didn’t Hogwarts and librarian Irma Pince do a better job of making a space for the non-inspired students? Maybe throw some books in the air and have kids catch them on brooms? Or maybe allow certain spells in the library that make the books read themselves... you know, for dyslexic wizards or reluctant readers?

Draco Malfoy might have turned out better.

And this is all circling around the central idea of SPACE.

What kind of space should a CHILDREN’S Library be?

Well… for one thing, make it fun.

And it doesn’t really matter how large the available space is – maybe you have a tiny library.

Size doesn’t even matter.

Kids will fill a space with their own psychic energy.

One of the reasons the idea of a “land inside a wardrobe” works in the Narnia Chronicles isn’t because kids can imagine what that’s like. But because they have experienced it. Kids fill up spaces with their imaginations, and even a tiny space can hold a multi-verse.

So just don’t make it uniform and boring. Make it a place where there are things to discover.

Another personal anecdote. In my house there was a cubby on the landing between the first and second floor – a crawl space. There was a wooden door with a latch, and we’d open that then pull ourselves inside. (We being me, my brothers and various friends from the neighbourhood). And what a cave of wonders. Boxes of old newspapers.

Knickknacks like old china plates and crystal cups. It was like we’d landed in Smaug’s lair, and we pretended to be hobbits, or sometimes pirates, discovering and plundering a lost treasure trove.

Going back as an adult – it’s just a tiny closet, really. But as a kid it felt enormous. Yes, children are smaller and experience the world from a different point of view (it’s one the reasons kids love stories of giants so much). But it was also because – if kids are given prompts for our imaginations – open and varied spaces filled with odd things (or odd books) we will invest that space with our own expectations and meaning.

So, as this applies to libraries, imagine the joy of getting lost in the uneven stacks I experienced as a child. Especially in my school library which had different configurations and spaces. You turned a corner and it wasn’t another rack of books – but a chair. Or you walked up a set of stairs and there was a table with books on it.

And this brings me to a last big element of making a space for kids work.

 

Surprise:

They expect books. Give them more. Like pillows (I don’t know why adults sections don’t have these!)

Invite an author to come and talk about books (my LINK here) –  or tell funny stories. 

Demystify the book.

Another personal library experience, and this has to do with surprise. 

But one day I walked in and my school librarian set up a movie projector.

This is a while back, so the important thing here is that this was NOT normal. Libraries were for books. Not for movies. But she explained that this was a movie about writing.

And the movie was this. A girl is running through the woods. Scared of something that’s chasing her, but that we never see. She stumbles and falls into a puddle. Then gets up and screams again. She begins running, then stops, Now, in front of her there is a door. It opens a cracks and a light shines through. She opens it, runs inside, and slams the door. And that’s the end of the movie.

My librarian spoke these magic words “ what happens next?” And that was the day I became a writer.

Now, had this been a story she’d told or a books she’d suggested I’d read it’s POSSIBLE that I might have been inspired the same way. (Think of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick).

But the weirdness of seeing it happen on a movie screen, in my boring musty library, caught my attention right away.

And that led to a conversation of the type of ending I thought might work for that movie.

And that led to my discovery of the idea of genre. So I became a better student and then a better, or at least more informed, writer.

You think she goes through the door and it opens to another dimension? You might like fantasy – such as Tolkein, L’Engle, Frank Herbert. Oh, and that section is over there.

You think there are more monsters waiting for her on the other side? Here’s the horror section with some books by a dude named Stephen King.

You think it’s all in her head or ghosts? Here are some psychological and gothic thrillers by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Or Shelly or even some Dickens.

See how you can trick those pliable young minds into learning stuff? Knock them out of their comfort zone.

(This is a lesson I have internalized as an author, by the way. Trick kids into learning. My Neil Flambé series, for example, includes history – such as Marco Polo (whom I like) and the Spanish Conquistadors (who I don’t). 

MINRs is an adventure series, but gets kids thinking about child labour and the sort of stigmatization and scape-goating that they can see in front of them with Trump.

So be weird. Unexpected

Today, that might be thanks to the “weirdness” of a 3D printer or a green room (like the one in the Innisfil ideaLAB) that kids can use to make their own music videos, for example.

If the library is made for kids, they will make it their own.

So... going back to my original thought.

Fight.

Last year at the Forest of Reading celebrations - I made a plea to the kids (and through them their parents and teachers) to FIGHT for libraries. In schools. In communities. To hold politicians' feet to the fire and demand better kid-centred spaces.

But these days, I don't think cut-crazy politicians really give a damn. Some school administrators don't give a damn. I'm not sure a lot of parents give a damn. They will cut everything down to the bone, and leave kids in an environment that is focused on adult expectations.

Libraries seem like luxuries to these knuckle-heads.

A funny thing that happens when I go to private schools is that they have, often, multiple libraries and librarians – with computers, tactile learning stuff (from legos to 3-D printers). So people with money KNOW the importance of these places.

So if the rich will pay to have them, why don’t our politicians and school boards see how central they are to levelling the playing field?

Or maybe they do, but they don’t care, or don’t want that playing field levelled.

In fact – while re-editing my speech this morning, and getting distracted by social media – I noticed my twitter feed blowing up thanks to a back and forth between Andre Walker (a columnist for the New York Observer.

The awesome Cressida Cowell tweeted her worry that school libraries are dying – and this will impact kids. Walker then suggested closing Public Libraries and putting the books in schools. Problem solved!

So many stupid parts to this argument, but he backed it up by saying “Nobody goes to libraries anymore”. This is a lie the politicians want to spread – because the people who actually DON’T go to libraries will believe it, and then won’t cry when they get cut.

(NOTE: Walker has since posted an "I Surrender" tweet after more than 100,000 people responded to his original tweet. See, protest CAN work!)

But kids do go. They want to go if the library is a place for them. They will respond. They will thrive. They will become better readers. Better citizens. Better people.

  

You are charged with making sure that happens. Even when you have to fight to do it.

Then those kids, like me, will fight for those spaces. Because they will be the MAIN PLACE where they become who they want to be.

Thank you.

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