tania howells

Festival of Trees

The Festival of trees is...

"Canada’s largest literary event for young readers and is continuing to grow."

This year as I mentioned somewhere, Willow Finds a Way is nominated for a Blue Spruce award which is for the age group of Junior Kindergarten to grade two.  All the kids in schools around Ontario read all the nominated books and then vote for their favorites!  The year that Willow's Whispers was nomintaed, I attended the festival and got to sign books!  It was really fun.  I also had to go onstage with all the other authors and illustrators and actually SPEAK to a crowd of screaming kids, which I was not prepared for but perhaps, did ok.   At least this year I will know what I am in for!

Anyway, it all happens May 14, which is a long ways away, but we just had 15 cm of snow yesterday and I am thinking ahead to warmer nice days.  In honour of that, I am selling 3 copies of the book in my shop, to be signed and dedicated upon purchase!  I'll write whatever you like in the front cover-:)

well hello!

Hooray!  This month the 2014 nominees for the Forest of Reading were announced and to my surprise, Willow Finds a Way was nominated for a Blue Spruce award!  I had assumed it was past eligability as it came out in 2013! I really am thrilled and honoured to have been chosen! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another map recently, Parkdale!

I was contacted by the Neighborhood Arts Network here in Toronto, who give out an award yearly to..." an arts organization that has made a significant contribution in Toronto by working collaboratively with culturally diverse communities, youth and community groups that create opportunities to access, and contribute to, arts and culture."   Its a great thing!  This year the award went to this group - Mammalian Diving Reflex .  It was fun to make this map because it, coincidentally, is also my neighborhood.  I even added my house, my favorite cafe and of course the library.

 

Im lately loving this show - Around the World in 80 Gardens.  It thrills me to listen to people chatting about plants with such enthusiasm!  It is so refreshing and so uplifting somehow.  I can't explain it any other way, I have always adored gardening and I know many others do as well, but to hear it on TV, well it makes me so happy.  Perhaps it is something in the way the host describes things!  Wonderful.  Something for ME.

 

Which makes me happy to have rediscovered Helen Lehndorf again all the way over in New Zealand.  I "met" her way back in the olden days ( 2005?) when she had a blog called Stripey Sock Studio and nowadays she writes alot about (among many other things including her fantastic writing),  gardens and plants and again, I love it!  Every now and then I get a momentary thrill thinking about the joy of discovering a new interest in life.  One you never really paid attention to before but was there in front of you all along.  How freeing to realise, suddenly, it is not the same old routine, there are plants and they look brand new for some reason. 

I've just finished reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and my goodness I could not put it down!  It was a wonderful read and again, about a garden and about women's lives.  I am always hunting and digging for details about other womens lives, about how we all do it.  It is a research project as part of my very fabric, as part of not wanting to feel alone in this journey. 

 

 

give away!

 



I received my contributors copies! Nothing like a big box of your own books!  I want to give away two copies to my dear readers and I will pick randomly out of a hat, so please leave a comment!  I will do a little dedication on the inside cover once we pick the winners and sign it. Of course its always available on Amazon or Chapters-Indigo! 

Hooray!  Today's the day!  Willow Finds A Way is finally in stores.  It is always exiting to receive my preview copy, above.  Finch and I read it straight away.  I soon hope to get my contributors copies from the publisher, and when I do, I plan to do an autographed copy give away so please stay tuned and have a lovely weekend too!

a nice surprise!

Finch and I go to school every afternoon, meaning we go to the Parenting and Family Literacy Center which is inside his future school.  Its a marvellous, wonderful program that is free to all parents and kids up to age 6.  It literally saved my sanity to go and chat to other mums and they have free coffee!! The other day the February Scholastic Book Club catalogs came in and lo and behold, Willow Finds A Way was picked up by them for paperback distribution to the school market!  We order books from them all the time and I secretly always wished for Willow to be in there, but if it were to happen, I had expected I would be told before hand!  What a happy surprise!!  Not to mention Elsa, our sweet, kind teacher making sure all the mums at the center know my book is in the catalog this month, because I am too shy to mention it out loud (here on the blog? no  problem, but in my actual voice? forget it- I sound a bit like Willow...).  Now my next dream is that the first Willow and second Willow will be packaged together for Scholastic one day at a special price.

March 1 release date!

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Well!   I found out last week that the release time of spring 2013 for Willow Finds A Way, is specifically March 1.  This is very exiting because somehow spring seemed distant, but now it is very soon!   Lo and behold, it is already available for pre-order on Amazon!  So I thought I would share some of my process with you.
Above is the page 4 you will find in the book.  It is the first page of the story, and the kids are in the classroom doing various things.  Kristabelle is up to her usual ways of being a bit bossy and full of herself.  Willow is off on page 5 doing a painting at an easel.

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My first rough sketch had Kristabelle in full on dictator mode!  Willow was standing to the side looking worried.  Jane is looking annoyed.  It was all a bit too dramatic!  

 

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Next we had Kristabelle as more of a smooth operator, charming her classmates with promises and fun games.  Everyone is paying attention and wants to be included.  This is closer to the final page.  Again Willow is off on page 5 doing something, but also paying close attention to what Kristabelle is up to.

In the end, it was decided that Kristabelle should not be manhandling anyone, but merely beckoning them with a prop.  Here , in the linework stage, it is a magnifying glass from the science table.  It later became a plant frond of some kind.  She is reaching to hold hands with Tianna, who is a cheerful participant in any of Kristabelle's plans.  We finally went ahead and I coloured it as above.  This all transpired after the entire book was finished, as pages 4 and 5 were the last to be written!

 

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Here is the full spread as you will see in the book!  I have to say, decisions were all made by my amazing editor and then designer, who are sharp as tacks and do not miss anything.  It was a pleasure and honour to work with them!  I tend to be slightly overwhelmed when it involves 32 pages of roughs, linework, final drawings, and without them, there would be no book at all.  No wait, without the lovely Lana Button, who wrote it, there would be no book at all!  What a team effort!  Hooray!