Review of 'A Thief in the House of Memory" by Tim Wynne-Jones, and 'To Rule the Waves' by Arthur Herman

Reading is great.

Lately I've been able, finally, to make a dent in the list of books I've decided to read. Some of them are books by Y.A. authors. I just finished reading "A Thief in the House of Memory by Tim Wynne-Jones, who I knew years ago at York U. where he taught Visual Arts. I like his writing because there are so many layers of details the reader must gradually peel away. The main character, Declan, is haunted by images of his mother who had disappeared years before. He mistrusts his father and his step-mother and attempts to solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance. There is a beautiful, large, ornate, fully furnished house (Tim's books always have a strange house) which contains clues to most of the mystery. A good read for good readers.

A friend of mine, also a visual artist, told me about the next two books I am reading: Island of the Seven Cities by Paul Chiasson, is an almost believeable read about a supposed colony of Chinese explorers on Cape Breton Island sometime before the Spanish and British and French came to the area. Hmmm. Not a book kids could appreciate (and it is not meant to be) but their teachers may get into it.

The next one, a big fat history, is called To Rule the Waves by Arthur Herman, and it chronicles the growth and formation of the British Navy. I should have read this when I taught history because it gives some entertaining insights into the first explorers and the so-called 'heros' of early seafaring. Shipboard life on armed merchantmen is well described, as is the lives of the shaker & movers. I always enjoyed peppering my lessons about history with true tid-bits to hold the students' attention, such as the detail that Italian navigator de Verrazzano was mooned by North American natives as he sailed past what is now New England. Who knew?

I always showed Master and Commander to my classes because it shows such vivid ocean scenes. Descriptions in this book appeal in much the same way, without the fiction.

Writer's Union Woes & Copyright Law

Oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the Union,

You don't get me, I'm part of the Union,

You don't get me, I'm part of the Union,

Until the day I die.

Until the day I die. (John Ford & Richard Hudson - The Strawbs)

I am a member of the Writer's Union of Canada. This isn't the kind of union that has angry and violent placard-waving protests or gets into bloody confrontations in the street. Sorry.

But the Writer's Union is a strong voice for professional writers in Canada. I get many benefits from being a member. Lately the Writer's Union has been appealing to the federal government about a new bill, Bill C-32, The Copyright Modernization Act.

Suppose you wrote a book and a local high school bought one copy (and you got paid 10% of the cover cost, say $3.00 for a $30.00 text book) and photocopied 60 copies of your book to give to two classes of students. You should have earned $90. but you got only $3.00.

Or suppose you take many hours to write a story for a local newspaper. You may get paid a bit of money for your work. Fair enough. But suppose a national magazine editor reads your story and prints it in a national magazine. It is enjoyed from St. John's to Victoria. After the warm glow of success fades, you would be disturbed that this magazine did not pay you anything for your work. Copyright law prevents people from using your work without compensation. Photocopying, scanning, or digitizing is an easy way for people to do just that: use your work without paying. Musicians lose in the same way when people download songs or copy CD's instead of buying the original CD.

The Copyright Modernization Act, if passed, will change rules around photocopying and digitizing work by Canadian authors and artists. It will take away from us some of the small amount of income we now earn. Writers and artists are contacting our Members of Parliament to ask them to reconsider this bill.

So How Do Writers Get Paid From Photocopying? The way things are now, organizations like Access Copyright have been formed to charge school boards, universities and such a yearly fee for allowing them to copyright a limited amount of published material. This money collected is divided between creators and publishers based on how many books are written how many copies were published. I certainly appreciate getting a cheque from time to time. Selling books in Canada is a very poor way to make any extra income. The writers who have summer homes and wine cellars and fancy cars usually have another job.

Help the creative artists thrive in Canada by paying for what you use, be it music CD's, photographs, artwork, poetry or prose.

Some New Reads & Old Stories

It's been a busy week. I began writing on Monday at 8:00 AM and decided to keep going until I 'got stuck". Didn't happen. So I went on until 9:00 PM and only quit because I was starting to make too many mistakes. Tuesday was another good day and I spent about 2/3 of the waking hours in front of the computer. Wednesday and yesterday were also busy in a writerly sort of way.

The project is the mining murder story re-write. It is almost done and there have been some subtle changes here and there, but mostly it was raking the facts into place. I'm liking it more - but that is a dangerous feeling! - sometimes that hides goof-ups. My dear wife is busy proof-reading the manuscript for errors. Shirley is a very meticulous reader and while she's busy it puts a strain on our friendliness! (What do you mean you don't like that line?) Today I had to draw her a diagram. Meticulous...

Two Good Reads...

I read two fun Young Adult books lately; "More Bloody Horowitz" by Anthony Horowitz and "The Cardturner" by Louis Sachar.

Horowitz wrote an excellent series for boys called the Alex Ryder series. It's like James Bond for 14 year-olds. The More Bloody Horowitz book is a series of scary stories which are well-written and fast-paced, and not so terribly scary. Usually the victim is a fellow British writer, a rival of Horowitz, or a bratty kid. It's a fun read and the stories are of varied length and subject. Don't be put off by the cover.

The Sachar book proves that Louis Sachar (he wrote Holes) can write about almost anything and make it interesting. There is mystery and romance and past history revealed, as Sachar does so well. The subject is parallel bridge - please...a card game? - and a young man who holds and 'turns' the cards for a blind but brilliant card sharpie. The blind man is so smart that after being told his 13 cards just once, has them memorized for the rest of the game. I'm not smart enough for these types of card games, and don't care to read about them (I'd compare it to watching bowling on TV) but I liked the book and read it through in a few hours.

CANSCAIP seminar & SKYPE visit

An old dog learns new tricks...

On Saturday I spent a full day at writing seminars hosted by CANSCAIP*, an organisation of Canadian children's authors, illustrators and performers. Each of the three seminars were hosted by experts and I was eager to hear what they had to say about writing and sending manuscripts in to be published. Although I have had four books published, I still feel I need to know more about the process.

Nora McClintock and Paul Kropp were presenters I heard and I learned quite a bit from them about writing mysteries and high interest / low vocabulary books respectively. From them I learned why two of my most recent manuscripts were rejected - the oops! factor...

Nora McClintock simplified some of the planning behind writing a mystery novel (and I saw a step I had missed with the escape the mine story), and Paul Kropp, whose books I used very often when I first started teaching in Scarborough, pointed out some do's and don'ts about hi/lo books which I should have known, but didn't. An editor with 25 years' experience spoke about do's and don't of sending manuscripts out.

Now I can go back to the keyboard and write with more confidence than yesterday...

Today (Monday) I had a good SKYPE visit with one of Heather Yearwood's grade 6 classes in Stirling. They had some good observations which I can use to improve my writing of Dan, Time Boy.

Now all I need is to get to work writing...

...how about a coffee...? or maybe a sandwich would go down really well right now...

the tiny computer camera doesn't make you look very intelligent, does it?

* About CANSCAIP. You have to have a book published professionally (and have $85 in your pocket) to join, sorry, but you can join as a 'Friend of CANSCAIP' FOR $45. You get to attend conferences like the one I was at on Saturday and learn from some excellent people in the field. Are you interested in writing? Do other people say you write well? Consider joining.

Going down, down, down

More rewriting...

These days I'm switching writing jobs like a rodeo rider switches horses. I go from one story to another story and then on to some business letters, this blog, and some stuff I am doing for our church. On the fiction menu, for this week, is a reworking of the 'Escape the Mine' story. It helps to look over some of the photos I took in Manitoba last June. The shots help create a mood and remind me of the smells, the cool the heat, the dampness...

The photo at right shows the type of 'sets', above a 'drift' (tunnel) where Kayla and Adrian are hiding when the miners walk by beneath them.

The photo on the left shows the type of manway the teens use to sneak into the mine.

But photos can't help me with plot!

So... do I add more to the supernatural ability of the main character, Adrian?

Do I leave in the undercover cop? Do I eliminate that character?

Shirley and I saw a great movie last night; Hereafter with Matt Damon. Go see it.

I especially like that the twin boy characters in one of the three stories closely resemble twin boys I taught a few years ago.

HEREAFTER deals with the supernatural in a realistic way (if that isn't an oxymoron for you) by showing someone who is gifted with supernatural insights who does not see it as an ability to be exploited, but rather as a curse he is reluctant to use. It doesn't matter at all whether you believe in the hocus-pocus or not, the treatment of the subject makes it believeable.

Do I believe in the stuff in the movie?

As a matter of fact I don't.

But I do believe in supernatural abilities of some people, and I still liked the movie quite a bit. Will I steal from it? No. Will I borrow from it? Maybe... we'll see.

Your truly while visiting a mine in Manitoba last June.

Learning from Students

The Test Drive

In the past my students taught me to be a better writer. Early in my career when I taught a grade 3 class as a year-end L.T.O. assignment, I came in with a poem I had written the night before. I was excited about it - thinking it had a nice rhythm to it and very strong images. "Night Riders" it was titled, about mysterious people riding on a bus. As soon as I told the students I was going to read a poem they wordlessly assembled on a carpet in front of a rocking chair the previous teacher had left for me.
And so I began reading. Soon the attentive postures slumped, scabs were sought out for picking, tickle-fingers reached for friends and the whispers of more important topics quickly added to my serious reading voice: clearly the poem was not for them. I smiled and learned...
Many times over the years I have had students 'test drive' a new story long before any editor gets a look. They taught me much!
Now I need to borrow someone else's students to test drive the manuscript for Dan Time-Boy.
At Stockdale Public School I asked my good friends Kathryn Corbett (see blogs in Oct. & Nov of 09) and Dave Loucks to pass the manuscript on to a few assorted readers. Heather Yearwood, who splits her teaching duties between Stirling Sr. P.S. and Sir Mackenzie Bowell P.S. in Belleville, will do the same. (see blog 3/30/10) Heather's students were insightful readers of Leaving Fletchville last year and had great questions. Charlotte Armstrong, a former student of mine who now teaches at Percy Centennial P.S. in Warkworth will also pass the manuscript around. Her class was also very well prepped before my visit last year. (See Nov. 2009)
Getting some intelligent feedback from some adult friends and family members always helps me find clumsy stuff and typos. But adults will put up with writing that kids cannot follow, so comments from students of various grades and reading abilities are essential for me.
In a few weeks I will have a better idea of what I might want to keep / change / or add to the finished story before daring to send it for publication.

Waiting on your Writing...
When students ask me if their work is good I always tell them: put it aside for a few months and then look at it again. If it has problems you'll see them clearly. You'll groan at goofy metaphors or chafe at characters who are one-dimensional, and clench your teeth at cliche expressions. However, if it is really good you will see that too.

I have produced my fair of bad pieces of writing but also I have a few pieces of writing in a desk drawer that I will some day finish.

Getting rejections makes me wary of sending off manuscripts too quickly. I always proof-read for errors, but even if I really really like something I've written, it may still have scenes or characters in there which should have been deleted or re-written months before.
Live and learn!

White knuckle Research

Hey, I just call it research...

At right, a Cherokee 140 similar to the one I got to fly in

Today after a pleasant motorcycle ride on the beemer I searched out a small airfield near Belleville, and after several wrong turns, found it. Just looking around...

At first I was hoping to see a small Cessna aircraft close-up and see the instrument panel so I could learn the proper terminology in the Dan, Time-Boy story.

Some time in the future I was planning to negotiate a reasonable price for a brief flight. Why a Cessna? Dan in "Dan Time Boy' steals and flies a Cessna 172*

So at this airport, basically a big grassy field, two men were sitting and I got talking with them. One, Dave Watkins owns two aircraft there. Neither was a Cessna, but hey, who's fussy? I mentioned what I was researching and before long he'd agreed to take me up for a half-hour ride for the price of the fuel. I was given the choice of a home-built 'wing over' aircraft with a joystick and seating one behind the other, or a larger, 'wing under' Piper Cherokee 140. The Cherokee would allow me to sit beside Dave and see what he was doing. The home-built aircraft would allow me a really good view of the ground, (and of crash site if that was in the plans for me that day). The Cherokee's 'wing under' design would limit my view of the ground (and the crash site). So I opted for the Cherokee. Besides, I was hoping to get a chance to actually touch the yoke or rudder pedals - an experience I've never had in a plane.

It was surprisingly simple to check various things, unhook the ropes, take off the tarps and get the plane warmed up. The runway was grass and fairly smooth with a stuff wind blowing. Take-off was easy and smooth.

Turbulence began soon!

At about 500 feet Dave said, "go ahead and take the yoke, you can feel how you really need to push against the resistance..." I pushed all right, because the plane wanted to climb way too steeply for my comfort. I was plenty nervous, but trying not to show it (yes it's a guy-thing). We climbed higher, and Dave suggested I continue to use the controls. Pretty soon I realized how easily you can lose focus on one or other dimension when you have three to deal with. As soon as I concentrated on flying in a straight heading we'd be climbing or descending. When I concentrated on descending or climbing we'd go into an unexpected turn. Turbulence followed us like a friendly dog. Finally I got us heading more or less where Dave suggested and then found we'd climbed an extra 500 feet without me noticing it. We spent about 30 minutes going over Prince Edward County, Napanee, the 401 and then a return to Belleville. A pass over the airport showed us nobody was getting ready to take off , and we could see the wind-sock billowed out full. Yes it was plenty windy on the ground too. Amazing how quickly we got to the proper altitude with just a little reduction of the throttle. Before long we were gliding just above the grass and then Dave landed smoothly despite a strong diagonal wind blowing.

Research is very cool.

Considering the experience, maybe I'll have Dan steal a Piper Cherokee 140 instead of a Cessna...

below, the cockpit of a Cherokee 160

*The Cessna 172 is one of the aircraft featured in the flight training computer program called Flight Simulator 2002, which has realistic flight movement and all sorts of options such as high winds, poor visibility, night flying, failures to controls or instruments, and messy things like that. You can also crash using Flight Simulator and when you first start using it, that's generally what you do.

In the story Dan becomes highly adept at flying the simulated aircraft in all kinds of strange wind and weather conditions. He also gets lessons from an uncle, who is a pilot, and he successfully pilots a real plane during a time when all motion ceases, including wind.

Flying in an environment of no wind at all - something rare enough- should take some of the guess-work, fear, danger, and knuckle-whitening excitement out of flying. I imagine that flying with no wind might be like driving a car with no traffic or things to bump into - except that in flying, the landing can still kill you... I'll be talking to more people who know about such things... I'll keep you posted.