My sister Janet, tagged me with the following challenge:

1. Write a six-word memoir.
2. Post it to your blog including a visual illustration if you would like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.
5. Don’t forget to leave a comment in the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

My sister’s memoir is brilliant. Mine not so much…

Her life: one book after another.

I’m only tagging Cheryl Rainfield, but if anyone else would like to play along, please leave your memoir here!

Last week I had the privilege of attending the graduation ceremony at Dalhousie University where Cornelia Oberlander was receiving yet another honorary degree. Giving the convocation address, she spoke the importance of taking risks. To paraphrase: “To make the world a better place, we cannot keep doing things the same old way they have always been done. We must take risks.”

What a treat it was, after this inspiring event, to spend some relaxing time with Cornelia - now that I wasn’t “trying to worm things out of [her]” (as Cornelia put it), and with her husband, who helped bring me and Cornelia together four years ago, when the seed of the idea for the book Love Every Leaf, the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander was planted. And how tantalizing, to find out things about her that I would have loved to have been able to write about! Susan Perren was right when she wrote in a Globe & Mail review on May 17: It is questionable whether Stinson has quite “got” all of this remarkable woman: There is evidence from Stinson that at some level Oberlander didn’t want to be “got”.

One of the highlights of our time together was a trip down the south shore of Nova Scotia to the place where Peter Carver and I run our summer writing workshops, and which used to be the summer home of the Oberlanders’ friend, Humphrey Carver (Peter’s father). What did Cornelia do as soon as she got out of the car? Did she gaze out to sea as most visitors do upon arrival? No. She spotted some tiny plants in the rugged terrain and immediately dropped to her knees to photograph them! We should have known she would do this. We were treated to a botany lesson all the way down the south shore!

And just in case you’re wondering - despite the fact that Cornelia is thirty years older than I am (and I am no spring chicken), she had no trouble at all springing back to her feet to walk the paths that Humphrey had created over the hills overlooking the sea.

I’m back home in Ontario now. Cornelia has moved on with her husband to Montreal, where tomorrow she will receive an honorary degree from McGill. What a privilege it will be for McGill graduates to hear Canada’s “premier landscape architect” speak about the park on Mount Royal which they will know well and which was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, an inspiration to Cornelia and considered by many to be the “father of landscape architecture”. I wish I could be there with them.

A couple of weeks ago I received a very excited phonecall from Cornelia Oberlander. She wanted to tell me that April 2008 - the very month my biography about her was being released - had been declared “National Landscape Architecture Month”. The reason? The American Society of Landscape Architects wants to encourage students and parents to “Discover Careers in Landscape Architecture”.

That was part of why I wrote Love Every Leaf: the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander too. I wanted people to know about this remarkable woman and the work she has done (and continues doing on into her 80s!) And I wanted young people contemplating their future careers to be aware of the landscape architect option. “It’s a magnificent profession,” says Cornelia.

The ASLA chose April as National Landscape Architecture Month in part because it encompasses Earth Day and landscape architects are hugely aware of their opportunities and responsibilities to help take care of the planet.  Cornelia (a member of both ASLA and CSLA, the Canadian counterpart) is one of the profession’s pioneers in this way of thinking.

The president of the ASLA has launched an “Each One, Reach One” campaign, challenging each of the Society’s 18,200 members to reach out to at least one K-12 student during April to introduce them to careers in landscape architecture. What better way for them to do it than by buying all those students a copy of Love Every Leaf!

Since that call from Cornelia, she has sent me an email telling me that the International Federation of Landscape Architects has all kinds of events planned for World Landscape Architecture Month! Why not make reading Cornelia’s biography one of them?!

Two big surprises at the Literacy Conference in Burlington last weekend.

1. The onsite bookseller, Different Drummer, had on hand a big stack of Love Every Leaf: The Life of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander - and it wasn’t scheduled for release till several days later! (It looks gorgeous, and after I spoke about it briefly during my keynote address, they sold out quickly.)

2. The night before the conference, I learned that Janet Lee Stinson and Arnie Stewart (see I’ve Got Mail posting) were planning to attend. Not only did I get to meet these two remarkable people, Arnie helped make my keynote address a truly memorable event for everyone there. After mentioning the correspondence I’d been enjoying with Janet Lee, I looked around for where they might be sitting, thinking the audience might like to recognize them. But Arnie surprised me (and his wife and Janet Lee) by coming up to the front of the room, where he described letters he has exchanged with children who have struggled with learning to read. He said he knows he will like my new book, A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It. He then took from his pocket a stone and placed it in my hand. “Put this in your pocket,” he said, “and it will bring you good luck.”

Before going off to sign autographs (for 3 hours! what a great bunch of readers that audience was!), I had a chance to visit with Arnie and hear some more of his personal stories about learning to read. Janet Lee is working on his biography and plans to apply to a writing workshop/retreat that my husband and I are offering this summer. (See “Summer Workshop/Retreat by the Sea” posting.) I hope she does!

To read Janet Lee’s account of Arnie’s participation in last week’s event, and about how the good luck stone circle has been completed, visit Janet Lee’s blog (and find the entry for Apr9/08).

Happy reading!

Once in a while something lands in your inbox that just makes your day. Such was the case for me recently, when a literacy consultant in Simcoe County wrote to tell me about the impact of my book King of the Castle on her and some people she knows.

“I am writing a biography about a man named Arnie Stewart,” Janet-Lee Stinson wrote. “Arnie is 62 years old and he has struggled for his entire life without being able to read and write. Arnie bravely tells his secret to audiences full of students who have lost all hope.” She went on to say, “Today, I was working on compiling student letters for a new book to accompany Arnie’s biography. Inside one of the envelopes, was a copy of your King of the Castle. On the inside cover a grade 6 student wrote, “Dear Arnie, This book will remind you of you and me. From Mitchell.” I positioned myself in my favourite chair flooded with a glorious sunbeam to read it. Reading your book brought tears to my eyes because it was very close to the story Arnie has lived. I had to send you an email to tell you how touched I was by this “coincidence.” 

Janet invited me to visit Arnie’s website www.arniestewart.org where I found out more about the man, the work that he and Janet are doing, and about an award he has created for a student and family who have overcome literacy struggles. Mitchell was one of its first recipients. Congratulations, Mitchell!

Since my first email from Janet, a film about Arnie called “A Canadian Hero”, made by two grade eight students, has been selected as a finalist for the Toronto Film Festival, Sprockets.  Congratulations Jake and Mac! 

Congratulations Janet and congratulations Arnie!

My granddaughter was tickled to see that the book she got from me and her grampa for her 6th birthday - A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It - had her name in the thanks and dedication.

She also received, from both us and a great aunt, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a wonderful new chapter book by Kate diCamillo. After a quick look through A Pocket… Claire poured over the pages of Edward Tulane, no doubt imagining the story that might be behind Bagram Ibatoulline’s beautiful illustrations.  (She can read a little, but not enough to take on a chapter book.)

As soon as she set aside A Pocket…, her younger brother Charlie picked it up. Perched on the back of the sofa, he began to read. “A barn can have a horse in it. A house can have a me in it.” I knew he could read a few words in books he was familiar with, but this was a brand new book!

With just a little help from his proud gramma, Charlie went on to read the rest of the book, not only decoding the words, but getting their meaning perfectly. With great expression, he read, “Out of the basket, puppy! Out!” And when that puppy ended up in the pond, “Oh, no!”  

So, Claire may have got some nice surprises on her birthday, but I think I got the best one - knowing that my young grandson - thanks in no small part, no doubt, to the many happy hours his parents have spent reading to him - is well on his way to being a reader! Happy reading, Charlie! And to you to, Claire!

It’s now available! My first brand new picture book in sixteen years!

Dave Jenkinson at CM (Canadian Materials) - a friend since I did my first Book Week tour in his province (Manitoba) in 1983 and who was sent a review copy - said, “Loved the imagination of it & the wonderful twist at the end. Deirdre did a great job with the illus. too… This is definitely a book that will be waiting for my future grandchild in the box of books I’m building.” What a nice start as a new book begins making its way out into the world!

Next weekend my granddaughter will get A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It for her birthday. I can’t wait till she discovers that she gets thanked - on the copyright page of the book - for helping to inspire it.

How does this sound? Five days in August in a spectacular Nova Scotia setting - indulging in private writing time, walking the beach, getting feedback on your work from me, my partner Peter Carver (children’s book editor for Red Deer Press and teacher of writing for George Brown College), and a small group of fellow writers from all across Canada? (Possibly. It depends, of course, on who the six successful applicants are this year, but in the past we’ve had people from Vancouver, Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.)

Peter and I are planning to attend tonight’s CANSCAIP meeting where we’ll announce that we are now accepting applications for our third annual retreat and workshop.

We had a great time the first year we offered it - so good we were almost afraid to offer it again. But, as is perhaps obvious from the fact we’re offering it for a third time, last year’s experience was a great success too. (One of our six participants (from Ottawa) actually reapplied and made a return visit to work on another new and promising novel.)

To find out more about this opportunity, read what some of last year’s participants had to say about their time with us, and to find out how to apply, click here.

What fun it was to read my brand new, hot off the press, advance copy of A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It to a huge roomful of enthusiastic parents and their preschoolers on Saturday. The crowd that had gathered for Port Colborne’s first family literacy event to celebrate the joys of reading together were a pretty restless bunch as I was introduced, but it was pure magic how they quieted as soon as I started reading Red is Best. Pretty gratifying! As was their response to A Pocket… coming soon to a bookstore near you!

I just finished a marathon, a marathon of reading — through 220 pages of notes, single-spaced, on my current novel project. They date back as far as February 2001!

Lots of despair in there. One note says: I hate having a vision in my mind’s eye of what this novel should be, but feeling with every draft - despite how much I might have felt at moments I was getting closer to it - that in the end that perfect, wonderful thing it could be has again eluded me. And if it will always be this way, why go on?

But moments of joy, too. After trying out an idea for a change to a scene: It works! Yippee! 6:00 and I can already call it a good morning’s work! (Yes, sometimes if I can’t sleep, I get up quite early.)

Now, to read through the draft of the novel I completed just before Christmas. If a month goes by without my reappearing here, would someone please come dig me out? Thanks!