My Eden Mills Experience

Last weekend I was lucky enough to travel to Eden Mills for the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. Ever been? If not you should. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day, which was perfect for listening to readings and talks from writers of all different genres. And what a village! Charming and friendly.

My day started out with a rather long drive, but if you’ve hung around this blog for awhile (just check out my Transportation Tales thread) you know I’m used to driving. Anyway, the only thing of note other than the detour right before Eden Mills, which freaked me out because I’m never sure I’ll get back on my planned route and I obsess about being late, was a roadside sign just as I crested a hill. Said homemade sign was impossible not to notice:

SLOW DOWN!!
YOU KILLED 
OUR CAT!!!!

That got my brain spinning. There’s a sad story there, isn’t there?

Anyway again, I strolled the street and browsed the display tables of literary events, places, publishers, and artists. I ate excellent ginger ice cream! And look at the stream and one of the concrete road bridges that runs through the village.

Creek? Stream? Idyllic however you label it.
What a bridge. They don’t make them like this anymore.

I listened to as many of the readings in the children’s area as I could. My turn came following Ted Staunton. Um, if you’ve never heard him, all you need to know is that he performs a chicken song which had us all bok-bokking and head bobbing along to his guitar and stellar singing voice. How do you say: hard act to follow???

The audience was terrific. I love that the plane flew overhead just as I got to the bushplane page in Let’s Go!. Couldn’t have ordered that better. And sharing Counting on Fall under the branches of huge shade tree just seemed appropriate. Of course The Bookshelf had all the festival authors’ books displayed for sale. It was an honor to sign several books for people.

“Counting on Fall” on display. Yay!

Special thanks to Deb Loughead, organizer of the children’s area programming, for inviting me. Loved talking with you over dinner! Janet Wilson you are so warm and welcoming and make amazing pies and artwork. Jill Bryant, it was a pleasure to sit at the signing table beside you and to get to know you. Other amazing creative people I was lucky to connect with: Teresa Toten, Helaine Becker, Susan Hughes and Lisa Dalrymple. In short: What an event!

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.
counting on fall

Hitting the Road in September

I’m looking forward to sharing “Counting on Fall” at some upcoming events this month.

Eden Mills Literary Festival, Eden Mills, Ontario
http://edenmillswritersfestival.ca
September 16, 2012
I’ll be at the children’s tent on Sunday September 16th at 3:10pm.
And there lots of other amazing authors who will be in the children’s area that day too.

Word on the Street, Toronto, Ontario
http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto
September 23, 2012
I’ll be appearing with Ashley Barron, illustrator, as we both present our book in an interactive reading and craft activity at the Children’s Activity Tent on Sunday September 23rd at 12:00pm. Then we’ll be at the OwlKids booth at 1:15pm.

And both a Toronto and Muskoka book launch are in the works for dates in October. I’ll have more details on those events when things are finalized.

Exciting days!

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

The Ceremonious Opening of THE BOX

It was a regular summer morning when, rather inconveniently, the doorbell rang. I looked down at the night shirt I was still wearing even though I’d been up for hours. No way was I answering the door in that. I looked at my daughter. She was also sporting jammies, but she could answer the door in her jammies, right? I mean she’s only 9. Apparently she disagreed.

So I ran to my room to find a sweater and sweat pants to throw on over top. I guess in the meantime my daughter took pity on me because I reached the door in time to hear retreating footsteps on the gravel and see my daughter staggering to lower a big box to the floor–a big brown box, a big brown box with the Owlkids logo on it. OMG it could only be the advance copies of Counting on Fall!!!

I didn’t bother to close the door. I started shouting incoherently and jumping up and down like I was deranged. Was it my imagination or did I also hear a van peel out of the driveway? No doubt the driver was freaked out by the realization that a crazy woman resided inside.

Big brown box in hallway complete with shoe clutter.

Anyway, I admired the box and then…I went upstairs. What!? you’re thinking, right? I just left it there? Yes, that’s exactly what I did. Am I crazy? Maybe. But I’m also the type of kid who ate the best thing on her plate last. I’d draw out a good dessert with tiny little bites. As for the box, I needed to be in the right frame of mind, the right clothing, to savour the moment of opening it.

So it was an hour later when I was dressed, when I’d gathered my family, when we had the Ceremonious Opening of the Box.

It went like this:

  1. Be oh so careful with the blade of the scissors as you slice through the tape on top of the box. 
  2. Gently peel back the box flaps and the white packing paper underneath. 
  3. Gasp, ooh and ahh at the spectacular site of your books packed in the box, nested and cosy.
  4. Open the letter from the publisher’s assistant and smile. 
  5. Then finally pick up a copy of the book you have worked on for months but have never physically touched until this moment.
  6. Ahh, brings a tear to the eye, no?
  7. Pass around the single copy to family members so we don’t put our grimy fingerprints on more than one copy at a time.
  8. Realize once again that this is the best gig in the world.

Ashley Barron, illustrator, you are a genius. Thank you OwlKids for the stellar match making and for assembling such a fantastic team to bring this book to bookstores everywhere. It’ll be officially on sale and available at/through bookstores everywhere on September 15, 2012.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

I Survived Muskoka Novel Marathon 2012

Yes, I survived. More than that actually: I loved it! (MNM2012)

Imagine 72 hours to do nothing but write as much as you like. Heaven!! You could take time out to eat and sleep if you wanted/needed to. Meals were provided and prepared by and the lovely den mother Mieke, who even did our dishes afterwards (and didn’t kick me out on the first day when I spilled my coffee).

On top of it all is knowing that while you’re there writing you’re raising money for the YMCA Literacy Services. This will allow you to feel fine about ignoring your family for the whole time (because you get up before they do and you come home after they’re all in bed–heh heh. Thank you, family, for being so amazing and understanding.). And thank you so much to my sponsors. I’ll be sending you individual thank you letters. All together the writers this year raised an astounding $14,572.50 last I heard.!!

I admit that I was a bit worried going in. I mean, me, write a novel? I wasn’t sure there was a story of novel length proportions in me. Okay, so I’m still not sure the story is worth anything but my amusement in writing it, but who cares at this point? I went in with an initial idea, and I came out with 60 pages written and a workable outline to keep going with. Here’s my 60 page milestone ribbon (and note how there are others much bigger than mine).

For someone who writes at home in the (mostly) quiet it was scary to think about writing in a crowded room. But with the help of my iPod and some playlists it worked out just fine. I was focussed when I wanted to be and distracted when I wanted to be.

Susan Blakeney

The wonderful writer to the right of me was Susan Blakeney, who taught me that physically acting out things can really help you. And she is an amazingly prolific writer in that she STARTED AND COMPLETED her novel at the marathon. Wow.

Cathy Olliffe-Webster

The wonderful writer to the left of me was Cathy Olliffe-Webster, who is an amazingly brave and funny writer who demonstrated the power of perseverance because during the marathon she was able to write the ending of her novel–a goal which had alluded her in the past. Way to go, Cathy!

View beyond my keyboard

It was energizing to be with such a diverse group of writers, some of whom I knew going in and some I didn’t. I’ve definitely added to my “to be read” pile.

(LtoR) Kimberley Ann Sparks, Cheryl Cooper, Sharon Ledwith, Lena Coakley, Lori Twining

I didn’t submit my manuscript to the judges for the contest portion. Walking away with a huge chunk of a draft completed and a workable outline was reward enough for me. Thanks to Karen Wehrstein and Paula Boon and Dawn Huddlestone for all their work organizing the marathon. Check out the storify of the mnm Dawn put together: http://storify.com/MuskokaNovel/mnm-2012

Most memorable moments:

  • Anne Millyard dropped in!
  • Creme brulee from Spencer’s Tall Trees–I went back for seconds
  • Watching Sandra act out being very pregnant (thanks to a well placed pillow) and getting down to and up from the floor so Susan could see how that action would play out.
  • The guy who stuck his head into a quiet room of writers writing and announced “It was a dark and stormy night–There, start with that.” Groan. He was chased down for a donation.
  • The three cats I narrowly avoided hitting on three separate drives to/from the marathon.
  • Realizing it’s truly astounding how many times some people stir their coffee before drinking it.
  • The slurping, gushing noises of Karen’s green tea thermos which she could not hear thanks to her noise cancelling headphones.

And some other random shots:

They provided all the essentials–earplugs, ibuprofen, antacids, bookmarks, and popcorn!

We all donated to the marathon to thank Mieke (in red) for looking after us all weekend

What a goody bag! Loved the pipe cleaners and playdough.

Susan decorated my water bottle and christened it “Swamp Water” 

Look at all those 10 page milestones people had!

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.