Of This and Other Worlds

First, thanks to all who weighed in on my earlier post about my cat possibly having arthritis. I did call the vet to make an appointment, but the receptionist recommended that I buy a package of TheraBites (a once-a-day cat treat which contains supplements for hips and joints) and try her out on those for a while to see if there was any improvement.

Well. Not only does Snickers LOVE the treats (so no need to trick or force her into eating them), we're not even halfway through the bag and she's already moving much more comfortably. In fact, the other day she was up on the bed chasing her tail, which I hadn't seen her do since she was a kitten. Phew! Problem solved... at least, as long as I keep giving her a treat every morning for the rest of her life. Which is doable. So I am much relieved.

Second, I was surprised and delighted to discover that A Pocket Full of Murder is one of the ten Canadian middle-grade novels nominated for the Silver Birch Award this year. That means a whole bunch of 9-12 year olds will be reading my book this winter, along with at least four more other nominated titles, so they can vote for their favorite in the spring. I've always longed to be nominated for this award, and it's a big boost for the book generally, so I'm very thankful.

I'll be reading from Pocket and talking a little about the sequel this weekend, at the Local Authors reading portion of the Stratford Writers' Festival. All the other events are ticketed and this one is free, but it's also up against the #CanLitPit session where aspiring writers get to pitch directly to editors, so I'm not holding my breath too much for a big audience... still, it was nice to be asked and I hope the Festival does well.

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And thirdly, speaking of Stratford and festivals, I had the pleasure of attending a matinee performance of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe at the Avon Theatre with my youngest son's school group today. I'd really been hoping to see the play, especially after my fellow Narnia purist grav_ity  gave it her enthusiastic thumbs-up, but didn't think that I'd ever get the chance... except it turned out a few of the kids in P's class weren't able to attend, so the teacher entered all the interested parents in a draw for the remaining tickets and I was one of the winners. Which is a minor miracle, because I never win anything.

Anyway, I ended up sitting beside P and one of his friends, and we had excellent seats -- about five rows from the stage, bang in the centre. Where I proceeded to tear up halfway through Mr. Beaver's speech about Aslan in Act One and spent most of Act Two desperately wishing I'd brought tissues, because the production was fantastic. I'm so glad they stuck close to the original story, including a lot of the dialogue, instead of introducing a lot of flotsam for the sake of novelty or a false notion of drama (*side-eyes the movies of Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader*).

I'd read an early review that complained about the songs being intrusive, but I didn't find them overly long or distracting at all, and the one about coming to Aslan's table pretty much killed me (as I said on Twitter, "I was not prepared for the communion metaphors").

And tomorrow Adrienne Kress is coming for our annual tea-and-catch-up, which is always a treat, and will be an especially happy occasion this time with her new MG adventure novel The Explorers coming out in 2017. I really enjoy Adrienne's narrative voice and my boys are big fans of her writing as well, so we're looking forward to this one.

Monday 31 January: LONDON 12:30 p.m. -- Foyle's, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London 1:30 p.m. -- Blackwell's, 100 Charing Cross Road, London Tuesday 1 February: LEEDS 4:30 p.m. -- Waterstone's, 93-97 Albion Street, Leeds Wednesday 2 February: NEWCASTLE 4:30 p.m. -- Waterstone's, Blackett Street, Newcastle

Getting excited now -- so close!

Busy week and weekend ahead!

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 11th, I'm going to be reading to a group of young library patrons from Spell Hunter and Wayfarer and talking about what it's like to be a writer, at the West Perth Public Library in Mitchell, Ontario.

On Saturday the 14th, I'll be signing from 12 - 3 p.m. at Chapters Bookstore on Stone Road in Guelph, Ontario. Which probably means that like last time I was there, I will spend the time wandering the MG/YA section giving out mini chocolate bars and making recommendations to random patrons of my favorite books by other people, after which I shall incidentally mention that I too have written a book, here's my card in case you would like to buy it!

(In case you missed that, the operative words are free chocolate. You know what to do.)

And then on Sunday the 15th, I'll be doing the author thing from 3 - 4 p.m. at Kidspark, a free children's festival at Victoria Park in downtown Kitchener, Ontario.

So if you happen to live or be visiting in southwestern Ontario, drop by and say hello!

OH HAI GUYS I FORGOT TO MENTION I'M DOING A SIGNING IN TORONTO TODAY:

January 7, 2010 @ 7 p.m., Yorkdale Mall Indigo Books
with Megan Crewe (author of Give Up The Ghost)
and Neesha Meminger (author of Shine, Coconut Moon)

Both Megan and Neesha's books are beautifully written and they are also lovely people, so even if you are justifiably sick of me waving Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter under your nose, you might want to come out and say hello to them and pick up some great new reads in the process.

Or, you know, you could say hi to me and get me to sign your books and stuff. Whatever.

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Also, today is the OFFICIAL release date of Rebel in the UK which means it should now be freely had at all good bookstores (including the noble law-abiding ones in Ireland who have been clinging fast to that embargo notice). Yay!

I am happy to announce that in just a couple of weeks (well, three to be exact), I will be flying down to the AASL Conference in Charlotte, NC to do a signing for many lovely school librarians, and while I am visiting I will also be doing this:

Meet the Debs! Where: Park Road Books, Charlotte, NC When: Friday November 6, 2009 at 5 p.m. Who: R.J. Anderson (Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter) Lauren Bjorkman (My Invented Life), Jennifer Jabaley (Lipstick Apology), Neesha Meminger (Shine, Coconut Moon), Shani Petroff (Bedeviled: Daddy's Little Angel), Cynthea Liu (Paris Pan Takes the Dare), and Erin Dionne (Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies).

We will be signing copies of our books and chatting to all comers -- if you're in the area, please drop by and say hello!

I am especially excited about this trip because not only do I get to meet a bunch of terrific fellow authors and hang out with my wonderful agent, I will be jaunting up to visit my dear friend cesario while I am there. Whee!

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Next, I am exceedingly excited because today -- yes! today! -- I am going to have tea and hang out with the lovely and hilarious Adrienne Kress, author of two of my favorite middle-grade books of the last few years -- Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate. More people need to read these books. Seriously. They are adventurous and fantastical and witty and insightful and just plain fun. And so is Adrienne. So this too is made of WIN.

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There may also be some very, very good news brewing on the writing front. I cannot say what about, exactly, not yet, as the details are yet to be confirmed. But I will tell you as soon as I can.

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And finally, something for you lot -- it's Debsness time again!

(All together now: "We knew that.")

I'm about to jump in my rented car and zoom off to Guelph for a women's conference, and from there I'm going straight to the Ottawa Writers' Festival to do some school visits (whee!), so I won't be around until Tuesday night or Wednesday... have a great weekend, everyone!

I am poaching this entire post from lisamantchev and altering it to suit my purposes, because I'm insanely lazy busy right now...

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I am pleased to announce my participation in flycon2009, March 13-17, 2009.

From the LJ Profile:

Flycon will be an online convention planned to have activities during the peak hours of every time zone. It will begin midnight, Friday 13th in March 2009, in Australia and roll with the sun. We are looking for panelists, authors and editors and agents to host discussions, podcasts as readings, volunteers, and for people to spread the word through the blogosphere. We will be having a couple of sites host forums and chat space, with everything co-ordinated through this Live Journal community with rss feeds, updates and eventual archiving. We will be running IRCs as well as bulletin boards, so that every time zone is covered.

Preliminary Schedule is up here.

PANELS I AM ON:

Crossing over from fan fiction to pro writing: Pros, cons, weirdnesses, how-tos
Friday, March 13, 3 p.m. EST
Other panelists: Karen Miller, positive pat, Saundra Mitchell

They may do things differently there, but I'm reading from here: How do we, as readers, negotiate the borders between fiction and commentary, between when it's about the human condition, and when it's about us?
Friday, March 13th, 8 p.m. EST
Other panelists: Alma Alexander, Maureen Kincaid Speller, a_d_medievalist

Author chat: Debut 2009 SF/Fantasy novelists session
Saturday, March 14th, 9 a.m. EST
Other panelists: Lisa Mantchev, Jenny Moss, Saundra Mitchell, Deva Fagan

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Please drop by the community and comment on the threads with your questions and contributions! LJ means it's never too late to participate!

I'm delighted to announce that at the kind invitation of jamesbow and the Festival committee, I will be making my first official appearance as a Real Proper Author on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival in Kitchener, Ontario.

According to this here Festival Program, I'll be sharing a panel with the aforementioned james_bow and SF author James Alan Gardner, discussing "Teens, Fiction, YouTube and the Internet". I'm honored and excited to be taking part in the Festival and really looking forward to the discussion.

I know this is pretty unlikely where most of you are concerned, but if you should happen to be at the Festival around 2:30 p.m., please drop in and say hello!