When the party's over

It was a fine time at the Forest of Trees awards last week. The day began with some rain but sure enough the sun came out for the ceremony. (Jan Andrews was the winner of the Silver Birch Express Award.)

The first photo is of two of the posters put up for kids to sign with messages for the author. Mine's on the left, Monica Kulling's is on the right. (Thanks, Monica, for sending me the photo.) Pretty nice! The second photo is from the workshop on the banjo that I gave. My friends Rachel (fiddle) and Conny (guitar) are playing a couple of tunes with me. I'm on my homemade banjo. It was a good time. (Thanks to teacher Jane Mundell for the photo.)

The Trees are coming, the Trees are coming!

Last month I had a great tour of northern New Brunswick, ending up in Moncton for the spectacular Hackmatack Awards ceremony. I was up for 'Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas' and no, I didn't win. But I'm used to that. And the winner, Hugh Brewster, was a very worthy choice. I also got to spend a little time with him and he's a very swell person. He actually writes about important things. And coming up next week are the Forest of Tree awards. I'll be down at Harbourfront on Wednesday, duking it out for the Silver Birch Express Award. My nominated book is "Banjo of Destiny." I'm doing a workshop as well and have roped in two musician friends, Conny and Rachel, so we can play a couple of tunes on fiddle, banjo, and guitar. They're pros, so only I'll be nervous! In other news, I'll soon be posting the cover image of my new kids' novel on the bog here. And my new picture book, for that matter. Some of you may have read the post about my upcoming book of short stories (an adult book, this), 'My Life Among the Apes.' It was supposed to come out in April but has been delayed. I'll post the new pub date when I have it.