December 2016

I had the pleasure of visiting an amazing Grade 6 classroom at J. B. Mitchell this past Friday – thank you to your wonderful teacher for the invitation! Many students had read my latest book My Best Friend is a Viral Dancing Zombie (‘Zombie’ for short – LOL) and had lots of questions for me about the book and the writing process.

Wait.

Did I say ‘lots’? I mean dozens and dozens and DOZENS of questions, all thoughtful and prepared with care in advance – wow! Great questions. Questions that made me think, some questions that I’ve never heard before (that’s a big deal – I’ve worked with THOUSANDS of students and heard lots of great questions!). We talked about emotions and their connection to writing, what makes a character change and behave in certain ways throughout a story, the biggest challenges in the writing of a story, and what to do with ideas that don’t seem to be going anywhere (…YET!). As your teacher reminded you, you are all writers, so while the questions were directed at me, I was also impressed by the insights you had to share about story writing. I’m sure you’re going to dive in with enthusiasm when you work on creative writing projects later in the year!

Thank you so much for your warm reception (on a very cold day). Your energy inspired me and kept me going for the rest of the weekend. Writing can be lonely at many stages (well, maybe not ‘lonely’, but certainly an “alone” sort of thing!) so getting to share my stories with a real, live group of wonderful people is very exciting and rewarding for me. Thank you!

Have a great year!

Till we meet again,
Karin

P.S. Thank you for the thoughtful, colourful card signed by everyone, and the J.B. Mitchell gifts – they’re terrific and I will put them to good use!