Lori Weber's Blog, page 4

Final Windy Thoughts

Saying goodbye to my dear friend, Fran, was not easy. Who knows when I'll see her again. Winnipeg is far away and we are all far too busy in our lives. What healthier and happier people we would all be if we made more time for friendship. Good friends are, in my view, the key ingredient to a happy life. How wonderful it was to sit with Fran and simply talk. She remembers me from way back, before I became a published writer, when I was a young student just starting to take creative writing...

Windy Corner: Portage and Main

A fierce wind is blowing through still-dark Winnipeg and from my hotel window I am watching the flags below flap like wild in the wind. Bright green candy-cane lights decorate the lamp-posts and a tall red and blue tree of lights shimmers at the corner of Portage and Main. I am going to miss this view. All my life I've heard people talk and even sing about Portage and Main and how it's the coldest corner in Canada. This week has not been cold; it has been unseasonably warm (well 6 - 8...

More Adventures in the Flat Land

Yesterday I worked with a wonderful group of book and writing club kids from Lockport School. The kids had read my new book, which meant I didn't have to worry about giving too much away. We worked on bringing our writing to life through concrete language: the principle of showing and not telling. The kids really caught on and they produced some wonderful lines and imagery which I know they will use in their stories.

Lockport School struck me as wonderfully designed. It is built in pods...

Whirlwind on the Prairies

Greetings from Manitoba. Now that I am back in Winnipeg, I can fill you in on my tour. I have just returned from doing presentations in Morris (where Sandra Birdsell is from, I think), Morden, Winkler and Altona (which boasts the world's largest painting on an easel - a replica of Van Gogh's Sunflowers). What a time I have had. I love the flat lands, the way you can see miles ahead, the way you don't have to hold your breath when pulling out to pass a semi because you can see so clearly a...

First Day in Winnipeg

Here is a picture of me and Fran at the Millenium Library in downtown Winnipeg, which is one of the most beautiful libraries I have ever seen, so big and bright and colourful. In the children's section (always my favourite) there were all these large stuffed animal sculptures in amazing costumes, as though the book characters had come to live. My tour mate, Jacob Berkowitz, did a very entertaining presentation using his alien puppet which had the kids riveted. During my part, I talked about F...

In Manitoba - hooray!!

Here I am, finally, after so many months of anticipation. I had an aisle seat on the plane (big chicken), but I tried to desperately to see out the window on the descent. That's may favourite part of a flight, especially when flying into a new place for the first time. What I did mainly see (over the head of a very tall man who was very into his adventure book: horses on the cover) were lots and lots of squares of farm land, laid out like a patchwork quilt of beige and brown and light green, ...

Book Lists & Reviews

I have to say, there are many exciting things about publishing a book. One of them is that new reviews pop up all the time and it is thrilling to know that someone actually took the time to read and think about what I wrote. Of course, every now and then there is a comment that niggles, but I have to say that so far (knock on a very big piece of wood), the reviews of my new book, If You Live LIke Me, have been positive.

One review that means much to me is the one published by the Cooperative ...

The Burlington Book Festival

At Borders Bookstore

This past weekend (September 26 & 27) I was in Burlington, Vermont, where I participated in the Burlington Book Festival, along with three other Montrealers: Monique Polak, Susan Mitchell and P.J. Bracegirdle. Saturday was a sunny day and the waterfront in Burlington, with its vista of the Adirondaks on the other side of Lake Champlain, was simply beautiful.

I attended a talk by David Goodman, brother of Any Goodman who hosts Democracy Now. Her video on how warped the...

Inspired by Friendship

Mi amiga Louise

Sometimes friends come from unexpected places, like Spanish class. Si si, es la verdad. Two years ago I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. Why? Because I love languages. I love rolling new words off the tongue. Each new language is a new world opening up, new people to talk to, to eavesdrop on (especially on public transport in NY and Boston).

A wonderful by-product of this venture has been making a new friend, Louise (and her wacky husband Bernard), pictured above. She is a...

Friends and Prizes

I just googled my name and book title to see what's new out there. Along with a few new blog references and library acquisitions, I discovered that the list of books submitted for this year's Quebec Writer's Federation Children's Writing Prize is out: lo and behold it has happened. My book is there, along with the books of two very close writer friends, Jane Barclay and Monique Polak. We joked about the possibility a while back. Of course, the list is of books submitted, not nominated, but...