Kate Inglis's Blog, page 8
September 13, 2016
Word on the Street
I'm thrilled to be presenting, reading, growling, and signing copies of If I Were A Zombie at this weekend's Word on the Street Festival in Halifax! Bring your little beasts to the festival's wonderful homebase of the Halifax Central Library this Saturday, September 17, 2016:
10:45 AM — 12 noon: Signing @ Nimbus Publishing Booth
12 noon — 1 PM: Reading @ BMO Community Room
1 PM — 1:30 PM: Signing @ Bookmark Booth
2 PM — 3 PM: Signing and play @ Hal-Con Booth
I'll be bringing as much of my tickle trunk as I can carry—hope to see you there!
September 12, 2016
My favourite mail
A post office box full of werewolves? Yes, please.
Every now and then, a lovely sparkly teacher will take a roomful of giggling first-graders—fresh after I've left, hoarse and growling my way back down the hall to the school parking lot—and say Okay kiddos. You like poems about zombies and aliens and sea monsters? Let's make our own! What's it gonna be? And the kids shout CYCLOPS! or YETI! and they upturn a box of crayons and off they go.
I've gotten piles of paper held into a bundle with paperclips, elastic bands, scotch tape. Even once, a 6-foot-high thank-you banner to hang in my house. It's like monster Christmas morning! See? Silly werewolves. Big-hearted werewolves. Werewolves eating doughnuts. Regular kids, imagining regular life in irregularly power-full, growly ways. Funny, big-smiling stuff.
Look at me! I am BIG. I am NOT LITTLE. GRRRR! HA HA!
I am a WEREWOLF! And THE SUN! RAINBOW WEREWOLF!
Thanks, kids. And teachers—keep growling. Keep nudging those little beasts. We love you so much for all those nudges.
September 5, 2016
Skipping stones
"To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."
—Bill Watterson
With thanks, as always, to Windhorse Farm for the always-holy, always-peaceful wander..
Being quiet and skipping stones
"To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."
—Bill Watterson
With thanks, as always, to Windhorse Farm for the always-holy, always-peaceful wander..
July 27, 2016
Monster-love!
"If I Were a Zombie is a boisterous trip through the twisted and often gory delights of a child’s imagination. This is a picture book that is fun and gross at the same time: what could be better?
...Inglis knows just what appeals to children, and gleefully presents us with a sea monster that eats squid lips and fish guts, a ninja that eats Boston cream doughnuts, and a burping goblin. Orchard has just as much fun with his exuberant illustrations: my favourite is Poppy as a filthy fairy swinging from a tree branch. This is a delightful, entertaining book that is sure to be a hit with kids." —National Reading Campaign
"If I Were a Zombie is an entertaining book that showcases the endless possibilities of imagination. There is a great sense of energy in these pages—a fun read with a lot of potential for active play.
...Poppy and Evan each create poems as they fantasize about being a variety of strange and exciting creatures, from monsters to mermaids. Since the characters of the story use the poems as part of a game, it’s easy to imagine these lines being enthusiastically delivered out loud. If I Were a Zombie is a great choice for anyone who loves monsters, poetry, and imagination." —CM Magazine
Get your copy of If I Were A Zombie today! Go little and ship internationally with Woozles, Lexicon, or your local bookshop—or hit up Chapters or Amazon. You can even order direct from Nimbus!
The National Reading Campaign and CM Magazine love zombies!
"If I Were a Zombie is a boisterous trip through the twisted and often gory delights of a child’s imagination. This is a picture book that is fun and gross at the same time: what could be better?
...Inglis knows just what appeals to children, and gleefully presents us with a sea monster that eats squid lips and fish guts, a ninja that eats Boston cream doughnuts, and a burping goblin. Orchard has just as much fun with his exuberant illustrations: my favourite is Poppy as a filthy fairy swinging from a tree branch. This is a delightful, entertaining book that is sure to be a hit with kids." —National Reading Campaign
"If I Were a Zombie is an entertaining book that showcases the endless possibilities of imagination. There is a great sense of energy in these pages—a fun read with a lot of potential for active play.
...Poppy and Evan each create poems as they fantasize about being a variety of strange and exciting creatures, from monsters to mermaids. Since the characters of the story use the poems as part of a game, it’s easy to imagine these lines being enthusiastically delivered out loud. If I Were a Zombie is a great choice for anyone who loves monsters, poetry, and imagination." —CM Magazine
Get your copy of If I Were A Zombie today! Go little and ship internationally with Woozles, Lexicon, or your local bookshop—or hit up Chapters or Amazon. You can even order direct from Nimbus!
July 12, 2016
Launching monsters
If I Were A Zombie came out and we roared; tattooed; giggled; make-upped; ripped and tore; giggled some more. And then I collapsed for near-on three months in a heap, a hermit heap. For weeks I've been a real-live zombie: big painty t-shirts and muddy knees and UUUNNNNGGH when I creeeeeeak out of bed the next day and shuffle over to the pile of big painty t-shirts on the floor. Mountains of topsoil and mountains of blue granite and even the wheelbarrow makes that sound—UUUNNNNGGH—and that's how three months pass in a blink.
But then I remember that kid who pulled out every little thing from the tickle trunk like Hmmmm... Hmmmm... until he found his preferred face: a steampunk burglar. And I think It's already been three months! It's out in the world! and I realize I've been buried in topsoil and blue granite. And so let's raise every glass of green monster punch to Nimbus, Eric Orchard, Woozles, the Halifax Zombie Walk folks, and every other little goblin, robot, and alien who came out to the book launch at the Halifax Central Library to celebrate. Brains!
Families came nice and early to get dolled-up. Early worms got the pick of costumes, from pirate captains to spooky bats. Except with all those giggles, spooky? Nah. Properly costumed, power and magic is funny. Being fearsome, growly, larger than life—all funny. Contagiously so.
We doodled! We shouted! We ran around in circles with great big rubber balls! A storyboard cartoonist for How To Train Your Dragon drew monster portraits! Friends in high places. It was such a great party, I almost forgot we had a book to launch.
Public readings of this book are a rowdy business. Oh my gosh, the sweat. I cast aside the headset microphone because I'd be shouting anyway—yelling and snarling and zapping my ray-gun and glug-glug-blubbing my sea monster butt-dance for gross-out laughs:
I’d have stingers for fingers
Seaweed for hair
Flip-floppy gills
And a bum that’s bare.
If I were a giant
I wouldn’t be small
I’d juggle dump trucks
Put my foot through the mall.
Kids are so with it, with their hulk t-shirts and their sass. But we are not lost, fellow adults.
Buy If I Were A Zombie from e-stores—Amazon!—and real-life ones too—Halifax's Woozles! Lunenburg's Lexicon! Chapters! Direct from Nimbus! Now, for me, it's on to what comes next. I'm already adding topsoil to the baby shoots of brand-new books, and hoping—fingers crossed—that they'll emerge from the dirt and grow, and maybe, just maybe, we'll have more dress-up musical dance-around launch parties. Until then, monster-friends!
In addition to Nimbus, Eric Orchard, Woozles, the Halifax Zombie Walk, the Halifax Central Library, and all who joined us for such a terrific afternoon, many thanks to photographer Tammi Hayne for capturing the day, and to Katy Hopkins of The Picture House—video is imminent!
Zombies launched!
If I Were A Zombie came out and we roared; tattooed; giggled; make-upped; ripped and tore; giggled some more. And then I collapsed for near-on three months in a heap, a hermit heap. For weeks I've been a real-live zombie: big painty t-shirts and muddy knees and UUUNNNNGGH when I creeeeeeak out of bed the next day and shuffle over to the pile of big painty t-shirts on the floor. Mountains of topsoil and mountains of blue granite and even the wheelbarrow makes that sound—UUUNNNNGGH—and that's how three months pass in a blink.
But then I remember that kid who pulled out every little thing from the tickle trunk like Hmmmm... Hmmmm... until he found his preferred face: a steampunk burglar. And I think It's already been three months! It's out in the world! and I realize I've been buried in topsoil and blue granite. And so let's raise every glass of green monster punch to Nimbus, Eric Orchard, Woozles, the Halifax Zombie Walk folks, and every other little goblin, robot, and alien who came out to the book launch at the Halifax Central Library to celebrate. Brains!
Families came nice and early to get dolled-up. Early worms got the pick of costumes, from pirate captains to spooky bats. Except with all those giggles, spooky? Nah. Properly costumed, power and magic is funny. Being fearsome, growly, larger than life—all funny. Contagiously so.
We doodled! We shouted! We ran around in circles with great big rubber balls! A storyboard cartoonist for How To Train Your Dragon drew monster portraits! Friends in high places. It was such a great party, I almost forgot we had a book to launch.
Public readings of this book are a rowdy business. Oh my gosh, the sweat. I cast aside the headset microphone because I'd be shouting anyway—yelling and snarling and zapping my ray-gun and glug-glug-blubbing my sea monster butt-dance for gross-out laughs:
I’d have stingers for fingers
Seaweed for hair
Flip-floppy gills
And a bum that’s bare.
If I were a giant
I wouldn’t be small
I’d juggle dump trucks
Put my foot through the mall.
Kids are so with it, with their hulk t-shirts and their sass. But we are not lost, fellow adults.
Buy If I Were A Zombie from e-stores—Amazon!—and real-life ones too—Halifax's Woozles! Lunenburg's Lexicon! Chapters! Direct from Nimbus! Now, for me, it's on to what comes next. I'm already adding topsoil to the baby shoots of brand-new books, and hoping—fingers crossed—that they'll emerge from the dirt and grow, and maybe, just maybe, we'll have more dress-up musical dance-around launch parties. Until then, monster-friends!
In addition to Nimbus, Eric Orchard, Woozles, the Halifax Zombie Walk, the Halifax Central Library, and all who joined us for such a terrific afternoon, many thanks to photographer Tammi Hayne for capturing the day, and to Katy Hopkins of The Picture House—video is imminent!
May 11, 2016
Island time
It's a pre-launch party flurry over here. Stick-on-tattoos that I'm over the moon about! Custom fabric for prize bags! Now that Ben has decided to show up as a 'zombie baseball player' to the If I Were A Zombie Monster Mash Book Launch Party in Halifax at the Central Library (Saturday May 21st! 2-4 PM! Here's the event page on Facebook), we're visiting Frenchy's on the regular. We brought home a garbage bag full of clothes to rip and tear and slash, and realized that there's an art to monster-fying otherwise ordinary stuff. On the next sunny day: outdoors paint splattering, smushing, mud-making. By the time we're done, the tickle trunks we're bringing to the party are going to be overflowing. Take your pick!
In the meantime, we hit the idyllic Prince Edward Island for a book reading event put on by the excellent Bookmark in Charlottetown, and for two super-exciting CBC Radio interviews. When you're nine and eleven years old, this is how you show 'We Are Grateful To Be Here And Will Be On Our Best Behaviour':
Here's my interview with the lazy-day soundtrack DJ and all-around super-nice Bill Roach of the maritime-region show Weekend Mornings—during which Bill reminded me that not everyone knows what a tickle trunk even is, heaven forbid!
I don't think Evan and Ben will ever fully recover from their backstage pass to the CBC Charlottetown studios for our interview with Karen Mair for Mainstreet. They were dancing in the control room through the whole thing, and waving! LOOK! OVER HERE! Then, stars and rainbows! Karen suggested that they might do one of the 'You are listening to CBC Radio' plugs. So they got all hooked up, with big headphones and everything, and tried it. Then tried it again. Then tried it again. It's worth a listen, because it's that sort of giggle that's got fairydust in it, don't you think?
The whole thing—four takes, crack-ups, and all—was live on the air throughout the program. It's below, after the 'Spintime' interview, like an ice cream cone after supper. Many thanks, CBC Radio! You are on in my kitchen forever.
May 9, 2016
'Kid and grown-up delight': the first 'zombie' review!
photos by Kerry Clare
"What I do like is a beautiful picture book, a kid-friendly one that my children delight in as much as I do, and so to that end, the undead notwithstanding, Kate Inglis’ latest book, If I Were A Zombie, illustrated by Eric Orchard, totally delivers. This is a book with zombies and ninjas after all. But there is more to it than that—this is a book about exploring all kinds of being, about possibilities, and adventure, and dreaming up stories for our lives."
Thrills! Read the whole review over at Kerry Clare's Pickle Me This.
