Maureen Bush's Blog, page 25

Contest Winners

We have a winner. Well, two, actually.

The magic spell contest for howweirdcanyouget.com has closed, and I have chosen my favorites. You can see them here: http://www.howweirdcanyouget.com/index_contest_winner_2012spring.html

The entries were wonderful. Besides the spells Griffith chose to work on this summer, there were many more, including wonderful words, like flazer and wizinko, disappearist and reappearist, and gothrow, mothrogh, cashmerish apearis, ruducto, and amobula. Wow.

There were also some stories from young writers that charmed me.

Thanks to everyone who entered,

Maureen

Writing Again

I’ve been away from writing for too long. Oh, I’ve been writing and thinking and reading. But not writing for hours at a time. A daughter in town, friends from Scotland, school visits, a book launch, and ongoing renovations have fragmented my time into moments and bits of work.

(The launch went well, despite a spring snow storm. The tattoos didn’t arrive in time, but there were spiders for a scavenger hunt, and prizes.)

Today I’m settling back into writing, in the hours before and after the counter installation and plumbing disaster. And I feel good. It’s such a pleasure to write, to settle into a story for a little while and play.

I’ve been thinking about what writers do to play, and I think this is it – we write. We might do other things too, but the joy comes in writing.

Maureen

A Fun Week

Tuesday morning I drove through the rain to Cochrane, for a couple of sessions with the grade 4 English students at Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School. Half a class was stolen by a giant gopher, and while most were rescued, a few kids chose to remain as gophers, exploring a new land filled with strange creatures. Then we discovered a class infiltrated by alien androids, who were defeated by the rest of the class with the help of a superhero librarian with a book of spells.

Now I get to wrap up the contest and spend a couple of days hanging out with friends from Scotland, and then on Saturday I launch The Veil Weavers. I’ve been promised a spider scavenger hunt and tattoos. Being a kids writer is so much fun!

Maureen

Launching The Veil Weavers

It’s time to launch The Veil Weavers, third in the Veil of Magic trilogy.

If you’re in Calgary, please come:

Saturday, May 5, at 2:00 pm

Monkeyshines Children’s Books

113, 2215 – 33rd Ave. S.W., Calgary

Amber from Coteau has planned a Spider scavenger hunt, but don’t ask me anything about it, because I don’t know! I love a surprise.

I hope to see you there,

Maureen

 

April in the Rockies

We spent a lovely day in the mountains. A rare morning fog hid the view as we drove west, until it lifted in a patch to show us a stunning mountain peak, visible through a hole in the fog as if it was a portal into another world.

Lake Minnewanka was still frozen; we explored the ice and discovered fascinating ice crystals, carefully packed spears of ice that broke from each other when we kicked at the ledge of ice.

 

Calgary Young Writers Conference

I spent Saturday in the brilliant chaos that is the Calgary Young Writers Conference. Fortunately, my host Kristen and I figured out a back route to our room, so we didn’t have to swim in the sardine can getting back and forth from the library where the writers hang out.

We created a wizard disguised as Kristen, and an alien who ate, well, pretty much everything. Then the kids wrote their own stories. I was impressed with how hard they worked, heads down, frantically scribbling out their notes in the too-little time we had.

I spoke to other writers who had just as much fun, cartooning on post-it notes and writing about volcano cats. I love the wild creativity that emerges at events like this.

Maureen

They’re Here!!!

The Veil Weavers have arrived, and they’re gorgeous. The colours are icy, perfect for a winter mountain story. It’s now my favorite cover of the Veil of Magic books.

I’m doing two sessions at the Calgary Young Writers Conference tomorrow, and I’ve been checking to make sure there would be copies for the bookstore. I received an email this morning – they’re here. But mine hadn’t arrived yet.

I worried that the first book I’d get to hold would be one a student brought me for signing. I figured that might be exciting for them, but not, perhaps, for me. But I got home from an errand and the box was waiting on my doorstep. Now I can take my own copy to the conference.

Maureen

The Veil Weavers Web Page

The Veil Weavers page on my website is finished. Well, it’s not quite finished. There’s a map and photos coming, and some tweaking, but the basic page is up. I love the coldness of it – makes me want to put on a sweater. Which is most appropriate for this winter-in-the-mountains story.

http://www.maureenbush.com/_book_theveilweavers/

Maureen

Contest Closing

The contest for howweirdcanyouget.com closes on May 1.

Griffith the wizard is looking for magical ideas to develop for his store – if you have a good one, send it in. Lots of great ideas have arrived, but he’s always looking for more.

He’s a little disappointed he hasn’t received any entries from adults. Only kids can win, but he likes to see what craziness adults come up with, too.

Maureen

Test Post

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum.

Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem.

Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum. Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima.

Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum.