A meditation on life, with focus on research behind stories I've inherited from my family.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
bad news, bad timing
Sunday, December 27, 2009
correction
Thursday, December 24, 2009
merry christmas/frohe weihnachten
Saturday, December 19, 2009
time for reading
Saturday, December 12, 2009
what a week
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
i don't quite believe this
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Ursula Mahlendorf
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Math Truth
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Distractions
Monday, November 2, 2009
2k9
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween Setting
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Moving on...
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Yaya, Siberia
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Deflated
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sharing computers
Monday, October 19, 2009
Stalin-era research seen as a threat in Russia
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Names of people changed, too!
Friday, October 16, 2009
More Name Changes.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New launch date
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Naming and Re-naming
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Tweiback
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Good bye Prairie Horizons 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Panel
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Anita Daher
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Linda Aksomitis
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Hazel Hutchins
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Prairie Horizons Conference
We had, in total, 7 presenters sharing with us how they approach the beanstalk to achieve creative success. Before I tell you about them - let me first mention the obvious - they had to believe in that beanstalk before they could climb it. That was the neatest part about this weekend gathering in Lumsden - we were all there because we believed in the magic of words and images. And there's just something so empowering in hanging out with people who think like you ... and people who've faced some of the same frustrations and joys.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Climbing the Beanstalk
Monday, September 14, 2009
Eating crow
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Book Trailer (tweaked!)
Friday, September 4, 2009
Dreams
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Nursing homes
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Margarete Buber-Neumann
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Anne Laurel Carter
Friday, August 7, 2009
Finding my inner dog
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
1945 rapings
Thursday, July 23, 2009
presentationzen
Friday, July 17, 2009
Marilyn French
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Folk Fest
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Book Cover

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Happy Canada Day!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Jonathan Brent
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Reading "Inside the Stalin Archives" (but outside)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Scent of lilacs
Monday, May 25, 2009
Robert Harris's Fatherland
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Colleen Sydor
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Victory Day
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Felines
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Prairie Horizons Conference
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Red Cross WWI records
Monday, April 20, 2009
More Historical Fiction Favorites
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Book Forest
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Historical Fiction
As a child of immigrants, I couldn’t find my family’s story in the Dick and Jane
books we had to read in elementary school. But I kept looking: first as a university student, then as a mother, and later as a writer. Turned out, I had to write my own. But the journey – the search, and the re-search - was a trip well worth taking.
Lois Lowry’s book Number the Stars (Newbery Award, 1990) opened my eyes to the power of historical fiction for young people. And once opened, my eyes couldn’t get enough. Here are some of my more recent favorites.
John Wilson’s Flames of the Tiger (Kids Can Press, 2003). World War II is seen through a German boy’s eyes during the final days in Berlin.
Kit Pearson’s The Sky is Falling, Looking at the Moon, and The Lights Go On Again (Penquin Books) This is a great trilogy about English war guests in Canada during the war.
Leslie Wilson’s Last Train From Kummersdorf (Faber and Faber, 2003). Here children are fleeing the Russians in the chaos of 1945.
Ilse Koehn’s Mischling, Second Degree (re-released by Puffin Books, 1990). This book is a survivor’s story about growing up in a Nazi country.
My hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba welcomed many post-war European immigrants. Some became writers. Eva Wiseman wrote several books about her background as a child in communist Hungary. Her books include My Canary Yellow Star, which was on the New York Library Best Books list. A more recent book, Kanada, (Tundra Books, 2006) was a finalist for Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award. And I’ve just bought her newest book, Puppet, which I can’t wait to read. It’s set in Hungary in 1882 and deals with a less known time of conflict between Christians and Jews.
Kathy Kacer is a Canadian who also writes historical fiction based on family. Her book, The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser (Second Story Press, 1999) is set in Czechoslovakia.
Another local author who’s a must-read is the prolific Carol Matas. Lisa (1987) and Jesper (1989) are two books that deal with the Danish resistance during WWII.
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch lives in Ontario. She’s written about the Armenian Genocide in books like Aram’s Choice and Daughter of War. Kobzar’s Childrenis a young adult collection of stories that she edited. It shares the voices of unheard Ukrainians. Enough (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000 with Michael Martchenko as the illustrator) is a picture book about the Holodomor – death by hunger during the 1932 famine in what today is again Ukraine. Viktor Yushchenko - the current president of Ukraine – has awarded her his country's highest honor.
Barbara Smucker’s book, Days of Terror, (Puffin, 1981) deals with the years immediately after the 1917 Russian Revolution. It’s about the tense and violent period just before the setting of my own fall-release book, The Kulak’s Daughter.
I could go on. These books are but a sampling of what's available. Good books, good stories, good histories. Considering our countries are filled with people who come from foreign lands because of war, persecution, homelessness, and economics, it’s no wonder authors continue to write their family’s his- stories. They’re our-stories. The days of Dick and Jane are long over.
So, what's your favorite historical fiction book? What's your-story?
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Plotting or just plodding?
Friday, April 10, 2009
Signs of spring in Winnipeg
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Unknown Gulag by Lynne Viola
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Focus on the Positive

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Bull Rider

I especially like reading books by people I've met - either for real, (of course, that's the best), or through the internet- (which is becoming a great substitute).
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time management
Monday, March 16, 2009
about time
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Chetnia: Readings from Russia
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Happy 90, Mom!
Every life is a story and each starts the same way. Once upon a time a baby was born. Today, ninety years ago, my mother was born. Here's nine decades at a glance.
1989 Elsie's a 70 year old grandma. She crochets, chats, and travels - enjoying the golden years of retirement with the added pleasure of
2009 Now Elsie is 90 years old and yet another adventure begins. She has a new home in a nursing care facility - for now, here at Tuxedo Villa. Arthritis and osteoporosis have crippled her body, but her mind is still clear and she struggles to come to terms with her physical limitations.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!