First Day
Posted by Robin Stevenson
This is our first day on the Northern leg of the tour… and this is actually going to be a week of firsts for me. First book tour, first time in the north, first time away from my not-quite-five year old. And believe it or not, first ever blog post. Despite considerable peer pressure, I am a committed non-blogger. .
Until now I guess. And it is funny: Knowing that I should post my first blog entry tonight has been making me notice things differently all day. If a student asked a particularly interesting question, I’d think hmmm. Can I work that into the blog? If we drove past some spectacular scenery—which we did—I’d think I wonder if I could describe that well enough to write about it. Or would that be boring? I wish something really funny would happen. When Bryan, who is our fabulous driver and fearless leader, said “If we hit a moose, duck,” I thought, Wow, that’d be an exciting blog post. Assuming I ducked fast enough.”.
Of course, to some extent I do this all the time anyway—scavenge my daily life for potential material for my writing. I imagine most writers’ lives become fodder for their writing in one way or another. But I write novels, so the truthful details that work their way into my writing are usually well disguised. Sure, my name is on the cover of the book but the readers don’t know the exact relationship between the story and my life. They can’t tell which the true bits are. And I kind of like it that way. I like the freedom that fiction provides. I can make my stories exciting because they don’t have to be true.
Hmmm. Maybe if I could write fictional blog posts. Think of the potential for drama, intrigue, suspense…
But as it turns out the day really was filled with excitement. I spent the morning in Terrace and the afternoon in Kitimat, and in both towns I met with wonderfully enthusiastic groups of students in grades four to seven. Their energy level, love of reading and passion for creating stories was incredibly inspiring, and listening to them talk about their favorite books and why they love them reminded me of my own passion for reading at that age. Collectvely, the kids came up with their own fictional characters: in Terrace, a 10 year old boy who desperately wanted two things—a dog, and and to be taller than his younger sister; and in Kitimat, a fabulous home-schooled skateboarding 12 year old called Katie, with blue streaked hair, two good friends, and divorced parents who were tearing her in two different directions with their constant fighting. We talked about the myriad of stories that could be written about those characters, and about the fact that each student would have their own story and their own way of telling it.
I hope some of them will write their stories down.
Monica Miller
Apr 15, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Fantastic first blog post! Great quotes too, very funny.
I really like the activities you describe with the students. Very inspiring!