Authors agree, the best stories often spring from messy beginnings

To celebrate the release of my new chapter book, Mystery of the Missing Luck, I’ve been going on a virtual book tour, doing guest posts on several blogs (including the blogs of CWILL members kc dyer and Tanya Lloyd Kyi). In this post, I’d like to tell you about an event I participated in last Saturday (May 7), hosted by the Bob Prittie Metrotown Library and the BC Children’s Literature Roundtable to cap off TD Children’s Book Week. During Book Week (April 30-May in 2011), Canadian children’s book authors and illustrators tour schools, libraries and other locations across the country, sharing their love of books and creating.

At Saturday’s Metrotown Library event in Burnaby local authors Alison Acheson, Max Tell, Sara Leach, Denise Jaden, Rebecca Kool, PJ Sarah Collins, and I joined touring author Ted Staunton (visiting from Ontario) to share insights into our “Best Mess,” the creative and sometimes messy proces each of us goes through when writing a story. Ted told of the “messy” beginnings of his picture book, Puddleman, which started as a story he wrote as a child and evolved into the first of his many published books for kids.

If you didn’t make it to Saturday’s event, some of the highlights you missed:

Ted Staunton’s giant sandwich…

Max Tell’s musical storytelling…

Alison Acheson’s slippers… and Denise Jaden’s excitement…

Rebecca Kool’s thunder-maker (with a little help from a member of the audience)…

Sara Leach’s ferryboat noises…. and Jacqueline Pearce’s beckoning cat imitation…

Ted’s chicken song…

book signings (Sara Leach at left, PJ Sarah Collins at right), and more.

So, budding authors, don’t be afraid to make a little mess!

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