Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: Marie Prins. Take it away, Marie!
I came to writing for children late in life, well after my own children had grown and left home. But books and stories have always been a big part of my life, even before my mother taught me to read at age five. Through childhood and my teens they were a welcome refuge. In university I read piles of them as an English major. As an adult, I sold them in bookstores, and later as a reading tutor, I helped children learn to read them. My frustration with finding phonetic readers lead me to writing children’s stories, but not to crafting a single reader. Instead, inspired in a children’s writing course, I embarked on a decade long journey to write a time-travel, dual narrative middle-grade novel. Before its publication in 2020, I decided to try crafting something shorter, something simpler, something easier, like picture book stories. Hah! Little did I realize I had entered another writing universe! Unsurprisingly, my attempts read like short stories, interesting ones but definitely not picture books. Get your word count down, suggested my critique partners. Drop those adjectives! Make room for the illustrator!
Well, okay, I thought, as my dog nudged my leg for a walk. Let’s try this out on a familiar scenario. What if I was too busy to get that leash? And he nosed the door open? Where would he go? What would he do? Not long after these musings were answered, I had written the first draft of Who’s Walking Dawg?, minus its ending. Of course, Dawg had to return home. Would he or his family change their slightly negligent behaviour? Probably not. Family life is super busy. But parents and children love their pets and do their best to look after their needs. Dawg’s ending with a twist reassures readers that even when the ball is dropped, things work out at the end of the day.
Bev Brenna at Red Deer Press suggested Leanne Franson as the perfect illustrator to bring Dawg to life. Her dog choices are just right! I love Dawg portrayed as a big, energetic pooch who bounces through the pages of his story. After seeing his happy face grinning at me in the initial sketches, I couldn’t think of him any other way, first begging the members of his multi-racial family for a walk and then on the last pages revelling in their love.
Who’s Walking Dawg? was released on November 15, 2024 in Canada and will become available in the United States on February 1, 2025.
Marie Prins is a semi-retired remedial reading tutor who lives in a historic house in Colborne, Ontario, close to Lake Ontario, with her husband and just Max the Cat. Her books and other writing can be found on her website www.marieprins.ca and on Instagram @Marie.Prins.
