Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children's writers! Today's guest: Farida Mizra. Take it away, Farida! My memories of growing up in pre-digital South East Asia are rich with images of living in extended families, ... Read More
Today, on Forest Friday, we're going to take a deeper dive behind the scenes into the process of revision. I'm going to share every draft of the first scene in The Boreal Forest (pages 8-9), and explain how the ... Read More
Happy Star Wars Day, and welcome to my post about the science of this iconic series. Because my scientific expertise is strictly terrestrial, and because I am one of about three people on this planet who isn't really sure ... Read More
The boreal forest is generally considered a northern forest, because boreal species, like pines and birch and rhododendrons, thrive in cooler climates. But cool climates are also found at high altitudes, so boreal forests extend into mountain ranges along ... Read More
For the last few months, we've been looking at the purpose of different genres of writing, and the way the purpose of a document affects our approach to the task. Most of those columns focused on academic writing, but ... Read More
Sunbeams dance in a birch grove, sparkling off the morning dew. Rat-a-tat-a-tat! A northern flicker drums on a burned stump, then flutters to the soil. It pecks and scratches, licking up ants with its long tongue. In a puddle ... Read More
I like to say that I’m very lucky because I have two careers. I’m a registered nurse – currently working part-time – but I’m also an author/illustrator/artist. My debut picture book, Pirate Year Round, was published last May and ... Read More
My previous books cover a wide range of age groups and topics, but they all have one thing in common: they are illustrated with photographs. The Boreal Forest was the first book I've ever written that has illustrations instead. ... Read More
This world appeared to me as I stood looking out across an inlet of the Red Sea. It was night and the dark spread out in front of me like a void. There was a far-off shore, contoured with ... Read More
Now available - a FREE activity guide for use with your copy of The Boreal Forest! It includes suggestions for science, social studies, and language arts, and will help support a variety of elementary school curriculum outcomes. Not to ... Read More
Oh, Inhumans. I so wanted to like you, mostly due to my enduring crush on Anson Mount (or rather, Cullen Bohannon of Hell on Wheels). Sadly, I spent most of the time I was "watching" you making dinner, doing ... Read More
I will be doing an online reading from The Boreal Forest TODAY as part of the #KCPSpringReading Relay. The video will go live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at 2:30 EST, but when it's over, it's gone. Don't ... Read More
Personal statements and letters of intent... with the possible exception of the dissertation, there are no forms of academic writing quite as likely to turn an ordinary student into a quivering ball of overwhelming anxiety. Deep breaths, all. I am ... Read More
Here's a sidebar that I'd originally planned to include on pages 20-21: Iceland's Lake Myvatn is famous—for flies! In summer, up to 50,000 fly larvae hide in every 1 m2 (1.2 y2) of lake bed. Many birds eat these larvae, ... Read More
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one author’s book is giving young readers and their families a chance to see the world through fresh eyes. L.E. Carmichael’s newest book, The Boreal Forest: A Year in the World’s Largest ... Read More
I am a huge fan of Lucifer, the show in which the devil gets tired of running Hell and moves to LA to run a nightclub... and solve crimes. It's a ridiculous premise that shouldn't work at all, and ... Read More
As promised, here's everything you need to know about my International Day of Forests Twitter Party, including how you can enter to win an exclusive Day of Forests Prize Pack! Note, this prize pack is different than the giveaway ... Read More
I remember the first time I heard about the use of pathetic fallacy in literature. You know: ascribing human emotions to nature in order to give the reader a sense of mood or a hint of what is to ... Read More