Mimi Power and Magnifico: an author's blog

There's no denying anyone who spends any time boating the West Coast has a little Captain Vancouver in them, and it's Vancouver who provides Grant Lawrence's Adventures in Solitude  with numerous woeful observations of Desolation Sound. Through his spyglass looking landward, the Captain saw: "not a single prospect that was pleasing to the eye" and thusly marked on his map the part of the northern end of the Strait of Georgia with one downer of a moniker. So the Captain wasn't one to accentuate the positive in his memoirs. But Lawrence, who first hated, then loved, then loathed and has since come to love again his family's little part of this paradise sees both the fair weather and the foul. Not to mention all the people inbetween the Sound's sea and sky. Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and other stories from Desolution Sound comes   complete with a cast of characters that include a motley assortment of root 'em/ shoot ...

Dahanu Road Prepare for your senses to be overwhelmed. Anosh Irani's storytelling powers are many, and he brings them to bear in this tragic love story.

The Red Garden For as long as I can remember, I've loved a good bear story. And, for almost as long, the writing of Alice Hoffman. In The Red Garden, Hoffman weaves generations of Blackwellians with the bears on the outskirts of their lives. A totem animal, a creature of myth and reality, the bear shadows the stories of Hoffman's human characters, and creates an unbroken thread down through the centuries of the town of Blackwell, Massachusetts—that twins to the ties of love, courage and family connecting her characters.

"Wait for Me!" There is a bittersweet and precious perspective that comes from being by far the youngest sibling in an extraordinary family. In the case of the Mitfords, that place belongs to Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and she has done it justice in her memoirs "Wait for Me!". At 91, the Duchess is today the last surviving member of "all those Mitford brains" (back-handed by the "brittle" Wallis Simpson in referring once to Deborah and her sisters). "Wait for Me!" is a captivating credit to the Duchess' share of "those brains" and the many extraordinary people who have been part of her remarkable life. Ticklish nicknames pepper the pages: "Muv", "Farve", "Decca", "Weenie", "Kick"... are among those fondly remembered by the Duchess, who herself was known to her family as "Debo", "Stubbo", and "Stublow" since the days when her ch...

I have never heard a more moving tribute to the great life experience that is the elementary school track meet, than the one by Alexander MacLeod, author of Light Lifting . You can listen to it now, as read by MacLeod, on the July 8th, 2011 podcast edition of "Ideas" titled "Footprints" rebroadcast in July as a segment of CBC Radio's "Listener's Choice". Find it at cbc.ca/podcasting and be prepared to be uplifted.

A wryly observant handmaiden to the Empress Sadako in ancient Japan (Sei Shonagon). An Englishwoman with an encyclopedic knowledge of housekeeping (Isabella Beeton). An adventurer who dined on hippo and hunted African beetles (Mary Kingsley). The wife of a whaler who spent a year at sea (Mary Hayden Russell). A former slave, cruelly treated for many years, who devoted the free years of her life to helping others (Harriet Ann Jacobs). Curious? I know. These five are just a few of Marthe Jocelyn's Scribbling Women . Jocelyn's nimble writing and smart selection of unique lives and telling details creates an utterly engaging read for twelve-and-ups. My copy is going straight to Daughter Number One when I'm done. Which won't be long-- Scribbling Women is a true page-turner.

"The urge to build, to transform nature, to make something out of nothing is universal. But to conserve, to protect, to care for the past is something we have to learn..." --from Reef by Romesh Gunesekera

Not your average Joes It's been a season of Joes. First, back in March, was the Joe who gave Daughter #1 her first skiing lesson. Joe Stephens, an instructor at Big White . We were there while Husband took a few photographs; none of us had any plans (or ability, really) to ski. We shared a gondola ride with Joe up to the Village, and his boisterous British enthusiasm convinced our 12-year-old to "give it a go". She did, she loved it, and we'll always remember him as "Give it a Go, Joe". This past week, Husband and I had the privilege of meeting a new Joe-- Joe Calendino (shown above, as photographed by Husband). This Joe's a survivor--he lived through the grim depths of gang life and drug addiction to emerge healthy, sober and now working to help at-risk youth make better life choices. Joe Calendino's life story became the inspiration behind the gritty stage play, Let Me Up! which, after successful runs in Vancouver and Surrey, took full-house aud...

Change is afoot. Mammoth change. Every conversation I have about books these days, I'm looking for the answer to the question: "What is the future of printed books?" No one is entirely sure, whether they become curios of bygone days, or succeed in holding their own as e-books and book apps take their place on the literary stage. Six months ago, I was afraid for "the book". Not so anymore. Because the one thing that everyone who answers the question is sure of is that stories will survive. So I'm going to believe there's room for both, and that readerships will only improve thanks to the online word. One can either sit on the sidelines, or park one's fears there, stride on in and find out what the opportunities are. Thinking this way, I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before I get in on the App. In the meantime, I'm learning all I can. And one mentor I'd recommend to any writer, or creator, is Crystal Stranaghan . That's Cry...

So much better than the trip last year! Scroll down to April 4, 2010's posting to see what I mean.

Just today signed a new book contract with Tradewind Books here in Vancouver! Details, and some teasers from the story, to follow in future entries. Stay tuned!

Finding "Baby Octopus" is our absolute favourite summer memory. Who ever sees them this small? My older daughter found it in a tidepool on a beach on Denman Island. When I was her age (11) we would sometimes see them off the James Bay breakwater in Victoria, but they were full grown giants by then, sculling about. We let this little guy go into his tidepool shortly after the picture was taken, and when a tiny crab tried to pinch a tentacle, he shot away under a rock, feisty as a firecracker!

I've been thinking a lot lately about Nobody Particular while scanning the paper for the latest on the oil leak into the Gulf. Everyone's attention span these days is like a computer, with multiple windows open, one of them constantly fixed on a little window on that leaking pipe and whether or not they've fixed that gushing catastrophe. When the top kill operation failed, something very dark settled in my mind. And that is when a remembered Nobody Particular . Molly Bang's unique rendering of the story of Diane Wilson and her fight to protect the Texas bays from rampant chemical pollution. The story is often dark, and takes discouraging turns, which in real life must have been unimaginably difficult for Wilson. My 11-year-old daughter read our copy of Nobody Particular book after school this afternoon. When I asked her what she thought of Diane, she said, "I think she's strong". (I thought "brave", close enough!) It will take many strong Dian...

One of the things I love about accordion music is that it can go so many places in a single song. Musicians seem to travel with the notes, and where they start is not always where they wind up. It's not all neat and tidy, modern accordionists seem to want to take it everywhere it can possibly go. This conversation with Accordion Noir co-hosts Bruce and Rowan, started in the dark studio of Co-op Radio in the downtown Eastside, and then went a whole bunch of places, over to Strathcona, across the waters to James Bay in Victoria, Oak Bay Secondary (where I graduated high school), Kamloops, where the Candidos finally settled and where my Dad was raised... It was one of those talks that brings a lot of points on your life map together, I really enjoyed meeting the voices of Accordion Noir, and having the luxury of an hour's reflection. There's a special treat for those who listen right through to the end -- Rowan's hilarious takeoff of a Nine Inch Nails tune.

The guidebooks all agreed: May and June are the best time of year to visit the Grand Canyon. So we went in March instead. View here the consequences, minus the skin-chapping, finger freezing feeling of standing in a storm at 6,000 feet. It was unimaginable to the four of us that we would arrive at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and still not be able to SEE it. Every photograph I've ever looked at of the Grand Canyon has it bathed in the perpetual warm light. Over a mile deep in places and 277 miles long, it still seems unthinkable that weather can all but obliterate one of the world's most famous landscapes. Never underestimate, dear reader, the visual obstruction of a good snow-plus-hailstorm. Weather trumps all.

November through January is birthday season and of course, Christmas, in our house. It's the time of year when I get the least writing done, but the most cakes baked. And those cakes matter just as much as stories, as all mothers-who-write know.

Sometimes it's nice to turn off the iPod on the way home and just read a book. I finished Hadley Dyer's Johnny Kellock Died Today this way, and it was a welcomel companion. The Norman family may be a bit rough around the edges, but the wise-cracking dialogue and thoughtful observations of main character Rosalie Norman come shining through. It was a treat to spend some time around "Mama's kitchen table" with the Normans while Rosalie figured out a few things about family secrets, friendship and how far someone will go for a fresh start. No wonder Johnny Kellock wound up an award-winner so many times over.

This was such a special visit. I lug the little student accordion that I traded my mother's old wheezy one for to almost every presentation. Just for show. And I always ask if there is someone who might be able to play it, since I can't. This time, at Confederation Park in Burnaby, we were all in for a surprise. One of the students seems to have the knack of it and played the theme song from "Star Wars" as part of her repetoire. It was a great night, I signed books in the parking lot under a cold, starry sky because it was after 9 and the school had to close. I am very glad I met so many book lovers from Confederation Park--parents, staff and kids-- many of whom have a knack for telling a good accordion story of their own!

Now this was a great moment. These two are in the Education Program at UBC. The class they are currently working with is reading Magnifico -- which made me happy to hear. We met at Authorfest 2009 on the UBC campus and they were just brimming with enthusiasm in a way I hope all new teachers are. I'm sure the highlight for everyone was the headliner, Robert Bateman , and his powerful talk about overpopulation and consumerism. Tiffany Stone was the lighter side of the equation and got us all on our feet at one point, I'm pretty sure. Then there's me, sort of a mixed bag of sentimentalism and stories, crammed into 15 minutes. So although an animal theme brought us together, it was a very eclectic program. Bateman had one simple piece of advice for families that bears repeating. "Every family should take a nature walk once a week." In our house, we generally do, but it is easy to retreat from nature in the winter and we haven't been out, really out, in a while....

There is a certain kind of mess in my 10-year-old daughter's room that I have a very high tolerance for. That is, books strewn all over the bed and carpet. Every once in a while I will go up and find books pulled from her shelf and sprawled everywhere. They're all books she's already read, and clearly she's looking for something. I respect it as a private thing, but it makes me curious. It also makes me proud. Quite often, I'll find books in the mix authored by friends, and many times, that means a book of Tiffany Stone 's whimsical, one-of-a-kind poetry. I'm never surprised by how often my daughter pulls these books out, the poetry is perfectly paired with block-cut style illustrations that suit it to a T. I caught up with Tiffany at Authorfest at UBC this week. Her three children are keeping her busy, and she's getting ready to launch a book of MATH poetry. She's also keeping up with what is quite possibly the world's cutest website . I can...