Posts filed under ‘books’
Inviting you to my new site
After a wonderful start at this site, I have secured my own domain at storygal.ca.
I hope you’ll come and see my posts at my new site too. Since then, I’ve published two new books and continue to blog and put out my newsletter FineTuned. Also my website has seen a whole new overhaul at a new website domain.
Blessings to you this New Year of 2020.
Come along with me
I’ve been blogging here off and on since 2006 and recently decided to move my blog to a new domain.
Here’s my new location: http://www.storygal.ca/
You’ll find the same theme of life, love and gardening. Still me, editor, author and storyteller. Still me who takes pictures wherever I go, enjoying nature, family and friends and music too.
Please come along and join me there.
Author Afternoons– I’m on!
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be part of Author Afternoons. On Saturday, June 29th, from 1:00-3:30 pm, I’ll be at the Waterloo Visitor and Heritage Information Centre on 10 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo.
I’ll be giving a workshop titled Begin to Write Your Memories. The workshop will be hands on, as in you get to write, so bring paper and pen or your laptop and be prepared to participate.
This is a new initiative by the City of Waterloo Arts and Culture to introduce residents and visitors to the authors in the area. It’s exciting to be part of it.
See you there!
Harry’s Trees and Les arbres de Harry
This Saturday, May 18th, I’ll be at The Living Outdoors in Cambridge with my books, especially my picture books, Harry’s Trees and Les arbres de Harry, illustrated by Maja Wizor.
Come and see me there, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Bring your children or grandchildren and pick up a colouring sheet for the contest. Then bring the coloured page back to the store by a certain date to be entered in the contest.
The Living Outdoors nursery and gift shop is on 486 Main Street Cambridge, ON N1R 5S7. It’s a busy time for nurseries and could be a full house.
If you have a child or grandchild in French immersion, you might prefer this edition. Same story, same art, but in our second national language.
a sample of my artist’s work
Upcoming event for Piece by Piece
I’ve received some amazing reviews, personal notes and kind words about my new book, Piece by Piece, from fellow writers and readers thus far. I am grateful for their sincere and generous comments.
My official launch happens this Saturday, May 11th, in my hometown of Tavistock, ON, at the Tavistock Public Library, 40 Woodstock Street South and begins at 11 am.
Come and join us, and get your signed copy. I look forward to seeing you there.
For those who cannot make it to the launch, my book is also available at Words Worth Books in Waterloo and from me.
For more information on my book, and to contact me, here’s my website https://www.carolynwilker.ca/books/
Piece by Piece book signings
Please note that I have several book events already set up for Piece by Piece
April 13th, at Family Home Health Care Centre in Palmerston ON, from 11 am to 3 pm
May 11th, at Tavistock Public Library, Tavistock ON, at 11 am, reading and signing books
And I will be at the Tavistock Fall Fair in September. More news on that one later. All of my books available at this event.
More in planning stages
Piece by Piece
Having a new book is very exciting. A lot of work goes in to getting it this far, including years of writing, then editing, revision and even more editing.
Once the book is about to be released comes the task of letting people about the book and when it’s printed, getting it into other people’s hands. That can be fun or it can be daunting.
My book contains many stories about experiences, both good and challenging or sad. Everyone has those times. I share how it’s been for me.
Go about life as positively as you can. Gather the support of friends who can help you get through the tough times, know who you can lean on. And remember to celebrate the joys and achievements no matter how small. And know that God cares about you in all those circumstances.
My book published by Angel Hope Publishing, Drayton, Ontario. Book events coming up. I’ll list them in a follow-up post.
Poetry from a childhood place
Me as a 6-year-old at home, ready for my first day of school
I was thinking on awakening this morning of stories in my first published book—stories of home and among them the poetry that spoke of those places.
We had an attic—which many older houses do—a space at the top of the house where things to go to sit awhile or be stored. For some items, not the best place but out of the way of a busy family and all its related belongings and conundrums.
My sisters and I went up there to play the old phonograph, dress up in old clothes, sort through old school papers that became yellowed and brittle in time in that warm place. Where we could look out to the road and over the fields at our farm. This was a place we retreated to now and then for short periods of time.
The poem came much later as an adult looking back and no longer living there. And now our home belongs to someone else. But in memory, it’s still ours.
Attic Playhouse
Under the roof is a playhouse
with its familiar odour of heat and yesterday
leather skates lean against each other
like fallen dominoes
March through December
outgrown Sunday shoes wait for the next pair of feet
castoff clothes crammed in a crumbling cardboard box
yellowed notebooks -lined with ancient scribbles
crank the gramophone
inside its heat blistered black box
it warbles a tune
in symphony with buzzing flies
hypnotized by the light of one window
and too dazed to find another exit
© Carolyn Wilker
published in Once Upon a Sandbox, 2011
My first book, a collection of stories of family and community
Writing our stories
My mother once called me the historian of the family and I wasn’t sure why. Was it that I asked more questions about events and people? Was it that I displayed keen interest in the stories of my grandparents? Wherever it began, it has most definitely become true, and that’s one development I’m glad about.
The year of my parents’ 60th anniversary was upon us—2009—and my mother and father wanted to leave a legacy for their family. Mom wasn’t speaking in dollar values when she shared their wish with us, but of stories and values they’d shared. What would it mean to us after they were gone?
farm home where my siblings and I grew up
Mom had gotten in touch with a writer she knew who was doing family stories for other folks. She engaged the woman to help them get started. The challenge became how to tell the stories. What would be included? What would be left out?
Each of my siblings and I wrote some pieces of what it had meant to us growing up in the country, of where we were at the time in terms of our immediate families and our employment. In the end what my parents shared of their stories, and what we added, is of great value.
The first copy was ready for their anniversary day and more produced later. Sister Kim was the layout specialist and we all agreed she did a wonderful job in arranging the photos with the text. Her layout experience with her day job and a computer program capable of handling graphics and photos was a great asset.
Nine years later, Dad has died and the family has further blossomed with more great grandchildren for Mom and another great granddaughter about to be married this summer. In between those years, I published my memoir, Once Upon a Sandbox, of growing up on a family farm in the 50s and 60s, and then last year, in memory of Dad, Harry’s Trees, my picture book was published, which is not about me, but my Dad’s passion, beyond his family (always very important to both my parents).
Book Promotions
This season I’ve been busy promoting my picture book, Harry’s Trees. When I take those books to places, I’m also taking along several others.
Recognizing the connection between trees and plant nurseries, I decided to contact plant nurseries. Several were glad to be asked and accommodated me and a few other places had already booked sufficient activities to fill their spaces at an extremely busy time of year. Fair enough. I’ll check back in with those later when their pace is a little less harried.
This little doll will have my book read to her as she grows. And one day she’ll read it herself. At Belgian Nursery, Breslau.
For the nurseries where I did go, I had a variety of guests come to see me, some I had invited and others who came to the nursery for plants, albeit on a cold May day, and wandered in to see what was happening in the classroom area of the building.
Invited guests who travelled a distance, and of course my illustrator, Maja, on the left. At Sheridan Nursery, Kitchener.
Sheridan Nursery, the first to accept my idea of shared promotion, gave me the space and opportunity to read part of my book to children, including four of my own grandchildren.
It seemed most of the children, if given a preference, liked the spring and summer seasons best, but a few liked the colours of fall as well. Maybe it’s that they could be outdoors then.
All children coming to my table with their parents get a colouring sheet to decorate in their favourite season, but only the first location provided opportunity for hearing part of the story.
I was glad I had brought along markers so these two girls could colour their tree picture while their mom shopped.
See the birds flying to and from the tree? And the new leaves sprouting on the tree?
Another young reader in the making. For now, it’s the colours in the book and this little one already loves trees and the out of doors.
And long-time friends (since 4-H days) coming to celebrate with me and taking pictures for me.
Sheridan offered opportunity on Earth Day weekend for advance promotion of my book, Harry’s Trees. As my calendar was already filled, Judy, a friend of mine, was willing to read my book at the event. She reported some interesting conversations, especially one with a girl who was interested in the art in my book.
And Amanda, my helper at two of my events thus far. Thank you.
Thank you, Amanda, for taking such a great photo for me. You’ll see this one on my new website very soon.
Belgian Nursery generously provided maze pens that I could give out to people, especially children, coming to my table. There were engaging conversations and people admiring Maja’s art in my book and getting to choose a bookmark, hand stamped or decorative ones created by my illustrator. And a colouring page too. One of the employees told me that the children were delighted with the page to take home.
Then there was the turtle pond and the fish pond at St. Jacob’s Country Gardens and Plant Nursery.
And the fish pond with a small waterfall too, because they also have a pond specialist.
And here I was stationed between the two. It’s a lovely place to sit and chat with people.
Thus goes my book promotion for this spring. I’ve been offered the opportunity to return to this third place as often as I wish, and I will take them up on the offer.
Thank you all who came or helped, and for purchasing a book. I hope you will enjoy reading it to your children or just to share with others who you know.
May the children who hear the story come to understand the value of trees to humans and nature. When they do, I know my father would be smiling because he loved them too.
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