Lickety-Split-Hippity-Hoppity-Fun-Day

I start every day by writing three pages in the speckled notebook I call my "Morning Pages." Today, I wrote that it was going to be a lickety-split-hippity-hoppity sort of day. That's because it's a little after noon, and I've already been to two schools, will teach a class at Marianopolis this afternoon, and then will be doing an interview tonight for a story I'm writing for the Montreal Gazette.

I could be tired, but I'm not -- instead I'm buzzing from all the excitement.

I started the day with the other Monique, my friend photographer Monique Dykstra. We went to meet Miss Leckner's Grade 3 & 4 class at Willingdon School here in N.D.G. The students will be participating in this year's Quebec Roots project, an educational program offered through the Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation. Monique D will teach the class how to shoot photos; I'm responsible for helping them improve their writing skills.

Miss Leckner's kids were fun and attentive and they CHEERED when they heard about our project. Hey, I'm going to tell my class at Marianopolis today that they better cheer too. It sure gives a teacher a lot of energy!

I zipped out (I told you it was a lickity-split-hippity-hoppity day) from Willingdon to go to James Lyng High School, where I did a tele-conference with Miss Corb's Sec. I students at Joliette High School. That was fun, too. With both groups, I talked a little about how I get my ideas and I also talked about the writing process -- and the essential role of rewriting! A student named Amélie wanted to know how many manuscripts I wrote before I sold my first one. I was glad she asked that question! Of course, I told the truth (I only get to lie when I am writing FICTION!)... so I told Amélie and her classmates that I wrote three manuscripts, and possibly even four, before I sold the first one. That reminded me to tell the students something really important: NEVER EVER GIVE UP! (If I had, I would NEVER have become an author.)

I also tried something I've never tried before -- a writing exercise via tele-conference. And you may be able to see from today's pic (if you squint!) that it worked! I gave the students prompts to help them remember some experience from when they were five years old. I've found that when this exercise goes well, it often leads to the germ for a story.

I'm off again now to Willingdon, where the Moniques are going to see whether we can get Miss Leckner's class to agree on a topic for their chapter in the 2013 edition of Quebec Roots: The Place Where I Live.

And you know what I'm going to do tomorrow when I have a long break with loads of time to myself? I'm going to do what restores me after busy days like this one....

I'M GOING TO READ AND WRITE! AHH! BLISS! I wish for you, dear blog reader, that you find stuff to do in your own lives, perhaps even reading and writing, that bring you the same bliss.