I'm totally cheating...

That's right. I'm cheating. But it's an open mic this week, so I'm allowed! Ha!

I'm totally cross-posting from my own sadly-neglected-over-the-past-few-weeks blog because I'm just too burnt out to write a whole new post for TNG - and I did want to let you guys know a little of why I've been so scarce and scattered of late (note that it is again Sunday night when I'm posting but that's because I was in Edmonton to receive the CLA YA Book of the Year Award for WONDROUS STRANGE!! Whee!). More on that at another time.

For now, this blog entry will hopefully give you a fun little taste of what's been going down in LesleyLand of late. I hope you enjoy!

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Well... the last few weeks have been all sorts of cool.

All sorts of exhausting cool.

And, yes, I know... I haven't blogged a stitch about it. Because the coolness was all-encompassing and ate up all my time and most of my higher brain functions! So to make up for that, I promise a series of posts wherein I get you all caught up. With pictures!

First of all, there was the the White Pine Festival down at Harbourfront. I know I mentioned awhile ago that I was shortlisted for this award and, let me tell you, the students and teachers in schools across Ontario take this thing pretty darn seriously! It's amazing. The award is student-voted on and at the two-day Festival of Trees celebration, the authors get treated like rock stars. The festivities are held outside and there's always a huge turn-out of students and teachers and librarians! And much insane cheering and hooting during the ceremony...

A view of the crowd and the author nominees on the stage.
(I'm at the very far left)

I had the opportunity to hang out with some really fabulous authors - Tim Wynne Jones was particularly entertaining to sit next to on the stage - but the best thing, as always, was meeting the fans and readers. These kids were outstanding. They are passionate readers and not shy about letting you know it.

That's me signing autographs in a very chilly tent for some very awesome students!

One of whom could totally be a leprechaun in my universe - check the awesome green 'hawk!

The award ceremony itself, with all the authors lined up on the stage.

WONDROUS STRANGE won "Honour Book"!

Aside from the awards themselves, there were weeks of school-visit shenanigans leading up to that. I went to Peterborough, North York, Etobicoke, Oshawa, Scarborough, Bayfield, and Belleville, among others.

Here are some shots from one of my school visits - in Scarborough, at L'Amoreaux Collegiate:

They put my name on the sign!

And created a cool display with a beaded horse-tail and a horn to call the Wild Hunt!

My hosts, Dianne and Officer Reeve and another WONDROUS STRANGE
display, complete with a 4-leaf clover pendant!

This particular visit was a lot of fun (who am I kidding - they're ALL fun!) because Officer Reeve is the School Resource Officer - a real live policeman who is stationed at the school as a community liason and he runs a reading club for the boys at L'amoreaux. Which is very cool, because there often isn't enough encouragement these days for boys to read. He was my escort for the day and picked me up from the subway to drive me to the school... in the cruiser! :-D

Okay, sure. Maybe I did wind up in handcuffs.

But I didn't actually try to steal his cruiser...

I only thought about it!

Anyway, he had to let me go - otherwise I never would have made it to the festival!