Stratford Writers' Festival

The 2017 Stratford Writers' Festival
is set to take to the stages

on

October 20-22, 2017

in 

Stratford, ON

There are workshops and panels on songwriting, self-publishing, social media, blogging, memoirs, grief, art and literature, history and healing, satire, food and, of course, writing.

The plethora of authors attending the three-day event include:
• Chantel Acevedo
• Marianne Apostolides
• Jason Barry
• Mark Billingham
• Kerry Clare
• Deborah Cooke
• Glenn Dixon
• Terry Fallis
• Emm Gryner
• Drew Hayden Taylor
• Scaachi Koul
• Dayna Manning
• Marina Mapa
• Lee Maracle
• Mark Medley
• Catherine Mellinger
• Heather O'Neill
• Shane Peacock
• Eden Robinson
• Jennifer Robson
• Rebecca Rosenblum
• Ron Sexsmith
• Richard Scrimger
• Craig Terlson
• Eric Walters
• Alice Zorn

But I wanted to draw your attention to a panel relevant to those who read CanLit for LittleCanadians.

On
  Friday, October 20, 2017, 

 6-7 p.m.

at

Knox Presbyterian Church

a trio of youngCanLit authors will present a panel titled 

A Means to a End: Keeping a Series Alive

In attendance will be three of the authors of Orca Book Publishers' Seven series,  The Seven Sequels and The Seven Prequels:

This session is described as follows:

To create a story that is riveting and engaging is an accomplishment on its own. To continue a story throughout many novels and hold an audience’s attention takes an extraordinary talent.

These three authors have mastered the art of keeping a story alive through their tales of triumph, discovery, and self-actualization. Join us as award-winning authors Eric Walters, Richard Scrimger, and Shane Peacock discuss the process of series writing and how to keep readers coming back every time.

Full details of this event and all panels and workshops can be found at DigiWriting's website at http://digiwriting.com/stratford-writers-festival/ with tickets available at Ticketscene

The Seven Prequels: coming September!

Once upon a time, 

seven outstanding authors of youngCanLit 

Eric Walters

Sigmund Brouwer

Norah McClintock

Shane Peacock

Richard Scrimger

Ted Staunton

John Wilson

came together and formulated a series like no other. 

It is called Seven (the series) 

from Orca Book Publishers, 

and all seven books were simultaneously published in October, 2012.

The seven linked books, which can be read in any order, 

focus on the 7 grandsons of David McLean 

and the 7 journeys his death sends them on.

Between Heaven and Earth by Eric Walters

Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock

Devil's Pass by Sigmund Brouwer

Ink Me by Richard Scrimger

Jump Cut by Ted Staunton

Last Message by Shane Peacock

Lost Cause by John Wilson

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Two years later, the Seven Sequels were born.

The seven cousins from Seven 

come together at their grandfather's cottage 

and discover evidence of David McLean's mysterious past, 

sending the seven out on a new set of adventures.

Broken Arrow by John Wilson

Coda by Ted Staunton

Double You by Shane Peacock

From the Dead by Norah McClintock

Sleeper by Eric Walters

Tin Soldier by Sigmund Brouwer

The Wolf and Me by Richard Scrimger

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Next month the Seven Prequels arrive!

This time the seven books emphasize the origin stories of the seven grandsons and their relationships with their grandfather and tell...

How It All Began

Weerdest Day Ever 

by Richard Scrimger

Barracuda 

by Sigmund Brouwer

Separated 

by Shane Peacock

Jungle Land 

by Eric Walters

The Missing Skull 

by John Wilson

Slide 

by Norah McClintock

Speed 

by Ted Staunton

Look for the books on September 20 2016 

and 

enjoy more news and extras (including the Seven teachers' guide) 

at Orca Book Publishers at

www.thesevenprequels.com

The Seven Sequels: They're coming!

The Countdown Begins!

On October 1, 2014, The Seven Sequels, the seven sequels to The Seven Series, will be launching officially.  

When The Seven Series hit the shelves in October of 2012, no one could have anticipated its popularity with young readers.  I saw boys at school who rarely pick up a library book waiting for the return of a particular volume.  I had an intermediate teacher reading an advanced reading copy I had of Ink Me (Richard Scrimger, 2012) and then students relentlessly pestering me about the ETA of the books.  And last year, three of the ten nominees for the Red Maple award of the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading were volumes in The Seven Series!

The Seven Sequels will bring seven new titles from the same seven authors who brought us The Seven Series, with the seven grandsons of adventurer David McLean, newly passed, undertaking new adventures that will take them from Cambridge to Uruguay.

The books are:

• Sleeper by Eric Walters
• Broken Arrow by John Wilson
• Coda by Ted Staunton
• The Wolf and Me by Richard Scrimger
• From the Dead by Norah McClintock
• Tin Soldier by Sigmund Brouwer
• Double You by Shane Peacock

For more about The Seven Sequels, visit www.thesevensequels.com

But listen to this!

Here's something else for readers to get excited about: not only will there be digital editions with the classic paper copies, Orca Book Publishers is offering the unabridged audiobooks (i.e., the entire book is read) of the series! (In fact, it's possible to pre-order the complete Seven Series or Seven Sequels as an audiobook collection.) For audiovisual learners, audiobooks are an amazing way for students who learn best by listening to get into books. Personally, I prefer audiobooks as an alternative to the radio while I drive.

Freebies!

To help promote the upcoming series and the audiobooks, Orca Book Publishers is giving away free audio samples from The Seven Sequels--one each week until October 1, 2014. The first audio sample is Chapter 1 of Eric Walters' Sleeper and can be downloaded here.  New samples can be downloaded at http://www.thesevensequels.com/audio.php each week until the books are out.

Let the anticipation begin!

Look for reviews of the books in The Seven Sequels in the upcoming weeks here at CanLit for LittleCanadians.

Becoming Holmes: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Final Case

by Shane Peacock

Tundra Books

978-1-770-492325

245 pp.

Ages 10-14

October 2012

It was just a year ago when I reviewed the fifth book in Shane Peacock's The Boy Sherlock Holmes series, The Dragon Turn (Tundra, 2011) and bemoaned the announcement that the sixth book would conclude the series.  And here it is, The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Final Case, with the incongruous title of Becoming Holmes, suggesting more of a beginning than an end.  But, Shane Peacock effectively concludes his series by setting up the key pieces of Sherlock Holmes' life as laid out by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1870, Sherlock, now sixteen years of age, is overwhelmed by melancholy: Charles Dickens has just died; Sherlock's father has passed from a stroke; Sigerson Bell, Sherlock's mentor, is very ill and worsening; Irene Doyle, his love interest, is in the United States; Beatrice Leakie, a dear friend, is seeing someone else; and Prime Minister Disraeli, a half-Jew like Sherlock, has been defeated.  The only solace for Sherlock is his reconnection with his older brother, Mycroft, an employee at the Treasury.  When visiting his brother at the Treasury, Sherlock discovers that Grimsby, one of Malefactor's lieutenants, has somehow secured a key position there, under the alias of Ronald Loveland.

Although threatened by his nemesis, Malefactor, to desist from pursuing enquiries which might involve him, Sherlock discovers that Malefactor, who is also known as Moriarty, contrived a blackmail scheme to position himself for greater power.  When Malefactor's henchman, Grimsby, becomes greedy, leading to an accidental death and then murder, Sherlock is determined to fight evil by any means possible.

So, Shane Peacock's Sherlock Holmes proclaims that he is

"at the service of anyone who is wronged, whether they be rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, Englishman or otherwise" (pg. 101)

while also declaring that he would work towards

"the complete destruction of Malefactor, his lieutenants, and all his future schemes, his entire career." (pg. 102)

He even recognizes that in the future he would need

"an upstairs flat of my own, with a companion and a housekeeper." (pg. 113)

The Boy Sherlock Holmes is becoming the famous Sherlock Holmes, just as Shane Peacock's title announces.  And the intricate plot of Becoming Holmes is just as involved as the crimes that the mature Holmes solves.  There are villains, victims, innocents, allies, loves and mentors.  There are obvious motives, false leads, guilty secrets and cryptic feelings. There is compassion, confusion, affection and justice.  While I had some difficulties in discriminating between various unidentified characters in the first chapter before their stories begin to converge and revolve around Sherlock, the storyline did not suffer for this, as clarification and illumination were forthcoming, as they always are in good mysteries. 

Becoming Holmes may reveal much about how the boy becomes the famous detective but at its core it is a rich mystery that needs solving so that evil may be punished and the righteous protected.  Fortunately Sherlock Holmes capably solves the mystery,  equipping him well to re-emerge in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Red (1877).

The book trailer for Becoming Holmes, produced by Aaron Peacock and uploaded to YouTube on October 12, 2012 can be viewed here on my Book Trailers page or directly on The Boy Sherlock Holmes webpage.

SEVEN: Orca's upcoming series

Today's release of the following book trailer launches the hype for Orca's upcoming series, Seven. Watch the trailer to discover why the books of Seven will be much anticipated.

Uploaded by OrcaBookPublishers on Feb 7, 2012

As obvious as it may seem, the number seven is the key to the whole series.  In his will, adventurer and grandfather David McLean leaves seven letters for his seven teen-aged grandsons: D.J., Steve, Spencer, Bunny (a.k.a. Bernard), Rennie, Jim (a.k.a. Webb) and Adam.  In the letters, each boy is asked to undertake a specific task that will lead him on an adventure to Iceland, Spain, France, Tanzania or somewhere in Canada. Each book will tell the adventure of one grandson.

The series will be authored by seven of Canada's exceptional writers for young people.  As of today, the Seven website lists the following titles and authors as the books in the series:

• Between Heaven and Earth by Eric Walters;
• Lost Cause by John Wilson;
• Jump Cut by Ted Staunton;
• Ink Me by Richard Scrimger;
• Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock;
• Devil's Pass by Sigmund Brouwer;
• The Last Message by Shane Peacock.

Seven, unlike any other series, will have all seven books released on the same day: October 10, 2012.  Judging by the quality of these authors' writing, this is definitely a date to mark on your calendar.  I anticipate much thrilling action, vibrant settings and convincing characters, with each author bringing their own strengths to the books.  Readers can undoubtedly look forward to Richard Scrimger's sense of humour, Norah McClintock's sense of mystery, John Wilson's take on history, Shane Peacock's dark plotting, Eric Walters' character-building challenges, Ted Staunton's musicality, and Sigmund Brouwer's problem-solving strategies to enrich the tales. Definitely a series for all readers.

Details about the books (plus a countdown widget) are available at the Seven website.

The Dragon Turn: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His 5th Case

by Shane Peacock
Tundra Books
978-1-77049-231-8
220 pp.
Ages 10-14
2011

When Shane Peacock declared on CBC Radio's Fresh Air show

(Mary Ito's CBC Fresh Air interview with Shane Peacock) 
that there would only be six cases in his The Boy Sherlock Holmes series, I should have paced my reading better.  After all, why race through The Dragon Turn, the most recent and supposedly (please can I convince you otherwise, Mr. Peacock?) second to last book in the series?  But, fool, fool, fool that I was, I read through it as quickly as my time allowed. (If you didn't limit yourself to only 6 books in the series, Mr. Peacock, I wouldn't have to berate myself.)

In this newest installment, Sherlock Holmes, now almost 16 years of age, continues to forge his investigative skills from his learning with the brilliant but slightly crazed apothecary, Sigerson Bell, but finds them strengthened and even compromised through his interactions with the lovely Miss Irene Doyle; with his ill father (who Sherlock has kept at arm's-length since his mother's murder); with family friend, Beatrice Leckie; and the police, specifically arrogant Inspector Lestrade and his son, Lestrade Junior.  Maturing into the talented but detached Holmes of Conan Doyle's is not a simple matter of growing up.

While escorting Miss Doyle to The Egyptian Theatre in London to witness the magic of "His Highness" Alistair Hemsworth, whose illusion includes the appearance of a dragon, Sherlock is drawn into a murder case in which Hemsworth is suspected. Apparently (there is very little evidence), Hemsworth's rival and better, The Wizard of Nottingham, has been murdered and evidence found at a secret workshop leased to His Highness, implicates him.  It seems rather simple to prove the man's innocence, as requested by Miss Doyle who hopes to audition for His Highness (she is a budding singer).  Too soon Sherlock realizes that it truly was too simple, and that his deductions have been orchestrated by others.  Consequently, compelled by his strong sense of justice, Sherlock pursues the case. 

If you haven't yet read the first four books in this series, treat yourself.

Eye of the Crow (Tundra, 2007)

Death in the Air (Tundra, 2008)

Vanishing Girl (Tundra, 2009)

The Secret Fiend (Tundra, 2010)

Visit Shane Peacock's website or The Boy Sherlock Holmes website