Author: Marsha

I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war.

Lethbridge Limo and The Ladies of the Trinity

On Monday, I did a book signing from 3-ish til 5pm, then was picked up by The Ladies of the Trinity in A LIMOSINE!! Can you imagine? I saw the limo pull up, and some people waiting in the lobby with me said, “Oh, it must be Mayor Bob dropping by.” Lloyd Sereda, from the Lethbridge Ukrainian community had emailed me to let me know that I would be picked up by a limo, but I thought he was joking. What an amazing welcome!

The limo service was Lethbridge Limo (lethbridgelimo.ca) and the driver was Dave Duckworth. He was a real gentleman! You could tell that he enjoyed his job. They even rolled out the red carpet for me. If you are ever in Lethbridge and want to be treated like royalty, call Dave!

It was a wonderful visit with the Ukrainian community. Dinner was delicious and company was interesting. I sat beside a woman who was 101 years old with vivid recollections of the past century. After my presentation, they gave me two dozen roses and then Dave drove me around the town. An unforgettable experience!!

negative mountains aka “coolies”

As we flew into Lethbridge from Calgary on a 19 seater Dash-18, the view was stunning. Down below were the “coolies” which are like mountains that go down instead of up. And the nice thing about travelling by Dash-18 is you don’t have to worry about whether you get an aisle or a window seat, because all are both.

When we got to the Lethbridge Lodge, there was a walking path right from the hotel to the coolies, so after I did my keynote on Monday, I got into my trekking clothes and headed out. Just as I had my hand on the door, one of the organizers called and said, “Marsha, don’t forget that you have a TV interview in about 5 minutes.” I had totally forgotten. I whipped out of my exercise clothing and dressed back up in keynote clothing and went for the interview, then went back upstairs and changed. I did get a short forty-five minute walk through the coolies. They were stunning!

Weaving Words

I just got back from a super-interesting trip to Lethbridge, Alberta. The main reason I was there was for the Weaving Words conference. Here’s a link to WW:

http://people.uleth.ca/~sapdc/WW2006/ww_welcome.html

This was a fantastic conference! Very well organized and jam-packed with lots of stuff.

I was the keynote speaker. I have never been a keynote speaker before. It was fun!

One of the many highlights of the conference was getting the opportunity to meet and socialize with some fabulous Canadian authors and illustrators. Tim Wynne Jones, the winner of this year’s Rocky Mountain Book Award, was one of the presenters:

http://rmba.lethsd.ab.ca/

It was neat for me to have Tim there because I happen to have a book of his — Zoom at Sea — by my bedside. In fact, it has been by my bedside since 1983. It was the first children’s book I ever bought for myself. I brought the book with me and talked about it during my keynote.

Sarah Ellis:

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/ggawards/sellis.htm

was another stellar presenter. I have admired her writing for a long time, and it was wonderful to meet her in person.

Jacqueline Guest:

http://www.jacquelineguest.com

was also a presenter, as was Anita Horrocks:

http://www.canscaip.org/bios/horrocksa.html

It was awesome having the opportunity to meet these two fabulous authors! There were also two artists extraordinare. Carolyn Fisher:

http://www.yabs.ab.ca/artists/artistinfo.asp?ID=26

and Murray Kimber:

http://www.murraykimber.com/

Carolyn very kindly gave me some drawing tips. Now to try them out …..

More later …

Sequel to Nobody’s Child

Anonymous wrote:

>>I have read your book NoBody’s Child and i found it very wonderful and exciting .I know this doesn’t relate to this conversation i am wondering if you may post that if you are making a sequel to your book NoBody’s Child and when that book may come out in. Thank you<< Hi! I'm delighted that you enjoyed Nobody's Child. I am writing the sequel right now. I am halfway through the first draft and hope to be finished by the end of April. The title is Daughter of War.