Tag: koota ooma

Still Alive book event at Koota Ooma!

This is my favourite photo of the night: a young reader excited to meet the person who wrote a book that he loves! I had meaningful conversations with so many people. It was a deeply emotional night.
Such an honour to be introduced by Lidiia Karpenko, a wonderful writer.
Mirka and I have a tradition of wearing matching jackets!

Upcoming book events

Next week, I’ll be touring for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in North Vancouver and Pemberton BC. There is one open event at the NVPL. More info here.

I’ll be back in Toronto on May 14th, at Koota Oooma!

On May 21, I’ll be with London Ukrainian Canadian Congress for a book talk. A portion from book sales will be donated to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. There will also be a raffle, and I’ve donated some hard-to-get editions of various books. May 21 is Vyshyvanka Day, and I will be wearing my newest traditional embroidered blouse! It will be neat to see a variety of vyshyvanky!!

On May 24th, I’ll be close to home, doing an event hosted by my favourite local bookstore, Riverside Bookshelf!

Standoff: Koota Ooma Book Launch!

This young reader had so many interesting things to say! His favourite of my books is Stolen Child — but he’s read a lot of them. He said that reading my books is more interesting than being on his device. High praise!
Mirka and I are wearing our Ukrainian colours!
Before the book launch, I met up with Sophia Isajiw for an early dinner and chat.

Book talk at St. Volodymyr Cathedral

One day after the PYI conference, I traveled back to Toronto to participate in a new initiative at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church & St. Volodymyr Cathedral of Toronto, organized by Artem Galchuk. It was interesting to hear the other speakers, including authors Mykola Latyshko, and Alla Topchii. I was particularly interested in Anastasia Baczynskyj’s presentation about the early Ukrainian community in Toronto. Koota Ooma was there with a wonderful array of books, including mine.

How’s this for Ukrainian spirit? Between Mirka Werbowy-Onuch of Koota Ooma and myself, we’ve got the Ukrainian colours represented!

Koota Ooma book launch!

Dare I say that I absolutely LOVE Koota Ooma? And it’s not just because a book display like this is every author’s dream. It’s also because the entire Koota Ooma team is just so nice and knowledgeable about Ukrainian-themed books and Ukrainian language books. They also have the BEST and unique Ukrainian items, like clothing, houseware and jewelry.

Here are some photos from the event.

Making Bombs for Hitler published in Ukraine

I am so very thrilled to have this novel finally available for Ukrainian readers. Yulia Lyubka’s translation is brilliant and I LOVE the cover art by Anya Styopina. Making Bombs and Stolen Girl tell the tale of two Ukrainian sisters torn apart by the Nazis in WWII. One is considered racially valuable and is kidnapped, brainwashed into thinking she’s German, and placed in a Nazi home. The other sister is considered not racially valuable, and is starved and worked nearly to death. Although these books are historical, they’re unfortunately also current because Putin channels Hitler and Ukrainians are currently going through this all again. The publisher is Books XI. In Canada they’re available through Koota Ooma.

Koota Ooma!

It was great popping in to Koota Ooma Ukrainian Book and gift store this past Wednesday on my way home from Toronto after an informative brain-picking session with with two knowledgeable academics for my novel-in-progress. I offered to sign any of my books that Koota Ooma had on hand, thinking they might have a half a dozen or so. Much to my delight, they had a PILE — and a great variety! The first pen ran out of ink! So, if you’re looking for an autographed copy of Winterkill etc, you know where to get it!

I also did some shopping. Look at those beautiful necklaces! And picked up a fantastic book, The Zelensky Effect. You can get one too — an autographed copy, no less because later on Wednesday, author Olga Onuch had her book launch!