London: Still Alive launch and Vyshyvanka Day

It was a wonderful event last night in London Ontario. Many thanks to the volunteers and organizers from London UCC and the London Ukrainian Centre. It was great to see the students and educators from Woodstock’s St. Sophia Ukrainian school as well!

 

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!

Tuesday afternoon: Lynne Valley PL and Kidsbooks

After speaking to big groups in the morning, it was a refreshing change to speak with a small group of homeschooled students and their parents. It was more like a conversation than a presentation and each person there had the opportunity to ask questions and comment. Thank you, Rachel Brown, librarian! I loved every minute of it!

I dropped by Kidsbooks on Edgemont to sign stock copies of my books and asked Alex to pose with me by the outdoor sign! I LOVE independent bookstores! What would authors do without the expertise and passion of independent booksellers?

After signing, I headed out to the Sea to Sky highway and drove to Pemberton — a 2+ hour GLORIOUS drive! I would have loved to take photos. The mountains and the sea were breathtaking. I kept my eyes glued to the road!

 

Mabel’s Fables triple book launch!

Many thanks to Eleanor LeFave and Mabel’s Fables for hosting a wonderful triple book launch last night! April is Canadian Independent Booksellers’ Month, so it was especially sweet to be in this iconic Canadian children’s bookstore right now.

It was an honour to be introducing my newest book with kidlit powerhouses Lorna Schultz Nicholson and Anna Rosner. An interesting and storied evening. And there were cookies and fruit! Thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a meaningful event.

Triple Book Launch at Mabel’s Fables!


So excited to be launching book #3 of my Kidnapped from Ukraine
trilogy at a triple book launch with fabulous Canadian children’s
writers, Anna Rosner and her newest, Last Year with Maddie, and Lorna Schultz Nicholson and her newest, The Man in Motion! Hope to see you
there!

Standoff #1 new release!

Standoff, book 2 of my #KidnappedfromUkraine trilogy just popped up as number one for hot new releases in its category on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca today. Standoff will be published on Oct 7th. Book 3 is also number 5 on the dot com site and 3 on the dot ca site. Readers of Under Attack, book one, have commented that reading it helped them understand on a visceral level what it’s like to be a kid in Ukraine right now.