YAPS

Coming up to the anniversary of the "Georgetown Boys" arriving in Canada, we pay tribute to their journey through this beautifully illustrated children's novel that touches on the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Join author, Marsha Skrypuch and illustrator Muriel Wood, as they welcome the families of the original Georgetown Boys to the official launch of Aram's Choice.

The launch will be held at:

The Freckled Lion, 87
Main St. S. in Georgetown, ON
June 29 th , 2006 from 1-2pm and 7-8pm

From the New Beginnings series, comes Aram's Choice, a story that follows the life of a boy who loses his family in the Armenian genocide in Turkey and is exiled in Greece. The book follows Aram while he travels to Canada with forty-seven other Armenian boys in what was Canada's first international humanitarian effort.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch first heard about the Armenian Genocide seventeen years ago while doing research for a magazine article about the first "Georgetown Boys" -- a group of 47 Armenian orphans who were rescued by Canada in 1923 and were housed and schooled at a farm in Georgetown, Ontario.

After interviewing the son of a "Georgetown Boy," Marsha was left with more questions than answers. For example, why were all of the rescued orphans male? Why were they all between the ages of eight and twelve? What happened to their parents? What happened to their sisters?

After years of research, Marsha was able to write Aram's Choice. Based on true events, this book gives children a chance to learn about effects of genocide through one that the Turkish government has long denied ever happened.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of many books for children, including Silver Threads and Enough as well as her YA novels, The Hunger and Nobody's Child, which was nominated for the Red Maple Award, the Alberta Rocky Mountain Book Award, and the B.C. Stellar Award.

Muriel Wood has been illustrating books for children since 1964, including the Canadian classic, The Olden Days Coat written by Margaret Laurence. Other books that she has illustrated include Old Bird, and the first two titles from the New Beginnings series, Lizzie's Storm and Scared Sarah.


Aram's Choice
By Marsha Skrypuch; Illustrated by Muriel Wood
Ages: 8-11, Grades: 3-6
ISBN: 1-55041-352-X hc; Price: $18.95 CAD
ISBN : 1-55041-354-6 pb; Price: $10.95 CAD
Available: June 29 th , 2006
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
195 Allstate Parkway Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8
1.800.387.9776 www.fitzhenry.ca

Contact:
Sylvia Lesak,
Marketing & Publicity Coordinator
905-477-9700 x 212
slesak@fitzhenry.ca

Posted by Marsha Skrypuch at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

I drove to Toronto bright and early yesterday morning to get to BookExpo for a nice solid day. I took Brantford novelist Joan Itoh Burk with me. Her first novel is just out with Brindle & Glass, called One Chrysanthemum. She has published a number of cookbooks in the past and she's the food writer for the Brantford Expositor. We have known each other for quite a long time. In fact, we swapped manuscripts before either of us had novels published. She did a signing at BookExpo and she had a long and satisfying lineup. Her novel looks fabulous. I grabbed me a copy.

I love going to BookExpo! What a book-aholic's dream come true: being given a shopping bag or three, and being let loose amidst brand new free books. Autographed, no less!

I did a signing of Kobzar's Children at 3:30pm. I was expecting a non-existent line-up seeing as the whole tradeshow closes down on Monday afternoon, but there was a huge lineup. I heard so many nice comments about Kobzar's Children too. Many of the people who waited in line for an autograph said that it was wonderful that there was finally a book out like this -- stories about Ukrainian immigrants -- spanning a century. Reps from Chapters in Oshawa and Ancaster both asked if there could be a Kobzar signing. Very nice.

Muriel Wood, illustrator extraordinaire for Aram's Choice was also there. We had hoped to be signing Aram's Choice also, but full-colour illustrated books are always printed in either China or Hong Kong and Aram is still on the open sea. He's due to land sometime next week. So instead, Muriel and I signed postcards. I have only one copy of Aram's Choice right now. I can hardly wait til the rest arrive!!

Posted by Marsha Skrypuch at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

I may have gone through 100 rejections in the past, but it was worth it. My 7th and 8th books came out this month!

I just got back from Ottawa a couple of hours ago. This has been an incredibly busy week, with Vancouver over the weekend and Ottawa yesterday. I had to get up at 3:30am on Wednesday to catch a 6:30am flight out of Hamilton. Did three school readings plus presented at a teachers' meeting, then was driven to my hotel to freshen up, then was picked up again and taken to the Armenian Embassy, where the book launch of Aram's Choice was being held.

Aram's Choice isn't even out in Canada until June 20th, but when I was going to be in Ottawa for these school readings, I contacted Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada and he arranged this launch! My publisher got 30 or so copies of Aram's Choice couriered from Hong Kong for the event. Leishman's Bookstore of Ottawa was there to sell those and my other books too. They (as well as the others) sold out in a flash. Seeing as I didn't have a copy myself yet, I grabbed one as my reading copy and told Leishman's I was keeping it. The F&W rep was there too, so that was okay.

First, the Aram's Choice is BEAUTIFUL! This is my second book out this month. Kobzar's Children is also BEAUTIFUL!!!

It was really neat to do this at the Armenian Embassy. The place was packed and I was the guest of honour. It didn't finish until 11pm. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I got back into my hotel room.

Muriel Wood, the illustrator for Aram's Choice, had a limited edition print made of one of the double-spread paintings in the book. She had that couriered to Stephen, the Ottawa Fitzhenry & Whiteside rep. I presented it as a thank-you to Aris.

The Committee gave me the diary of a survivor as a gift (one that I don't have, which is great) plus an Armenian DVD that I don't have, plus a dozen long-stemmed roses. The roses were packed really well so I took them on the airplane with me. The security people were intrigued by the flowers and also by my chattervox:

http://www.chattervox.com

which lit up their security lights. When they found out I had just launched a book at the Armenian Embassy, they all crowded round (it was not rush hour for them!) and wanted to see my books. It was pretty funny. They were oohing and aahing.

We're doing another launch of this book on June 29th in Georgetown Ontario -- Aram's Choice is about one of the 110 Armenian orphans who are known as The Georgetown Boys. That launch will be held at Freckled Lion Bookstore:

http://www.downtowngeorgetown.com/freckled

Muriel Wood, illustrator extraordinare, will be signing too!

Posted by Marsha Skrypuch at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

Hmm,

The Gerb wants us to write about memorable rejections. I gues the most memorable would be those first 100. That was before I had ever met any other writers and had no idea how to submit a manuscript. I didn't even know who to submit it to.

I had written a 500 page dreadful novel and took it to the local photocopy place and got a gazillion copies made, then packed it up and sent it to every publisher I could find. I found the addresses in a publishing directory at the library.

I was so unaware of the whole process that I sent that manuscript off to the Canadian Authors' Association, The Writers' Union of Canada, various other writers' federations. I also sent the big fat novel to religious publishers and erotica houses.

I think the first rejection I got was something like this:

Dear Ms ____

Thank you for sending us your manuscript, Shadows in the Sand. Unfortunately, we only publish cookbooks.

Yours truly,

Mr. Book

Posted by Marsha Skrypuch at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Okay, sister YAPS -- here goes. My first blog entry. Oh, the suspense! Will it take? Will my words be relegated to Blog Ether? Will Linda delete them due to triteness overload? Only the YAPS know the truth...

~karen

Posted by kc dyer at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Friends who know me well can't believe that, tender-hearted as I am, I've been able to handle all of the publishers' rejections over the years. I received about a dozen years' worth before I sold anything, and believe me, I've continued to collect them since.

Looking back, I see a slow trend upward: first I used to get form rejection letters, then eventually I started getting form rejection letters with little hand-written notes scribbled on them, and finally I started getting personal rejection letters bearing bits of encouragement and flashes of interest.In general, some editors are better at letting you down easy than others.

One recent rejection, brief and slightly snarky, said something like, "I don't see why any children would have an interest in this story." I thought to myself, "Yeah, because fighting with your siblings and wanting to get back at them was an experience strictly limited to MY family growing up!" Another, from an agent, said in essence, "I heard you have some other stories that are really good. Can't you send me THOSE?"

The thing to remember is that editors have personalities, and one thing you're looking for is a good "fit" between your story and an editor's unique taste. That said, I'm always surprised when I meet aspiring children's book writers who have such confidence in their own brilliance that they don't go out there regularly and skim or read the newest picture books, intermediate fiction, and YA novels at Barnes and Noble (or wherever)! I do that so I'll KNOW how good or bad my writing is by comparison and have something to shoot for as I try to improve my work. Also, I don't want to inadvertently come up with a plot that's similar to something already in print. (It happens--the opposite of serendipity, I guess!)

Oh, and here's my secret for protecting my tender heart: even before a piece comes back, I have planned which publisher I'll send it to next (usually using my handy-dandy Children's Writers and Illustrators Market). After the initial pang of getting the rejection, I turn right around and send the story off to my next victim. Unless, of course, the editor has given me any hints about what's not working. Then I give some serious consideration to those suggestions, as I've found there's a much better R-word than Rejection, and that's Revision!--

Kate Coombs

Posted by Gerb at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

I have to confess I wasn't quite as gutsy as Marsha. My submissions, and by logical order, rejections, reached a much narrower field of editors and agents. However, I also went the route of not enough research on several of them.

One editor's website looked as if she accepted email queries. After sending mine, I received a terse reply that electronic submissions were not allowed. Oops. I still wanted to put my manuscript in that particular editor's hands, but after that gaffe, I felt too stupid to send her a snail mail query.

Another time, I had been referred to an agent of one of my friends. This agent liked my work, but passed on the manuscript because it wasn't her "thing." She referred me to yet another agent who she thought might be a better fit. After several emails back and forth, I sent him my manuscript. He rejected it, stating that I should know he did not do fantasy. Another oops... because of the referral, I had never even thought to check.

And then there was the agent who liked my stories, but kept wanting me to make my characters younger or older to "be more marketable." Erg. (And, yeah, I made the changes and never signed...)

Two of my favorite rejections came from an agent who had made the mistake of giving praise for one of my synopsi at a writers' conference, so I boldly asked if I could submit the manuscript to him. He graciously allowed me to do so. And then graciously rejected the thing. A year later, I cornered the poor man again - at the airport. This was after another writers' conference. He was probably tired and anxious to get home, and not the least bit interested in sitting through yet another pitch. But he allowed me to show him my synopsis right there in the waiting area. And passed. (That was the fastest turn-around I'd ever had!)

But what made his rejections stand out in my mind was that, even though I had gone about things in the wrong way, he took the time to point out exactly what did and didn't work with my work. To this day, I appreciate the insight. Sadly, such feedback is becoming less and less common because an increasing number of writers use the comments to either blast the editor/agent, or to pester the person ceaselessly, thinking they have an 'in.' Don't do it, people! Use the rejections as a learning tool and get on with it.

But do your homework first.

Gerb

Posted by Gerb at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments