Wildlife Rescue Series!

Gaia Wild, the third book in Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series, is one of a growing collection of books, both fiction and non, that are raising awareness about the interconnected plight of animals, human animals and the environment all around the planet.

I have been reading Terry Glavin’s Waiting for the Macaws on and off since its publication in 2006, and I am back at it again. I seem to be in a non-fiction mood these days, and have recently raced through Roger Fouts’s Next of Kin and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, staying up late and turning pages as though compelled by a drugstore whodunnit. I’m hungry, it seems, for real and thoughtful answers about the biggest questions we’re all facing right now, and can no longer (at least, not for the moment) distract myself with entertaining fiction.
Macaws’ subtitle is “… and other stories from the age of extinctions.” His argument is that all extinctions — of animal and plant species, of languages and of cultures — are related. He says “Extinctions tend to follow the collapse of order in human societies. Human-caused extinctions are often the result of old ‘feedback loops’ breaking down, and old restraints giving way. Where you have rapid advances in technology, dramatic shifts in political power, and profound economic disruption, extinction tends to follow. There is also a surprisingly direct correlation between the removal of vegetative cover — even ‘domesticated’ plant life — and the dying out of languages, cultures and ways of life.”

He also cites the following statistics: “Roughly 34,000 plants, or 12.5 percent of all the plants known to science, are threatened with extinction. One in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, along with one in four mammals, one in three of all known amphibians,four of every ten turtles and tortoises, and half of all the surveyed fish species in the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers. We lose a distinct species, of one sort or another, every ten minutes.”
He quotes the poet ee cummings’s response to the sight of biologically extinct animals (those that are for all intents and purposes extinct from the wild) in captivity: “It’s not animals that we see. Instead, it is ‘a concatenation of differently functioning and variously labelled buy cheap viagra, all of which are alive …. No mere spectacle of monsters, however extraordinary, could so move us. The truth is not that we see monsters, but that we are monsters.’”

Are we?

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables remains to this day one of my favourite books of all time. It is the story of a sensitive, spirited orphan adopted by a stern, elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island, and of how the three shape each other’s lives through love. It is also the story of how a thoughtful, perceptive and sensitive child may become a writer.

As a young reader, I found myself in Anne, as so many young girls still do, and began to accept my own passions and preferences and quirks and oddities by loving hers.

As a girl, I didn’t think much about the writer behind the character. But as I’ve grown into my own life as a writer, I’ve often wondered what she was like and what circumstances led her to write the stories she did.

Toronto’s Globe & Mail recently ran a series on mental illness in an attempt to bring awareness to the issue and further dispel the stigma that still surrounds it. The series inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery’s granddaughter to come forward with a story about her famous and beloved grandmother.

As someone who has struggled with depression myself, and as someone who has researched the subject extensively and knows the extent to which it can affect the lives of so many (and a seemingly disproportionate number of writers and artists), this revelation came as a sad sort of “Ah-ha, of course.”

And of course, as so many writers (and artists — healers, all) have done, L.M. transformed her own pain into joy — for her character, and for all the millions who’ve loved her.

Read her granddaughter’s story here.

In Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books, 2005), journalist Richard Louv quotes a San Diego fourth-grader as saying, “I like to play indoors better cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”

That sounded like as good an opening as any for my column for Earth Day.

The Burnaby NOW ran my Animal Instinct column last Saturday, just in time to promote Liz Thunstrom’s interpretive walk around Burnaby Lake. Proceeds went to the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC (WRA). If you missed it, well, Burnaby Lake’s still there, beautifully groomed trails, beaver dens, lily pads, dabbling ducks, nesting swallows and all. And you can start or finish your adventure at WRA and leave a few dollars in their donation box on your way by.

Here’s how my column starts; see below for a link to the full story:

DON’T ALLOW CHILDREN TO LOSE TOUCH WITH NATURE

I grew up in Burnaby on a street called Forest, adjacent to another called Spruce.

Where there are houses now, at the top of the hill, there was an open field. In summer, my sister and I picked blackberries there and carried them home in ice cream pails for mom to make pies and jam.

A grassy, tree-covered mound in the field became our fort, this birch our spy headquarters, that hollow in the dirt our secret cave.

We knew the cats and dogs of the neighbourhood by name, and we happily shared the neighbourhood with squirrels and coyotes, raccoons and birds.We played outside, after school and all summer long, coming in only when mom’s far-off voice called us home.

Decades later, that field, and those long, warm days outdoors, are still my idea of heaven.

Click here for the full story in the Burnaby NOW online.

Sadie

Originally uploaded by Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself ensconced in bed, feeling beaten by some insidious winter virus, with Sadie snuggled next to me, and trying — and failing miserably — to write my book outline, a press release, my January column for the Burnaby NOW. The truth is, I wasn’t writing at all. And I didn’t want to! It was snowing outside, I had a cat on the bed with me, and I just wanted to read.

And then it came to me … that’s what I’d write my column about!

Here’s how it starts:

“I’m reading today. I should be writing, working on my next book, but I’m reading. It’s a good day to read. I’m sure my publisher would understand.

There are 15 centimetres of snow on the ground, with more to come tonight. Schools and even some workplaces are closed. The sky is grey and the world is quiet, forced to rest. Sadie is curled like a fiddlehead next to me on the blanket, sleeping, and I am reading.”

Click here to read the rest!

Manga Touch

Originally uploaded by Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series

I let Jacquie Pearce know that I’d blogged about her latest book, and asked if she might have a cover jpeg I could upload so you could see what it looks like. She sent it over this morning. Gorgeous, eh?

For the complete low-down on Manga Touch, check out my previous post.

And how excited am I that I’m figuring out how to upload images to my blog? Silly, I know, but I’ve realized that if the little things in life can get you jazzed, you get to spend your whole life jazzed. And that sounds good to me!

So … WOOHOOOOO!!! I uploaded a book cover image!

Well, Happy New Year! Another year, another chance to be a better blogger. It wouldn’t take much. :)

I didn’t make any hard and fast resolutions on New Year’s Eve, but I have set myself a schedule for the next few months out of necessity: I need to produce a book! With the previous two books, for the duration of the writing time, I did not work on any other projects. This time around, I’m going to find out how well I’m able to juggle other projects around the main event: writing Gaia Wild. Wish me luck, and meet me here a few times a week to check in on my progress.

I actually have a backlog of things I want to write about, and I’m starting today with Jacquie Pearce’s Manga Touch. Jacquie has a number of abiding interests that inform her writing: animals; crows (yes, I know, crows are animals, but they are also a particular interest of Jacquie’s); the urban environment; Japan and all things Japanese.

Manga Touch is her latest novel for teens, and tells the story of a manga-loving girl who has the opportunity to travel to Japan with her class. Jacquie launched the book back in October at the Nikkei Cultural Centre in Burnaby, in conjunction with a manga exhibit in the gallery. She told the story of how she came to write the book, showed artefacts from her own trip to Japan, read from the book, presented various pieces of artwork that had been considered for the book’s cover, and answered all our fascinated questions. After her presentation, there were Japanese snacks and sweets for everyone to enjoy, and books to buy, which Jacquie was happy to autograph.

For someone who has not yet read any manga, or a graphic novel, Manga Touch is the perfect introduction to the art form and its history. It’s a story I can relate to, told in a style I’m familiar with, and it takes me to places I’ve never been before.

For more information about BC author Jacquie Pearce and Manga Touch, click here to visit her blog, or check out www.orcabook.com Have a look at Jacquie’s website, which will give you an idea of the other books she’s written, or click here to read her Chapters/Indigo posting on manga!

Today’s edition of The Tyee is running the first installment in a two-part story on the need to preserve the Flathead Valley. It is a wild, untouched home to top-of-the-food-chain predators such as grizzlies, wolves and wolverines, and they survive in such numbers and with such success because the Valley is free from human habitation. But there are plans afoot to turn the area into a park.

My thanks to the Tyee for bringing the situation to light and giving us a chance to consider all sides of the debate and make our own decisions.

For a wonderful book about the importance of protecting predators and preserving their habitats (and for a simply beautiful novel written with the spare eloquence of a former scientist and the elegance of an artist) check out Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer. One of my favourite books of all time, and one of the very few I know I’ll re-read again and again.

I was surfing the web today — and I mention that only because it’s something I rarely do — I get in, get what I want, and get out — and discovered Spinebreakers. What a great name for a site by, for and about teens and the books they love.

The site was actually created by Penguin UK as a promotional tool and a way to reach their teen audience, but they’ve done a lot of work to make it as grassroots and authentic as possible. Publishers, take note!

The site includes reviews of [Penguin-only] books chosen from the full list by a team of 13-18-year-old bookies. They are also working hard to solicit content — writing, design, photography — from the community they’re building.

I was impressed by the design, layout and functionality of the site, as well as by the voice. It sounded pretty real to me. I was also impressed by Penguin’s willingness to get down with non-traditional promotional methods and online/social network marketing tools and just see what happened.

No idea yet how big the “community” really is. The site just launched in September. Time will tell.

Check it out for yourself:

Click here to read Nora Young’s blog on Spinebreakers on the CBC web site.

And click here to go straight to Spinebreakers.

Extinctions aren’t textbook facts and figures; they’re events we watch happen right before our eyes. Welcome to the new millennium.
Fifteen years ago, there were as many as 500 spotted owls in British Columbia forests–still a perilously small number, but a number with hope.

Today, there are 17. And the chances that those few will find each other and and mate successfully–given the stresses of constant logging and habitat destruction–are even slimmer than they seem.

There is a term biologists use to describe an animal that still has a physical presence on the planet, but is no longer viable as a species: biologically dead.

BC’s government has put its [almost negligible] efforts into a captive breeding program for the owls, rather than focusing on habitat protection. The mistake here is that it doesn’t matter how many owls there are, if they don’t have enough of the territory–both in terms of size of territory and age of genuine old-growth forest–they need in order to thrive. It’s just possible that the government’s “save the owl” program will be what renders it biologically dead.

To read more about BC’s beautiful and endangered spotted owls:

Click here for a recent article in the Tyee.

Click here to learn about Melanie Jackson’s Dinah Galloway Mystery Series, particularly The Summer of the Spotted Owl.

Click here for info about Karen Dudley’s spotted-owl-centred mystery, Hoot to Kill.

And then write the Premiere, would you? You and your whole class. Your whole school. Your district. Organize a Save the Spotted Owl letter-writing campaign. Flood the parliament buildings with your mail.

I’ll be watching for the news story.

Last night, kc dyer and James McCann launched their newest books at Vancouver KidsBooks on Broadway. The event was one in a series they’re holding over the summer to celebrate the publication of Ms. Zephyr’s Notebook (dyer) and Pyre (McCann). If you missed this one, never fear; the two authors will appear at Edgemont Village KidsBooks this Sunday, August 26, with a discussion about how they arrived at their stories, readings from the books, and coffee and chocolates.

McCann, a staffer at KidsBooks and a writing teacher as well as an author, published Rancour in 2005 with Simply Read Books (click on the link to check out the cool flash animation and sound effects!). He describes his first YA novel as a love story, but beware: it’s a vampire love story! Actually, vampires, werewolves, time travel and senior high school (scaaaary!) all figure prominently in the story. The book itself is beautiful, featuring a full-colour illustrated cover, black and white illustrations inside, black endpapers and chapter dividers, and a map — one of McCann’s trademark touches.

I describe Rancour because that’s the book I bought. Pyre is McCann’s new book. Now, here’s where it gets confusing. Pyre is a prequel to Rancour. So technically, I could have bought and read Pyre first. But James wrote Rancour first, so I’m operating on the principle that I should read first what he wrote first in order to follow the whole story the way he created it. I’ll let you know how that works.

kc dyer’s Ms. Zephyr’s Notebook follows a trilogy of (unrelated) historical fiction/time travel books called the Eagle Glen Trilogy, published by Dundurn Books. Again, I have to comment on the look of the book itself. It appears, at first glance, to be a red and black Hilroy notebook. The design is wonderful. “Dundurn” (the publisher’s name) appears in place of “Hilroy,” the author’s name sits in the “Name” blank, a testimonial from another author appears in place of doodling on the front cover, and even the coil rings, the edges of the lined notebook pages and the UPC code are all there.

The idea for dyer’s latest book came to her while she sat in a hospital waiting room over several weeks, worrying about a young friend. It’s about a 15-year-old boy with Crohn’s disease, an 11-year-old boy with kidney failure and a 13-year-old girl with an eating disorder, all of whom meet on the Children’s Ward of the local hospital. Their story unfolds in the notebook of Ms. Zephyr, the hospital teacher assigned to work with these three kids, and is told through the kids’ own journal entries as well as memos and post-its and messages from hospital administrators, school teachers and parents.

It’s not a story about illness, believe it or not, but about friendship and forgiveness and healing. It’s also something of a mystery story, with “clues” being revealed as the characters delve further and further into the notebook. I arrived home from the launch just after 10pm last night, and was up past midnight reading it. I  stopped only because I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Keep the Sunday event in mind, and I’ll keep you posted about upcoming events where you can meet these and other great BC authors who are launching new books this fall.