Wildlife Rescue Series!

Di at Wildlife Rescue Association

Originally uploaded by Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series

HELLO TO MADAME BENTIVOGLIO’S CLASS FROM DIANE HAYNES!!!

Hi everybody! How are you doing? Thank you so much for inviting me to ‘visit’ your class to talk a little about my latest book, Gaia Wild! I’ve been visiting Madame Bentivoglio’s classes since 2005, when we first met at Earth Rangers, and we always have a great time. I’m really thankful for all the support she’s shown me as a new author on the Canadian publishing scene, and her students have always been among the most thoughtful I’ve encountered as I travel around the country.

It was in the fall of 2003 that I first pitched the idea of doing a book about an elephant to my publisher-to-be, Whitecap Books Ltd. I was actually pitching a series, and their editors wanted to see synopses for three books, and the first chapter of the first book. Because I was planning to base the series on my own volunteer work with the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, I didn’t have much trouble choosing subjects for the first two books: I would write about an oil spill, because that’s how I first became involved with wildlife rescue and rehabilitation; and I would write about crows, because the media had gone crazy the year before when our little rescue centre chose to euthanize crows rather than put its staff and volunteers at risk of West Nile Virus. The third book idea was proving to be more of a challenge, though, because I couldn’t get an elephant out of my mind … and we sure as heck had never had an elephant at the rescue centre!

In the summer of 2003, Tina the elephant made the front page of the paper and the six o’clock news every night for over a month. At 34 years old, she had been held in captivity the whole of her life, and had spent most of that time alone, in a small, barren enclosure devoid of the companionship of others of her kind. By this time, she was overweight and sick, her feet were badly infected from the pressure of standing on concrete day after day, she was refusing to lie down, even to sleep, and she bobbed her head back and forth uselessly, for hours on end, in a behaviour called a “stereotypie” that is typical of caged wild animals who have become despondent and depressed.

Worst of all … I knew her. When I was six and my little sister was four, my mom and dad took us to what was then called The Vancouver Game Farm to see the animals, and one of the main attractions was a baby elephant the owner had bought from the United States to give rides to little kids. My sister and I lined up with the others and waited our turn to climb the crude wooden stairs up to the platform that was the same height as baby Tina’s back. From there, we climbed onto the colourful woven rug that covered her back, and then her keeper led her around a dusty dirt yard. The ride couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes, but I can still remember the smells — the wild, musky smell of this wild animal, the dirt and leaves in the summer sunshine, the fresh, wet-hay smell of her poop! — and the thick, bristly, wrinkly feel of Tina’s skin. I absolutely loved her. I begged my parents to take us back to the Game Farm every chance I could, and in fact we went for two more summers, while Tina was still giving rides. When she got too big, we stopped going, and other than the times I looked at the photographs in our family album, I’m ashamed to say I forgot all about her.

But then, in 2003, there she was again, in the news every day. The reason? Her current owners — the managers of the Greater Vancouver Zoo, as it is now called — had decided she was no longer of any use to them, and wanted to sell her to a circus in Ontario. It was soon discovered, though, that the circus owner was known for beating his animals, including his elephants. In fact, he said so himself to a reporter. This fact made the news in Vancouver, and soon everyone in the city who had ever known, visited or loved that baby elephant — children like me who were all grown up by this time — was in an uproar about Tina!

Okay … want to know more?? Well, how about I blog some more for you next week. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your comments and questions (you can post them directly to this blog), and I’d also love to know what section you’re on in Gaia Wild and what you think of the book! Can’t wait to hear from you! Talk to you again soon.

Diane

p.s. Think this can’t happen today? Do some detective work and see what you can find out about Lucy at the Edmonton Zoo …

Authors Pam Withers and James McCann, both of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC (CWILL), weighed in thoughtfully on the subject of self-promotion for authors this morning. I’d like to share their ideas with you (N.B. James was a bookseller with Vancouer Kidsbooks for many years):

From Pam Withers:

Recent discussions around facebook, myspace, blogs, etc. have inspired me to
share this great quote with those who write fiction. Publicity is good, but in
the end, we should put most of our effort into our writing.

from Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas (Writer’s Digest Books):

“Two thirds of all fiction purchases are made because the consumer is already
familiar with the author… The next biggest reason folks buy fiction is that it
has been personally recommended to them by a friend, family member or bookstore
employee… Reviews? Few see them. Awards and nominations? Most folks are
oblivious to them. Covers?.. only wrapping. In reality, there is one reason, and
one reason only, that readers get excited about a novel: great storytelling.”

Pam Withers

From James McCann in response:

This interview appeared in ROOM of One’s Own Literary Journal (29:2):

Sixteen-year-old Jane Ray doesn’t set out to save the planet, but when she discovers a dying bird and a deadly oil spill during a seemingly innocuous run along Vancouver’s Stanley Park seawall, the shy but passionate protagonist of Diane Haynes’s debut novel finds herself leading a campaign to convince the offending company to own up and pay up.

Flight or Fight, the first in Diane Haynes’s Wildlife Rescue Series for young readers, takes aim at some heavy issues — environmental destruction, animal rescue, and corporate social responsibility — but wraps them in a youthful context complete with all the adventure and intrigue of a modern-day Nancy Drew novel.

Semi-autobiographical — the storyline is based on an incident that happened to the Vancouver author several years ago, sparking her volunteer work in an animal rescue centre — Flight or Fight shows young readers that they can have an impact on issues they care about.

Lisa Manfield: Do you have a goal in writing this series?

Diane Haynes: E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and other wondrous books for children, is quoted as having said, “I wake up every morning determined both to change the world and have one hell of a good time. This sometimes makes planning the day quite difficult.” Writing books, too! But those are my goals for Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series: to inspire young people to take action on behalf of animals, and at the same time to give readers a thrilling adventure.

LM: Why did you choose this medium for getting your message out?

DH: I wish I loved TV or film best; I hear there’s money in TV. But I’ve always treasured books, and I’ve wanted to write for kids since I was seven years old myself. Carolyn Keen’s Nancy Drew and Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Kathryn Kenny’s Trixie Belden are characters I spent time with in childhood. I wanted to create an experience like that for readers. Of course, Flight or Fight: The Movie has a nice ring to it.

LM: What role do you see young people playing in ’saving’ the environment?

DH: They’re our leaders. Most of the rest of us are just doing triage, paying lip service, patting ourselves on the back for blue-boxing. I met a young girl in Ontario who asked and answered questions about human-wildlife conflict with the insight of a university-level scholar. She said to me, “Thank you for writing a book like this. There’s nothing like it out there.” I thought, “Thank you for being the kind of person who will read it.” [Hi, Olivia!]

LM: What kind of response have you had to the book?

DH: I spent the month after publication traveling through Nova Scotia, Ontario, Albert and BC making presentations at schools, libraries and wildlife centres. Virtually every child or teen had an animal story they wanted to share with me, and they loved the idea of a young person and her friends taking on a major corporation on behalf of animals. A class in Edmonton that had witnessed the 2005 Wabamun Lake oil spill was planning a letter to the Minister of Environment by the time I left, asking for regulations to control oil dumping off Newfoundland!

LM: What’s in store for the next book?

DH: In Crow Medicine, the central animal will be the crow, which is considered a pest animal in western society, and the setting will be Vancouver before the arrival of West Nile Virus. I want to put Jane and the other characters into that tense, tight, exhausted, hair-trigger feeling that occurs when safety and danger suddenly become uncontrollable commodities and friends lose trust even in friends. The other major element with be Aboriginal mythology, in which the crow is the bringer of light into darkness, and represents the ability to take a stand, even when it means standing alone.

Purchase Flight or Fight

Purchase Crow Medicine 

The press conference started at 10 am today; CBC, CTV, Global TV, the BC Ministry of Environment and The Province newspaper were there. And so was I!

Chris Battaglia of Focus Wildlife gave an introductory interview and explanation of the nine-step protocol for dealing with wild animals in an oil spill situation. Media were there to see an oiled Canada Goose undergo the wash and rinse process. I was thrilled to see that since my volunteer shift on Monday, four geese had already made it through the process and were preening themselves calmly in one of the outdoor pools.

The wash and rinse process took about 45 minutes. As I’ve said here before, it can be one of the most stressful things a wild animal ever has to endure in its lifetime. The handlers are experienced (the one you’ll see in the video below helped wash the 20,000 penguins caught in a spill off the coast of Africa) and extremely gentle with the animals. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re wild, frightened, and bent on escape.

Click here to see a YouTube video I posted showing a portion of the rinse process; it’s Chris Battaglia’s voice you can hear in the background. Go ahead and laugh; I’m still figuring out the technology, and as a consequence shot this video, uh, sideways. Just turn your head a little.

Janice Dickie of the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC (WRA) was there as well, and commented to me later that since Wabamun and the two BC spills of last summer, the media have become much more aware of the issues surrounding oiled wildlife response and much more sophisticated in their questions. With the amount of coverage this morning’s event will generate, there will be no way for Canada’s federal environment ministry to avoid addressing the idea of a ‘polluter pay principle.’

WRA is calling upon the Environment Canada Minister and his government to review the Canadian Wildlife Service’s management of oiled birds, which lags behind that of the United States and most other developed countries. In the US, for example, the government has produced a 90-page protocol document that is handed to spillers in the immediate aftermath of a spill, detailing exactly what is expected of them in terms of response, cleanup, wildlife rehabilitation, cost coverage and restitution. Also in the US, oil companies are required to pay a barrel tax into an emergency response fund. Neither such practice exists in Canada.

WRA is asking the Canadian government to develop an effective national strategy to deal with all oiled wildlife — not just species at risk — and to support a ‘polluter pay principle’ that includes oiled wildlife response as a regular component of overall spill cleanup.

As media saw clearly today, this job, like perhaps most others, can only be done properly by trained and experienced professionals if it is to be safe, effective and successful for everyone involved — including the animals.

I was housesitting for J&S in Toronto when Craig Rintoul of BookBits came by to interview me about Crow Medicine. I shovelled snow for the first time in my life that week … and the second, third, fourth and fifth times as well. Anyway, the front walk was clear when Craig arrived.

I’d expected him to show up slinging bags of big, black, bulky audio recording equipment, child of the ’70s that I am. Instead, he pulled out what looked like an MP3 player and said, “Okay, ready?”

I have to thank Craig again for doing such a careful and compassionate read of the book, and for making the interview experience (always a bit nerve-wracking for me) so much fun.

No animals were harmed in the recording of this interview, although apparent evidence to the contrary may be heard near the top of the clip. That’s just Jiggy and Pixel, two wily grey tabbies and the house’s real owners, announcing their presence to their adoring public (you).

Enjoy!

Craig Rintoul of BookBits interviews Diane Haynes in Toronto about her latest book, Crow Medicine. Click here to hear their conversation!