Sneak peek
This is me on-stage at the Labrador Creative Arts Festival in 2013, reading the first scratchings of a story that felt important to an auditorium filled with hundreds of kids and parents. Thinking all the while This may never exist and Why am I sharing a rough draft? but hoping that performing it — the only time I ever have, that scribbled, raw first version — might have the effect of wishing it into being. And look! Seven years later, it’s coming to life.
A GREAT BIG NIGHT will hit the shelves in September 2020! I’m swinging back again from adult non-fiction on the ever-expanding mysteries of life after loss to a sweet, bouncing story for our littlest readers: a rollicking woodland tale about the value of tomfoolery and music in our lives.
Award-winning illustrator Josée Bisaillon is working her magic now — follow her on Instagram for a look inside her marvellous studio! In the meantime, I’ll be over here gazing adoringly at her pages as they come in, and listening to the recording that inspired this book — Bach Meets Cape Breton by Puirt A Baroque.
The title track is the creative purpose of the album — to chart the threads connecting the high courts of 18th-century Europe and the ceilidhs of Cape Breton. It starts out soft and sweet, perhaps in Vienna, before it crosses the ocean and our coastal highlands appear on the horizon at around 3:20. By 4:50, we have moved from concert hall to barn, and a foot-stompin’ ceilidh brings down the roof. It’s one of the most glorious, perfect albums I’ve ever heard. It’s what made me write this book.
That’s right, loves. We listen to classical music loud in this house. There’s no other way. When I take this book to schools, there’s gonna be dancing: bears and deers and porcupines alike, and three little frogs at centre stage, playing their little hearts out. Josée’s art is making me so excited to see it all come to life. See you in September, and bring your dancing shoes!
