I arrived at Regina airport to thunderous applause. I just assumed they took Children’s Book Week very seriously in the Canadian heartland. There was even a woman holding a sign with my name. She was the head honcho children’s librarian for the city no less, and she came by to drive me to my hotel. The applause, however, was for the Rough Riders who had just crushed my very own BC Lions in the Western finals.

An author/storyteller tour in Rider Nation during the week before the Grey Cup deserves a football metaphor. My brilliant tour coordinator was the quarterback, the team was made up of dedicated public librarians and school librarians and I was … well, I was the football.

It was a five-day-long ground advance. I was handed off from one town to the next with perfect precision. I was never fumbled over 1200 km, 10 towns and 16 presentations. Whether it was storytelling to preschoolers in Pilot Butte, leading comedy writing workshops to grade 8s in Yorkton and Moose Jaw, speaking before adults in Estevan and Weyburn or talking about my books to the middle grades in Swift Current, Kennedy, Grand Coulee, Bienfait and Regina, there was no stopping my progress. 200 kids at a time, 100 kids a time or 25 kids crammed into a cozy warm library, it didn’t matter. I simply had nothing to fear.

And why, sports fans? Because Saskatchewan has no defense. The people are open and friendly. The children laugh with abandon or pause to ask thoughtful questions or rush out to greet you dressed as characters from your own book.

 But as my week progressed, my audience grew greener and greener. A green shirt here or there peppered my early presentations, but soon there were green wigs and then finally came the green and white war paint. On Monday, I was playfully teased by my first group of students; regaled with a rousing rendition of the Rider Nation cheer: Green is the colour. Football is the game … and by Friday, I was publicly garlanded with a green necklace of my own. I was made an honorary member of Rider Nation and an honour it certainly was.

Of course, no trip to Saskatchewan is complete these days without a visit to the Corner Gas outdoor set. A school librarian from Moose Jaw dropped me off here to be met by the public librarian from Weyburn.

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Here is an example from Chief Justice Milvain School in Calgary. The wonderful grade two teacher (I don’t put names on the internet, but trust me, she’s real) got her students drawing right after my storytelling session with them. I only had time for a peek because I had to rush off to the next school, but the examples I am posting were actually in colour. Nonetheless, I was thrilled with seeing their interpretations of the stories they heard and had asked her to send me some copies.

Here is part of what she wrote on the letter that accompanied the pictures:

“Our school has a very high English as a Second Language population (I only have one student that isn’t ESL). This morning, after your storytelling, we came back to the classroom and talked about how even though you hadn’t shown us any pictures or books – that we could ‘see’ what you had been telling us about. It was quite a powerful learning moment for them.  … one student said that he wants to be a storyteller when he grows up because ‘you don’t have to keep your finger on the words to keep your place on a page, it’s just in your head.’”

I wish I could put all of the pictures up, but here is a small selection.

What about my memories? 8 schools. 10 glorious autumn days. What do I remember?

I remember my luggage. My poor, vulnerable luggage.

Here is my luggage leaving Vancouver airport:

Just waiting to be crushed by a jumbo jet.

Here is where my luggage arrives in Calgary:

Just in time for a polar bear’s dinner!

But I fought off the beasts, got to my lodgings and prepared for an intense week of storytelling and book presentations.

By the way – Happy Halloween. I’m currently writing this between trips to the door to give the local ghouls and monsters bits of candy. I tried giving them bits of sound advice but they will have none of it.

People in Calgary take their Halloween really seriously. Two weeks before the night, I saw houses majorly decorated in scary decor. Like this one:

Here’s a few other things I noticed about Calgarians:

1. They are willing to wait for hours in line at a Tim Hortons.

2. If you push your way to the front of the line at a Tim Hortons, they will cover you with glue and chocolate sprinkles and leave you in the front window as a warning to others.

The weather was quite mild and sunny and I discovered the many riverside trails that run through the city whenever I had a moment. I also had a free Sunday to go to Prince’s Island Park which is right downtown. I had a chance to hobnob with the locals.

Oh, and the place I stayed at was in the Inglewood neighbourhood. I had a great view of the city skyline.

And the city skyline had a great view of me                                                                       (one of the two white, triangular houses dead centre in picture)

No, I wasn’t levitating when I took that picture, I was up in the Calgary tower because sometimes I’m a sucker for touristy stuff. And besides, they gave me really good directions to it.

Speaking of levitating, there’s a part of the tower that has a glass floor. This is what you see when you look down:

Apparently it’s not a good idea to jump up and down on the plastic really hard when an elderly grandmother is attempting to step on it. Unless you like getting hit across the head with a handbag.

But I haven’t mentioned the wonderful schools I visited. So in the same order that I went to them, here they are:

St. Bede

Father  Doucet

Battalion Park

Chief  Justice Milvain

Ecole Sam Livingston

St. Cyril

Holy Redeemer

St. Clement

I want to thank all the schools and the teachers or librarians who hosted my visits.          

I should also mention that on the Saturday between my two touring weeks I had a book signing at McNally Robinson bookstore and I had a chance to reaquaint with staff from wonderful Wildwood school, which I visited last year.      

I was up and out early this morning to get to St. Bede Elementary School in the north end of Calgary and then I was at Father Doucet Elementary School in the afternoon. I had a great time at both schools even though it was a bit freaky at St. Bede because they have more sets of twins at that school than probably any school in Canada. I think there was like half a dozen sets! Could you imagine the fun they could have with their teachers pretending they were each other? Teachers could go crazy trying to figure out attendance. … hmm, maybe I’m giving out too many bad ideas here.

It was a marathon day. Two book presentations with grades five and six. A comedy writing workshop with the grade 7. A storytelling session with K-2 (all 200 of em!) and a storytelling session with grades 3 & 4. Whew!

I was nervous and awake at 4 in the morning (because when it comes to worrying, I am no procrastinator). It reminded me of my acting days, because in a way, this was like an opening night of a play, except in this case, the play is four hours long and I’m the only person in it. I hadn’t done a school visit in over five months and to be honest, I hadn’t been around people much in the past five months either (such is the writer’s life). And then there was all these new stories I was trying out for the first time.

But everything went well. My voice did not go on strike. I met some very funny grade 7 students in the writing workshop. I was treated to a delicious butter chicken lunch made by one student’s mother. And I was treated very kindly by my hosts which is one of the reasons why I love visiting schools.

Bar-el adds plenty of shtick to his retelling of a folk tale sometimes called “Three Perfect Peaches.” He gives over the narrator’s role to Libby Gaborchik, a fairy who prescribes three peaches to “cure” lovesick princess Vera, then helps young peasant lad Marvin to deliver the produce (unlike his hulking brothers Sheldon and Harvey), and to outsmart the king when he tries to torpedo the marriage by making Marvin responsible for a herd of rabbits. Playing clear homage to ‘50s-style Disney cartoons, Manders’s comical illustrations pair a swain of Ichabod Crane-like skinniness and a red-haired princess with a tendency to leap about exuberantly –rather like the hordes of long-eared, pop-eyed white rabbits that bound allover the landscape, until they’re recalled by the magic whistle that Libby provides. In the end, the king surrenders, Vera sweeps Marvin off his feet and Libby closes with a small joke, because, “Laughing is good for your health. Trust me, I’m a fairy. I know these things.” A very funny rendition equally suited to reading or telling. Trust me.

                                                    Kirkus Review

                                                    September 15, 2007

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=100505

I also managed to put together and mail two grant proposals way before their respective deadlines, because alas, my glorious summer of writing my BIG novel has come to an end. Now writing grants, if you are not familiar with the concept, is when you put together an envelope stuffed silly with paper filled with words that attempt to convince people to give you other people’s money in order to complete your BIG novel. The packages have been sent and all I do now is wait five or six months for a Brinks truck to pull up in front of my house and deliver oodles and oodles of cash in small denominations.

But it hasn’t been all work. The fair was in town and I thought I would have a try at taking pictures as well as eat lots of food-like substances which I suspect are probably not chock full of vitamins. Now, I confess that I don’t go on rides anymore. There was a brief period in my life that I did and I still get misty-eyed thinking of all that spinning around I did and all that vomiting I did afterwards. These days, all I require is a small stepladder to achieve the same effect (which is much less expensive and allows me to throw up in the comfort of my own home). 

But here’s some photos. I think I’ll put a few “arty” ones on the walkabout blog.

Have a great long weekend.

I entitle this series: 3 ways to lose your lunch

This novel has been a very ambitious project and highly enjoyable when I’m not pulling out valuable hair in frustration. I am aware that I am a writer who likes to stew in his ideas and that kind of creative process (if I may be permitted to call it a process) takes time. I am anxious about summer’s end, which is quickly coming upon us, because I will no longer have that kind of free time.

But as much as I like to worry about things, and let me say with full confidence that I can worry with the best of ‘em, I am getting prepared for September, putting together my storytelling performances and organizing author tools in schools.

And on that positive note, let me post this picture I took of fireworks I saw a few weeks ago.

www.danbar-el.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BvzvlrH30Q

I have a niece and nephew who live in France. Although they live in the country, and can see big rabbits and deer and wild boar at the drop of the hat, they do not have raccoons. They’ve seen pictures but never a real one.

I, on the other hand, have raccoons parading through my yard. This year I found five in our apple tree early one morning. Five is a record. I made the video for Emma and Thibaut so they could see them too. If you don’t have raccoons in the part of the world where you live, you might find this interesting too.

My website (www.danbar-el.com ) was getting old and dusty. There were pages that should have been changed or refreshed but I got distracted and/or lazy and/or kidnapped by pirates. So now I have a blog and that will take care of everything, right?

Well … here it goes.