To help teachers and comic fans at home, I’m posting outlines and lesson guides for each week’s session. Last time, in Writing Comics Workshop for Kids: Session 1, we covered Brainstorming and creating Story Seeds. Session 2 is all about Creating Characters.

If you’re ready to dive in, then read on  . . .

Getting the Creativity Flowing

To start a writing workshop session, it’s essential to get our brains into creative mode thinking. One of the quickest ways to do this is through the One Sentence Story game. It’s a classic that can work anywhere. Here’s how it goes:

1. Get the kids sitting in a circle.

2. One person is picked to be the Story Starter. He or she, chooses a direction the story will flow – clockwise or counter-clockwise. The Story Starter begins a story with a single opening sentence. Something like “Once upon a time, there was a  . . . .” works well.

3. The person next to the Story Starter continues the story by adding a single sentence.

4. The story goes around the circle with each person adding to it.  Each player can only add one sentence at a time.

5. When the story returns to the Story Starter it’s finished! And probably very silly, which is a good thing.

Play as many rounds of the One Sentence Story game as you have time for. By the end, everyone should be bubbling with ideas and creativity.

Creating Characters, Three Panels at a Time

In session 1, we talked about brainstorming ideas and creating story seeds to grow our story. Now, we’ll talk about creating characters. A fun way to do this is through another classic creation game I call the “Three Panel Character Creator”. I learned this one years ago from the multi-talented writer/comic creator Brian McLachlan. I forget what it’s actually called,  but you know, that doesn’t really matter. It’s easy and fun to do with a group of creative kids (or adults!)

All you need is a piece of paper and a few creative people.  You can also download a Three Panel Character Creator Template right here!  Here’s how it works.

1. Each person puts their name on a piece of paper and folds it into three equal sections.

2. Label the top section: Head, the middle section: Body and the bottom section: Foot

3. Fold the paper so only the “Head” section is showing.

4. Draw a head for your character. The goofier, the better. Give them three eyes, horns or unicorns for hair, anything goes.

5. Fold the paper, so the “Head” section is hidden and only the “Body” part can be seen.

5. Pass the paper to another player.

6. That player draws a body. The weirder, the better, but the player cannot look at the Head section!

7. Fold the paper, so only the “Feet” section is showing and pass it to another person.

8. That person draws wacky feet or tentacles or whatever. Again, the player cannot look at the Head or Body sections.

9. The completed 3 part picture returns to the original person. They unfold it and they have their totally weird and wonderful character!

Armed with their new and very strange characters, the kids are now ready to add some details.

Character Sheet Creation

Every character needs details and using a character sheet inspired by role playing games and collectible card games is a great way to connect these ideas with kids.

Writers can create their own character sheets or you can download the Character Sheet template to get them started.

Challenge your writers to think about the character’s favourite foods, best friends, worst enemies and goals and problems. When these are fleshed out, story ideas usually follow.

Give your students plenty of time to write up their character details.

Wrapping it All Up

With their crazy characters created and character sheets filled out, your students will have plenty to work with next week when we start looking at creating plots and planning out our stories.

Until then, keep writing and creating!

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As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have teaching ideas and writing news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

My YA picks in Best Books for Kids & Teens 2013

A few months ago, I was honoured to be asked to be one of the judges picking the YA Best Books for 2013 on behalf of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.

I blogged about getting all the books and then making the decision about would make the cut with a team of great librarians and book industry folks.

Back then, I couldn’t reveal any details. But this is the future so anything goes! Almost.

If you want to see the picks and many other amazing books from Canadian creators, you’ll have to pick up a copy of the Spring Edition of the Best Books for Kids and Teens 2013 in your local bookstore or online at BookCentre.ca.

Do this and you’ll be supporting the amazing work of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre who do way too many fantastic things around literacy to mention.

It can be difficult to explain how 40 students, from four inner-city schools, share 1 Minecraft server for learning and fun. It hasn’t really been done before. We have our GamingEdus site packed with resources for teachers and our Minecraft Club Hub wiki for student work. But what we didn’t have is a video tour. That is, until now.

Enjoy this quick video tour of the Multi-School Minecraft server. And if you’re a teacher interested in using Minecraft with your students, visit gamingedus.org and get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

–-

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have teaching ideas and writing news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

That was also when I stumbled upon a newly released book called What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. It gave me an idea for an article and I was fortunate enough to land an interview with its author, Dr. James Paul Gee.

Here’s the article reprinted in all it’s 2004 glory. I think the content is still relevant today, nearly 10 years later. What do you think?

Screen Doors

For boys who shun books, video games and the Internet provide a way into the world of words

By Liam O’Donnell

“I’d be happy if he read the Sunday comics,” laments Jodi DiGiuseppe, a mother of two from London, Ont. She has tried everything to get her nine-year-old son, Anthony, to read, with little success. “We banned the TV and offered bribes, but that didn’t work for long.” Like many boys his age, Anthony just isn’t interested in books. But get Anthony playing his favourite video game and he turns into a digital demon. “I have to drag him away from the screen.”

Having a button-mashing, book-bashing son is worrying for many parents. For the last six years literacy tests conducted by Council of Ministers of Education show Canadian boys trailing girls in reading and writing skills. In 1998, 13 year old boys scored 15% lower than girls on reading tests. In more recent writing exams, girls continue to score higher than boys. Are video games and other digital distractions to blame? While some parents and teachers are quick to say yes, a growing number of educators are coming to the defence of video games. Boys aren’t becoming illiterate, they say. Boys are redefining literacy, and gaining “digital literacy” skills. And in the workplaces of the future, these skills might give them a head start on their book-reading buddies.

Video Games are Literacy in Action

“Boys are becoming literate in spite of school instruction,” says Heather Blair, an associate professor at the University of Alberta. Blair and her colleague, Kathy Sanford of the University of Victoria, spent two years talking to adolescent boys, delving into their backpacks and desks, hoping to learn more about boys and literacy. “Computer games, Internet searches and online chat rooms have shaped the way boys interact with texts,” says Blair. In chat rooms, boys communicate in a constrained shorthand of shortened words that reads like a rapid-fire barrage of customised licence plates.

On the Internet, they scoured websites, absorbing sports statistics and tracking down secret cheat codes for their favourite video game. Parents are often mystified by skill and confidence boys show as they click their way through new technologies. This, say Blair and Sanford, is literacy in action. Their findings, recently published in the study “Canadian Adolescent Boys and Literacy”, are attracting attention from educators and giving hope to many frustrated parents.

Blair and Sanford believe that we need to expand our definition of literacy to include other sources of reading material like magazines, newspapers and text found on websites and video games. “There is a certain amount of reading in video games,” says Sanford, “And in some games, a high level of reading.” From the novel-length printed manuals to the clue-filled messages on the screen, the amount of reading material in games quickly adds up. In a format that relies so heavily on fast moving graphics, this written material is often overlooked by observers, but not by players. Understanding the game text is essential to a player’s success. “You have to read what the instructions are, and follow them exactly or you fail the level,” says one boy in the study.

Button Mashing Teaching Tools

When educators mention good video games, they are not talking about the ultra-violent, shoot-anything-that-moves variety. Dr. James Paul Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, studied the structure of dozens of video games to reveal their educational potential. In his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, Gee examines the ways that video games can used as teaching tools. The best video games, he believes, offer challenges that can be solved in alternative ways, encouraging lateral thinking and problem-solving skills. The player’s decisions must affect the outcome of the game, placing importance on their choices and promising consequences to their actions. With the stakes this high, the challenges in the game should be at a level that is difficult but ‘doable.’ According to Gee, popular titles like Age of Mythology, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker all have educational potential.

Gee is quick to point out that a good video game can only teach so much. The rest is up to the player. “Video games are only good for a child’s growth when played strategically,” he says. Strategic playing means that boys ask themselves questions as they face in-game challenges. Questions like: what problems do I face here? How can I best tackle this problem? What other approaches would work? Gee believes that the problem-solving skills developed while gaming strategically can help boys succeed in their literacy assignments at school. Blair and Sanford agree.

“Boys transform the assigned literacy work into something more fun, engaging, and personally meaningful for themselves,” says Sanford. Many teachers recognise this. That’s why your son’s grade-six language arts assignment is more likely to be a series of comic strips than a written book report. But even with traditional literacy exercises, boys will draw upon their outside interests to make a connection.

Boys Morphing Language and Learning

Blair and Sanford talk about one grade five student who was asked to write a short story starting from a visual prompt of a man sneaking around a corner. The boy wrote a story about a James Bond character who evades trip wires, climbs along rooftops and uses his high-tech watch to decode a safe’s combination. The language the boy used, like “wire traps” and “decoding”, and the actions of his character were all elements of his favourite “007” video game. By transforming what he had read and learned from playing his video game, the boy created a connection with his literacy assignment. Blair and Sanford call this “morphing” literacy, a term borrowed from the boys themselves. “Morphing is a word used by boys in their play to describe the transformation of one form or character to another.”

As the boys morph their school work to fit their interests, by using the words learned from their game experiences for example, they also expand the definitions of literacy to include language and skills learned from non-traditional sources like video games. These ‘digital literacy’ skills, say Blair and Sanford, will serve boys well in the coming years.

Digital Literacies are the Workplace Skills of Tomorrow

“The abilities to navigate the Internet and read multiple texts simultaneously will be perhaps more useful workplace skills than the ability to analyse a work of fiction or to write a narrative account,” Blair and Sanford predict. Email and the Internet didn’t exist 15 years ago, but today many offices expect new employees to have already mastered these technologies. 15 years from now, when today’s eight year olds are starting their careers, technology will have transformed the workplace even further. The digital literacy skills boys are picking up today, will make them more comfortable in this environment, giving them a distinct advantage.

Until then, how can we encourage boys to cultivate their ‘digital literacy’ skills while they play? Dr. Gee suggests that parents pick up the game controller and join in the fun. By playing video games with your son, parents can ask questions that will help him play strategically, while at the same time gaining insight into what attracts him to these worlds. And that could be the “game cheat” you need to convince your boy to put down the controller and pick up a book.

–-

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have teaching ideas and writing news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

As I promised in previous blog posts and to the good people who subscribe to Reading Change, my monthly newsletter, here’s a quick rundown of the activities we did during Session 1.

If you’re a teacher, you could adapt these activities to use in your own classroom.

Here are the activities for Writing Comics for Kids: Session 1. Enjoy!

Introductions: Getting to Know Each Other

The first day of a workshop always feels like the first day of school in a new year. Nobody knows each other. Everyone nervously finds a seat, slaps on a name tag and tries to look inconspicuous. Since we were going to meet weekly, I knew the kids weren’t going to become BFFs or anything, but I wanted to get to know a bit about each of them. That called for the dreaded Icebreaker Activity!

State Your Name & Favourite Comic:  Our tables were in a U shape so that was close enough to a circle for what I wanted to do. After introducing myself, I asked each of the kids to tell us their name and their favourite comic. This is a great way to find connections between strangers because I knew at least 3 kids would list Bone as their favourite – they always do (it is a great comic.)

Behind the Scenes: How Comics are Made

After the ice breaker activity, I took the kids through the stages of how I (with the help of many amazing people) created the Max Finder Mystery comic for Owl Magazine. I showed them my notebook scribblings, rough drafts of scripts and some sketches from Michael Cho, who illustrated the early Max mysteries.

You can do this, too! Examples of Mike’s sketches are in the back of Max Finder Mystery: Collected Casebook Volume 2 and examples of my writer’s notebook and scripts are in the back of Max Finder Mystery: Collected Casebook Volume 3.

Planting Creativity Seeds with Opposites

Now that the kids had seen how comics get made, it was time to get them creating their own. We started by having them plant seed for their story idea. Each story starts out with one idea for a plot or a character and grows from there like a plant. We needed to find that seed and get it growing. To do that, I like to play the “What if . . .” game.

“What If . . .”  This is a great brainstorming activity. The kids wrote the words “What if . . .” at the top of their notebooks and then drew a line down the middle of their page below that. On the left side of the line, they wrote the word “Person/Place/Thing”. On the right side of the line they wrote “Actions”. Here’s a What If Story Starter Template [pdf] for you to download.

I challenged them to think of  a “thing” to put in the left column – a character or animal is a good place to start, like a ninja or a whale.

Then they ask themselves “What if ninjas . . . .” and then write down the wackiest action they can think of in the right column under “Actions”. I encouraged the kids to put together things that don’t normally go together, things that are opposite of each other.  For example, “What if ninjas  . . .  did ballet!” “What if a whale  . . . went ice skating.”

With their heads bursting with ideas, they got to work and wrote a long list of zany “What Ifs  . . .  ” After about 10 minutes, we stopped and they shared their ideas. It was a lot of fun to hear some of their wacky characters and ideas. Our creativity was officially flowing!

Storming the Brain with Webs

Now that everyone was in their creative zone, it was time for the final activity of the session: The Brainstorm!

Now it was time to pick one zany idea they just created in the “What if  . . .” exercise and flesh it out to see if it will make a good story.  I handed out a blank Brainstorm Web template [pdf]. Each of them picked an idea they just created and put it in the middle of the web. Around the centre circle, they put more ideas for this character: problems he/she could face, friends or enemies they could have, anything they could think of.

More fantastic creativity followed. After another 10 minutes, we gathered and shared some of our ideas.

Wrapping It All Up

And suddenly, we were out of time.  The kids went off with the task to complete their Brainstorm Webs and be ready to add to their story idea for next week.

With our creativity seeds planted and our brains sparking up a storm, our session ended with lots of chatter and sharing of ideas. It was great.

Tips for Teachers

Our session lasted 90 minutes with a quick break in the middle. For teachers in a classroom, you could break Session 1 into two parts to give your kids time to really have fun with the “What if . . .” and the Brainstorm Web activities.

I gave each student a two-pocket folder to store all their writing, which I called their Writer’s Portfolio. I also gave them a a very basic lined notebook, that I called their “Writer’s Journal”. This helped them keep their writing in one place and hopefully will inspire them to write more during the week between sessions.  We’ll see!

What’s Your Creative Writing Tips?

Next Week, I plan on having them dig deeper with creating characters and creating plots. I’ll post those activities here too.

What do you think of Session 1? What creative writing activities have you tried that have worked or even failed? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

–-

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have teaching ideas and writing news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

I’m excited to announce the arrival of Tech Tales, a brand new series of short stories for middle grade readers available exclusively as digital downloads.

Written for Reluctant Readers, Designed for Teachers

Reluctant readers will enjoy the Tech Tales’ short length, brief chapters and high interest topics told with with fast action, spooky mysteries and gadgety weirdness.

Teachers, librarians and home schoolers will love the easy DRM-Free license that comes with each story that allows unlimited:

• sharing of digital files with colleagues or students
• printing for in-class group reading or offline reading
• access to unique Teacher’s Guide with questions and activities individually tailored for each story

Get Unplugged and New Stories Every Month

Unplugged, the first Tech Tale story, is available now and more stories will be arriving monthly.

Learn more about Tech Tales and watch out for a new story each month!

Steampunk goes west in Modo: Ember's End

Earlier this month, I wrote about some Canadian authors mixing it up with traditional publishing and independent, or self publishing. If you missed it, check out Five Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids, to get caught up.

One author mentioned was Arthur Slade, you know the Governor General Award-winning author of Dust, Tribes and the rollicking steampunk series The Hunchback Assignments. Arthur is also a pioneer with going hybrid. He recently self-published his Northern Frights series as ebooks and now Art is pushing the boundaries of Canadian publishing by crowdsourcing his new project Modo: Ember’s End on Indiegogo.

Illustrator Christopher Steininger’s artwork looks amazing and coupled with Arthur’s writing, you know this book is going to kick some Steampunk butt. They just cracked the $5000 mark but need more support to make it all happen.

That’s where you come in.

Whether you’re an Arthur Slade groupie (he has them), a teacher or just a graphic novel fan, there are some great perks for pledging your support including signed artwork and even a virtual author visit to your school from Arthur himself.  Visit the Modo: Ember’s End Indiegogo page and see them all.

Arthur was kind enough to answer some questions for me about his new project and the future of Canadian kids publishing for schools and libraries. I think after you’ve heard what he has to say about Modo: Ember’s End, you’ll want to grab some of those perks for yourself.

Crowdsourcing with Arthur Slade

Christopher Steininger can do some mean looking baddies

1. I’m sure your publisher would have jumped at the chance to make the graphic novel, Modo: Embers End. Why did you crowd-source this project?

AS: I really wanted to test out the whole model of crowd fundraising and I wanted to create a graphic novel on my own from scratch (with the help of an artist, of course). It became clear to me that doing a graphic novel in the world of The Hunchback Assignments was the most logical path (plus I had an idea that I thought would be perfect) and after some deliberating decided to go with Indiegogo.

I also liked the idea of creating a full colour graphic novel that would be a collector’s item. As a collector of books and graphic novels myself, I’m a fan of limited press runs.

2. You’ve got some great options for schools and libraries in the campaign. Can you tell us about them?

AS: Well the first “perk” is the purchase of two books and a Skype visit with the author (for only $75.) I pictured the school receiving the books, the kids reading them, then having a Skype visit to talk about the creation of the book.

The second “perk” is an option to order 5 copies at a highly reduced rate ($100.00 shipping included). This is more for libraries and schools who know they’ll need to have several copies on hand for their readers.

3. Project backers are already seeing a lot of full colour artwork and even a cover. How close to completion is Modo: Embers End? What has it been like bringing your characters from the pages of your novels to the graphic novel format? 

AS: The script is complete, though there is a lot of editing that happens once the artwork is done (in other words new word balloons pop into my head) and the artwork is in the beginning stages. In fact if you follow the campaign…it’s unfolding before your very eyes! : ) We have the “world” in place around our characters and are starting to really focus on making it all concrete now.

The process feels quite natural to me. I wrote comics for some time in the late 90’s and have been dabbling with them ever since. And the actual creation is made easier because Christopher Steininger’s artwork is amazing and inspiring. It’s really easy to write stories that involve the artwork he creates. Plus it’s enjoyable to have someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s very cooperative.

4. What have been your biggest successes or challenges in the last two years with self-publishing your work?

AS: Really, the biggest challenge is learning how these “new” ways work. With epublishing there was so much to understand about the process of turning a book into an ebook and then to market it. With crowd fundraising it was learning how that “world” works. That’s the biggest challenge. Oh, and then adapting to everything on the fly.

5. Putting on your “Futurematic Goggles” (steam powered, of course), where do you see the Canadian kids publishing industry going in the next five years or so for authors, schools and libraries?

AS: To be honest, I don’t see it changing a lot. Yes there will be more crowd funding projects. But the kid lit industry moves a bit slower than the rest of the publishing industry. Schools/libraries need “real” books. And the most likely place to get that is from traditional publishers. Of course, in ten years we’ll all be flying around on jetpacks and using book implants in our heads…

Bonus Question!

What advice would you give to teacher-librarians having a hard time justifying this new way of buying books to their school.

AS: I understand why this new way of selling books is a bit of a hill to climb. We’re not used to paying for the creation of something. We’re used to paying for something after it is created. I guess it could used as a lesson for a class, teaching them about the investment and time it takes to create something.

The curious thing to me about crowd fundraising is that once the “object” (book, lamppost, graphic novel) is made, those who invested in it feel like they own it more than they would if they’d just bought it at the story. In essence they helped to create it.

* * *

Thanks Art for answering my five (plus one) questions. If you want to support a pioneering Canadian author (who’s also a hybrid!), then visit the Modo: Ember’s End Indiegogo page and help make it happen!

–-

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have Tech Teaching ideas and project news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

Max and Alison circa 2002

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading downtown and traveling back in time.

I’ll be joining the Owlkids team to talk about the history of the Max Finder Mystery comic I created ten years ago. It’s all part of the Comic Arts for Kids Expo (CAKE) happening at 12:45 on March 23rd, 2013 at the Lillian H. Smith Library (239 College Street, at Spadina.)

I still can’t believe it’s been over ten years since I sat down and ripped off, er, was inspired by Encyclopedia Brown and created Max Finder and Alison Santos and a little town called Whispering Meadows. Every month since around 2002, Max and Alison have stumbled into a fresh mystery and middle grade readers across North America have joined them in cracking the case. Now, Max and Alison have their own European editions and soon they’ll be translated into Spanish and Dutch. More on that later.

In the meantime, if you and your favourite comic fan are looking for some mysterious fun, come on down to CAKE and check out the whole day of activities.

In honour of the time traveling fun, I’ve included a vintage Max Finder Mystery below the jump. It was illustrated by Michael Cho that appeared in Owl Magazine back in 2002, I think.

Enjoy!

Click on the image to make it bigger.

Max Finder Mystery: The Case of the Garden Grind-up Page 1

Max Finder Mystery: The Case of the Garden Grind-up Page 2

Max Finder Mystery: The Case of the Garden Grind-up Page 3

Max Finder Mystery: The Case of the Garden Grind-up Page 4

Solution to the Case of the Garden Grind-up

Dorothy Pafko isn’t a science whiz, she’s a beauty queen and winner of the “Little Miss Cutie Beauty Pageant”.

Mr. P said that his “Dot” was mad at him for being in Marcus’s video. “Dot” is a common short form of Dorothy. Mr. P is short for Mr. Pafko, the same last name as Dorothy. Mr. P is Dorothy’s father. Her pageant winning photo is proudly displayed on the shelf in his office, which can be seen during his video interview.

Dorothy was so scared that she’d lose her science whiz reputation for winning a beauty contest, that she lied to Marcus. She said she travelled to Toronto for a science competition.

She really went there for a beauty pageant. When she heard that her father blabbed about the pageant to Marcus, she decided to steal the tape to keep her secret safe.

Unfortunately for her, Dorothy made a few mistakes when building her alibi.

She claimed to be in Mr. Bailey’s class teaching the budgies how to speak. But Mr. Bailey said that Dorothy was quiet for the whole period. If she was really teaching the birds, they would have been screeching loudly, like in the video footage.

Mr. Bailey is nearsighted, that means he can’t see far away things very well. When he looked up, he said he could see Dorothy’s white lab coat. But Dorothy wasn’t wearing the coat. She wasn’t even in the science lab. She had put her lab coat over the shoulders of “Bones”, the class skeleton, to fool the nearsighted teacher.

When confronted with this evidence, Dorothy broke down and confessed to stealing the camcorder. She retrieved it from her locker and gave it back to Marcus, who vowed to never do anymore secret snooping.

Thanks for helping solve a Max Finder Mystery!

Did you solve it? Yeah, I couldn’t either. Oh, well. Next time, for sure.

–-

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have Tech Teaching ideas and project news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

Of course, each of these is an exception to the rule, an outlier (as they are often called.) Their results are not the typical and they are not the point of this post. So, what is the point?

Good question. The point is there are now many paths to getting your writing to the reader and a growing number of savvy traditionally published authors know this. Many of them write for kids and young adults. And many of them are Canadian. They are mixing traditional publishing deals with independent or self published works. Known as Hybrid Authors, they’re helping change the face of publishing. And in the coming weeks, I’ll be joining their ranks with a new project I’m very excited about. More on that later, first here are five Canadian kids writers who are rocking the Hybrids Author model.

The Hybrid Five

1. Arthur Slade

If you want to know where kids publishing is going in Canada, Arthur is the one to watch. When Art got the rights back to his spooky Northern Frights series, he quickly turned them into ebooks and has been selling them steadily ever since. With his 2001 Governor General Award winning Dust (a must read, btw) he’s carved up US and UK rights and released Dust as ebooks in those territories. In addition to giving us status updates on these indy-published projects, Art continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be an author with a new project he’s funding through Indiegogo. Modo: Ember’s End will take Modo, the steampunk hunchback spy and the rest of the characters from his Hunchback Assignments series, away from its traditional publishing home and into the Wild West steampunk style in a full colour graphic novel, illustrated by Christopher Steininger. The illustrations and trailers look amazing and I, for one, cannot wait to get my copy. I encourage all reading this to run over to the Modo: Ember’s End Indigogo page and fund this project.  The perks are awesome and I already know it’s going to be a favourite in my school library.

2. Cheryl Rainfield

In her own words, Cheryl Rainfield writes “the books I needed as a teen and couldn’t find.” Cheryl’s six YA novels deal with tough issues with empathy, compassion and fine writing. With most of her novels out through traditional publishers, Cheryl recently independently published Parallel Visions, where it is already finding success and garnering much praise among fans. Cheryl is a master at social media and knows how to engage her readers beyond the page. This, combined with a growing body of work both traditionally published and indy, show she clearly knows where publishing is heading.

3.  Steve Vernon

Spend a minute reading Steve’s blog and you’ll know he’s a Maritimer. Read one of his books and you’ll know he’s one heck of a funny writer. I’m having a blast handing my Grade 5 students his Silver Birch nominated novel: Sinking Deeper: Or My Questionable (Possibly Heroic) Decision to Invent a Sea Monster., published by Nimbus. But I’m personally enjoying is self-published sci-fi, off the wall, end of the world serial Flash Virus, self-pubbed with a new episode available every two weeks or so. Steve has a bunch of horror titles for adults that are also published independently, but I suspect with the success of Sinking Deeper and Flash Virus we’ll see more indy-pubbed kids stuff from his twisted (and hilarious) mind.

4. Charles de Lint

A Canadian legend in contemporary fantasy, de Lint has always pushed against boundaries both in the pages of his books and beyond. His Triskell Press has independently published chap books and story collections for years. So, it’s no surprise that when de Lint moved into YA fiction, he’d continue to be the quintessial Canadian hybrid author. His 2012 YA novel, Under My Skin is available to Canadians through Penguin’s Razor Bill imprint. However, readers outside of Canada can purchase the novel through Amazon. This is in addition to several short stories available from Triskell Press imprint I think we’ll be seeing more independent titles from de Lint in the future.

5. Adrienne Kress

As of today, Adrienne is lands in as my fifth Canadian writer rocking the hybrid model. Adrienne’s The Friday Society was traditionally published, as were her previous novels. However, just today she announced that her latest book Outcast will be published as an ebook through Diversion Books.  But wait! Diversion are an ebook publisher. That’s not indy or self publishing! No, it isn’t really, but it’s definitely not traditional publishing. Like publishing, maybe the definition of the Hybrid Author is changing too.

Update: After I finished this post, I remembered that John Wilson is another fine Canadian writer who has gone hybrid. In addition to writing one of the books in the hit Seven series for Orca Publishers, it seems Wilson wisely hung onto the digital rights for his award-winning traditionally published books and has been busy republishing them as ebooks on Amazon, including serializing his book  the Heretic’s Secret into 11 short episodes. Grab the first episode of the series, Gathering Storms for $0.99 and get yourself hooked.  A very smart move on his part, in my opinion. Readers looking for top quality historical fiction could pick up his books all for a great price.

Soon to be the Hybrid Six . . .

There has never been more options for authors these days and I couldn’t be happier. I’m incredibly pleased with my traditionally published books and graphic novels. They’re available in print, as ebooks and even as animated ebooks. I am definitely not going to stop working these great people. In fact, I’m hoping to have some traditional published new releases to announce very soon.

In the meantime, I’ll be joining the ranks of the five authors listed above with my own indy project very soon. I’m really excited and I’m learning a lot about the publishing process that goes way beyond getting good words on the page (or screen.)

Stay tuned for some big news very soon. Until then, visit one of the authors above and add their latest offering to your ebook collection. What? You don’t have an ereader, yet? Sigh.

Anyway . . . What do you think? Who did I miss? Are there other Canadian Kids/YA authors who are mixing it up and playing with hybrid model? If I missed anyone, please add their names in the comments below!

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As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have Tech Teaching ideas and project news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam

Talking Max Finder Mystery at CAKE

First off, on Saturday March 23rd, there is the Comic Arts for Kids Expo (aka CAKE) at the Lillian H Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library.  I’ll be part of the “From Idea To Finished Comic” Max Finder Mystery Panel at 12:45pm. Myself, Craig Battle, Ramon Perez and ChickaDEE editor Natalia Diaz will share how we work together to make those mysterious Max Finder comics.

Truth be told, these days Craig and Ramon do all the heavy lifting. Craig’s writing and Ramon’s illustrations have carried on  the sleuthing tradition  in the pages of Owl and for the last four Collected Casebooks.

It’ll be great to meet and share how it all gets done. There’s lots more to do, so make sure you check all the events at CAKE.


Getting Graphic Writing Workshops

If you’re a young comic creator, then you should check out my Get Graphic: Writing Comics (When You Can’t Draw) series of workshops happening Saturday afternoons in April.

It all kicks off Saturday, April 6th at the Woodside Square branch and runs for 90 minutes every Saturday throughout the month. It’s open to comic fans aged 8  – 12 years old, with a maximum of 25 participants, so sign up early. You can register in person or by phone (Woodside Square details here.)

Not in Toronto? Not a Problem!

If you’re not near Toronto, don’t panic! You can participate in the comic writing workshops too. Each week, I’ll post an outline about what we’ll be covering during that session and you can play along from home. If you’re a teacher with a class of comic fans, get in touch and we can cook up something for your students to get involved in the fun. Contact me or leave a comment in the post below and I’ll be in touch.

So that’s where I’ll be this spring! I’m looking forward to meeting some new comic fans and hearing the amazing stories they’ll have to tell.

–

As an award-winning children’s author, gamer-geek and elementary school teacher, I often have Tech Teaching ideas and project news to share with fellow educators. I deliver these resources and ideas to your inbox in my e-newsletter Reading Change.

If this sounds like something you’d like to receive, then subscribe to Reading Change.

You can unsubscribe anytime and I won’t share or sell your data. Honest.

Thanks!

Liam