 New in 2009!
Shivers and Shakes
- The 6th book in the Salt & Pepper Chronicles by David A Poulsen
... details
Published by
Key Porter Books |
 A Day in the Life of.... is there a typical David Poulsen day? Not really as any given day could include heading out the door to a rodeo or bullriding, presenting a creative writing workshop for Junior High students or researching and writing his next novel. And if none of those possibilities exist, David can generally be found at home in the Porcupine Hills relaxing on the deck, riding or trying to catch up on writing and fencing.
Wow, November already...the leaves are gone, the snow is not far away and that winter chill is in the air. And 2010 is almost a thing of the past. Ah, well a time to reflect on a year of exciting surprises. And a whole lot of fun.
I’m thrilled to be able to tell you that I have a new picture book that will be out in just a few weeks. It’s called I Wish I Could Be Like Tommy Blake. The illustrations are by Ron Desnoyers, a really talented Calgary artist. It’s the story of a boy who thinks he’s not at all cool and wishes he could be like Tommy Blake who he thinks is the neatest, luckiest and coolest kid in the whole school…maybe the whole world. But there’s a big surprise as the story moves along and our little guy finds out that maybe he’s wrong about a lot of things.
The Alberta Minister of Education has said the book will be distributed to all of this year’s grade one students in the province. I’m really excited to have a picture book to talk about when I’m in those grade one and two classrooms during my author tours of schools.
And speaking of touring, I just returned from a week in northern Alberta schools as part of the annual TaleBlazers festival staged by the Young Alberta Book Society. This time around saw me in schools in and around Lacrete, Alberta for a week. To find Lacrete, go to Peace River on your Alberta road map and then look way way north. (I’m pretty sure I was passed at one point by a chubby guy driving a sleigh pulled by all these reindeer!!). I also spent time in schools in Fort Vermilion and Airdrie as part of another great tour put together by Stephanie and Dawn up at YABS.
And more exciting news—the first two books in the Salt and Pepper Chronicles—The Vampires Visit and The Hunk Machine are now available as audiobooks from Simplyaudio.ca, Overdrive
and will be available shortly on audible.com and iTunes as a downloadable audiobook.
As you will see elsewhere on this page, I am still enjoying the excitement of having The Prisoners and the Paintings chosen as the winner of the Golden Eagle Children’s Choice Book Award. I was a finalist on two previous occasions for the award and to win it this time meant so much to me.
And I was really proud to have Numbers, my latest Young Adult novel selected as a finalist for the R. Ross Annette Award for Best Book for Young People in Alberta. The story, which takes place in a high school where the most popular and influential teacher is a holocaust denier, has been getting a lot of attention. And still more excitement with respect to Numbers, I was surprised and delighted to learn that the book is the winner of the 2010 Yakura Medal, a Reader’s Choice Award among English speaking high school students in Japan. And as I write this, the Librarians Japan group and I are discussing a possible tour of Japanese schools for later this year (and there’s even talk of an additional week in Korea). Cool!
I’m really pumped about having received my Master’s degree (MFA) in Creative Writing last spring from UBC. I hope to be able to do more teaching of creative writing in the years ahead.
Well, I’m heading outside to do chores, go for a run and then settle on the deck with a good book and that first coffee of the day…it’s a beautiful fall day—maybe this is the time for that last weiner roast of the season…Yes!!
As winter and the holiday season get ever closer, I wish all of you the very best through the remainder of 2010 and a spectacular 2011 everyone.
... David
Site updated Nov 8, 2010 |
