Another Adventure

Bet you're wondering what happened to the good old days when I used to post here about my outdoor adventures and share buckets of photos.

Few things have made this a busy summer and sadly, we missed a few planned trips.

And the final blow was a very heartbreaking decision to put our Husky dog down due to cancer. This hollowed me out right good till we met Lady Bird.

Lady Bird - our 10-month-old latest family member. Border Collie / Lab mix

We've just returned home from our two-week adventures in Nova Scotia where we all bonded and ate seafood and hiked and camped in a tiny tent, and now Lady Bird is home and wondering - "What?? I can't sleep with you in your bed? What the heck is this business?"

Lady Bird LOVES to sleep in a tent with THE PEOPLE

And now for buckets of photos:

When I say hiking in Nova Scotia, I mean - the ENTIRE province. We went all around. 6,000 km. Fun, but next time we are flying to the destination!

anyone else do an epic road trip this summer?

Book Tour

Ice Dogs is going on tour in Seattle!

August 7 - 10, 2014

If you live in the Seattle area, I'd love to see you! Here's my schedule of events


Aug. 7

Barnes and Noble signing 2 - 6pm
Pacific Place, Seattle


Aug. 8

Barnes and Noble signing noon - 4pm
Lakewood


Books by the Bay Festival, Reading Foundation Website
Port of Olympia Plaza 6 - 8pm

Silent auctions, food, live music, and authors! All to benefit South Sound Literacy Programs. More details on website. I'll be doing a presentation at 6:45 with signing to follow

Aug. 9

Barnes and Noble signing noon - 2
Kitsap Mall, Silverdale, WA

Barnes and Noble signing 4 - 6pm - Pop Culture Day - also meet a Ninja Turtle!
Northgate Way

Aug. 10

Barnes and Noble signing noon - 2
Andover Park, Tukwila, WA



I hope to see you!

.... seriously, please come and smile at me. I'll be the one dressed as musher and looking enthusiastic but big-city-terrified.

CCA Grant and other news

So much news for you! 

Audio Rights:

We've sold the audio rights for Ice Dogs to audible. It's going to be made into an audio book! 

Grants:

I've just received the good news that I've won a significant writing grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts! I can't tell you how shocked I was when I opened that letter. It's a wonderfully validating feeling to be selected. 

I also won a smaller Writers' Reserve Grant from the Ontario Arts Council last month. I've been very very fortunate this year.

Awards:

This fancy thing came in the mail from Junior Library Guild and made me all sorts of happy

Reviews:

Latest professional review for Ice Dogs came in - 

“Emotionally satisfying and insightful, this story has staying power.” — Booklist

Skype visits:

I've done over 40 Skype visits with classes all over the US and it has been a wonderful experience. Some feedback:

Terry was fantastic. She shared invaluable experiences with the kids about being a musher and author. — Mary Lee

The kids are still talking about it! — Christina Moline

What a wonderful experience for the kids! They were completely engaged as were the teachers. Terry left time for questions and it was clear from the questions that the students had learned a lot. — Mrs. Wainwright, Boxford MA

Mrs. Johnson hooked my class immediately. She shared funny stories, showed equipment, read from her book, and talked about writing. By far the BEST Skype lesson my class has done. — Amy Wilson

Here's one teacher's blog post with photos - Donna Young said my visit was one of the best she's had the pleasure to be part of. 

Awww! Thanks, Donna! Loved meeting your students!

Students shared their stories with me too. Here's a pet dog story: 

"My dog eats whole packs of crayons and then poops all different colors."

A dog who poops rainbows - Awesome!

Photos:

Skyping for Read Aloud Day

What have I been up to lately?

Here's my living room turned into a teaching nook. I'm getting ready for epic Skype sessions - 8 per day. After I took this photo, it reminded me of something. 

Does anyone else think this looks similar to the set of The Friendly Giant? Pull up a rocking chair next to the fire. (Needs Rusty and Gerome.) Look up. Waaay up. 

I loved that show. Life is so funny.

I've been making lots of new friends from all over the States, the UK, Australia and Canada! I'm skyping with 39 classes in the next three weeks to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.

I'm so grateful to meet all these amazing young readers with such smart questions about dogsledding and writing and being an author. I'm hearing lots of stories of pet dogs too.

• Pet dogs who drink out of toilets
• who run their butts across the carpet
• who walk on their back legs

I'm new to Skype, and now I'm a fan!

School visits and photos from the vault

If you're wondering what happened to my last post about Amazon running out of my book on day 2, I've decided to take it down because I'm really not a fretting kind of person. I'm going to let my editor and agent worry about the business end of things.

So, I'm off to do my first school presentation tomorrow. Three classes in one day! We're going to learn about dogsledding - I have a mini dogsled with gear, and maybe we'll do some dogsled races down the school halls. If everyone leaves with all their teeth, it will be a success!

I'll post pictures if I can remember to take them.



In the mean time, here's a few pictures from the vault.


This is me winter camping with a dog team in Nenana, Alaska - the setting of ICE DOGS.

This is my summer dog yard

Me and one of my lead dogs, JADE hanging out

ICE DOGS release day and a giveaway

IT'S FINALY HERE!

I'm so happy to announce ICE DOGS is available to purchase today!

If any of you see it on the shelf of your local bookstore, send me a photo and I'll send you something!

A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Scholastic Book Fair Pick

"The high-stakes adventure and episodic nature of the chapters will make this book an easy sell for reluctant readers." -- School Library Journal

"(A) thoroughly engaging and incredibly suspenseful survival story… Well crafted, moving and gripping." -- Kirkus

Purchase links

Indiebound
Amazon
Chapters Indigo


now for the GIVEAWAY

Simply comment to help me celebrate release day and you'll be entered to win a hardcover copy.

Ends at midnight EST

EDIT UPDATE ON GIVEAWAY - Dezmond wins a copy of ICE DOGS!
Dezmond, please send me a mailing address! Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate my release day!

Outdoor living for your health

Minus 36 Celsius last week! Fresh!

The snowshoeing has been spectacular this year!

It's been extra cold and snowy and it's tempting to stay indoors more. But I wanted to share some research I discovered.

Recent studies show:

• lower stress learning in nature vs classroom
• viewing nature scenes reduces muscular tension and blood pressure
• more parks = lower mortality
• television and computers reduce cognitive performance
• screen time reduces life expectancy
• nature-based recreation is down 50% last 4 decades

Why?

Nature gives us:

• aromatic chemicals - nature-derived chemicals provide emotional connection
• sunlight - produces mood-regulationg seratonin, reduces depression
• negative air ions - improved health and longevity
• natural sounds - reduces stress, improves immune system and cognition

Some of my favourite things are:

• DOGSLEDDING
• Snowshoeing
• Skiing (cross-country and skate skiing)
• Walking the dog
• Ice Fishing (only if the sun is out and can find a spot out of the wind)

What kinds of things do you like to do outside?

references: 

Your Brain on Nature, Selhub and Logan, 2012 Wiley

Last Child in the Woods, Louv, 2005, Algonquin

Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy

Good Things jar

Jeff Schultz photo - the last month in my 2013 calendar

In 2013, we kept a jar for all the good stuff that happened to us or that we were grateful for over the course of the year. It kept us remembering how fortunate we were whenever we looked at it.

Good Things Jar

Here are some of the highlights from our jar:

• I received a significant work in progress grant from the Ontario Arts Council

• Hubs got a moose with his gang for the freezer and some geese for sausages. Organic eating

•  Ice Dogs was picked up by Scholastic Book Clubs and was a Junior Library Guild Selection

• We were fortunate enough to travel through Alaska and saw sea lions, killer whales, humpback whales, grizzlies, big horned sheep, moose, sea otters and seals following us in our kayaks

• Hubs completed a tri-athalon in August after learning to swim (better) Well done!

• And we enjoyed another year of good health and happiness living right where we want to be

We loved this idea so much of being grateful, we started another jar. On Friday, my year started off well with this box of awesome...

tell me, what were some of the highlights in your good things jar?