Teacher’s Guide: Five websites to keep students reading this summer
Summer vacation is just around the corner and teachers and librarians are freaking out. It has nothing to do with lost books or late report cards. It has everything to do with reading. After spending...
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Choosing the CCBC’s Best Books for Young Adults
One of the best things about being a writer is being asked to read other writers’ stuff and tell them what I think about it (aka reviews.) In the past, I’ve reviewed books for newspapers I won’t...
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Judging the 2013 Best Books for Teens: It’s Decision Time
2013 Best Books for Teens submissions After nearly four months of reading, I’ve made my way through all the books submitted for the 2013 Best Books for Teens Awards from the Canadian Children’s Book...
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Springing into Comics with Writing Workshops & Panels
March and April are shaping up to be busy months, with me on the road talking and teaching comics. If you’re in the Toronto area, you should definitely check it out. Talking Max Finder Mystery at CAKE...
View ArticleFive Canadian Kids Authors Rocking it as Hybrids
Unless you’ve had your nose stuck in a book (the papery kind) , you’re probably aware that in publishing, things are changing. And changing fast. I’ve been watching the rise of the ebook from the...
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Writing Comics Workshop for Kids: Session 1
Last week, I ran the first session of my four week Writing Comics Workshop for Kids aged 8 – 12 years, at the Toronto Public Library. It was a lot of fun meeting the kids and discovering all the great...
View ArticleFrom the Vault: My interview with James Paul Gee from 2004
Back in 2003, I was a struggling freelance writer with a few graphic novels for kids under my belt. I was pitching articles to magazines, playing a lot of video games and wondering if a career in...
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Writing Comics Workshop for Kids Session 2: Creating Characters
I recently ran a four week Writing Comics Workshop for young writers at the amazing Toronto Public Library. Each Saturday, I met with 25 creators aged 8 – 12 years and we went through the steps to...
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Text Hunter: Tech Tales #2 now available (and why my new story got a new title)
The past few weeks have been very busy around here. As a teacher, I’ve been working to land a position for next school year. That all turned out well. More on that soon. As a Minecraft-teaching...
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Seeing E-books from three sides: why writers, readers and teachers win
If you haven’t already noticed, e-books have kinda knocked the whole publishing industry on its head. I haven’t written much about those changes around here, but I think about it a lot. That’s because...
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Three self publishing lessons I’m bringing into my classroom (and so can you!)
I’ve been writing professionally for nearly 20 years, but in the last year I’ve really started to have fun. And I’ve started to make real mistakes. Both the fun and the mistakes are due to my...
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Get Ganked on Wattpad
It’s locked down and online. No more edits. No more tweaking. Time to step back and let go. Yesterday, I uploaded the final version of Ganked: Geeked Out Mysteries #1 to Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes...
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Why I’m changing the way I talk about writing to students
When I visit schools or run writing workshops for kids (which I’m doing this spring at the Toronto Public Library), I’m often asked how to get started as a writer. It used to go something like this: 1....
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Feeding Change Media gets a logo
Since diving into the world of being a hybrid writer (one who publishes through traditional publishing and self-publishes), I have learned a ton of stuff about the business. Most of it through...
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How my talk on comics got hijacked (and then saved) by that blocky game
So, here’s the scene: It’s a busy Saturday at the Toronto Public Library’s Book Bash children’s festival. There’s kids running around everywhere in the TPL’s Northern Branch. There’s stacks of books...
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Having a blast creating comics with kids at Toronto Public Library
My mug at the Toronto Public Library. Thankfully, there’s been no reports of patrons running away in fear. Yet. I’m mid-way through running a four week writing workshop for kids at the Toronto Public...
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Happiness is a book reprinted
The Reprint Three: these reprint editions of my books landed in my mailbox last week. With all my experimenting with ebooks and print on demand (POD) publishing, there is still nothing that can replace...
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How those Minecraft books got my students reading . . .
The three most coveted books on our Grade 1 class library. Are you surprised? [This post originally appeared on GamingEdus.org, but I figured folks dropping by here might like to read it too!] If...
View ArticleWhy 2015 will be like 2004 (I hope)
It’s December 31st, 2014. That means the Year in Review lists are clogging up your newsfeeds, webpages and neural datastreams (if you’re reading this in 2025). This is another one of those. Sorry....
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Five Books to Get Your Gamer Reading
Last week, I dropped by the fantastic Pragmaticmom blog to share my book picks to get gamers reading. I also shared a version of that of that post on the GamingEdus blog. So I figured, I might as well...
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