Kit Pearson and Ken Oppel event

Last night was the Kit & Ken event sponsored by Munro's books. I was introducing Kit Pearson and Grenfell Featherston (Ken's high school English teacher turned freelance editor) introduced Ken Oppel. I brought my camera, intending to take pictures, but I totally forgot. What a fantastic night. The 350 capacity room was packed with kids and parents all excited about meeting two of Canada's finest author's for young people. Both authors gave great talks and read from their new books. Ken even showed us his first story which was dictated to his kindergarten teacher before he learned how to write.

There were plenty of questions from the audience. I love that kids aren't in the least bit shy to stand up and ask questions. Of course there were the usual ones like:
Where do you get your ideas from? and
What is your favourite book?
But some of the other questions were quite insightful.
How do you get over writer's block?
Do you know how a story will end before you begin? and
What do you do when you have a great beginning, a great ending, but you can't think of anything for the middle?

If you missed this fabulous evening, don't worry, the Victoria Children's Literature Roundtable is having an equally fabulous evening event on Monday October 15. We're celebrating the launch of three new Sono Nis titles by local authors. Follow this link to find out more. And if you don't happen to be in Victoria, check local listings for touring authors. This is the time of the year when all the literary festivals are celebrating new books so plenty of kids book authors are on tour. There may be someone visiting a bookstore or library near you.