|
Children’s author Mary Woodbury brings adventure to region
|
Mary Woodbury read to children earlier this month in the Smoky River Region.
|
Susan Thompson
for Smoky River Express
Award-winning Edmonton author Mary Woodbury shared her love of writing and adventure with Smoky River students last week as part of her northern Alberta tour.
“I am excited about visiting the Peace Country again. I was there several years ago doing readings in schools and libraries,” Woodbury says.
Mary Woodbury is the author of the Polly McDoodle mystery series. Her latest novel is The Flight of the Tiger Moth, a historical novel for young adults set in small town Saskatchewan during the war.
Woodbury is touring a total of 11 venues in the Peace from Oct. 6 to 9. On Oct. 6 she spoke to Gr. 6 to 9 students from École Providence in the Town on McLennan conference room and Gr. 4 and 5 students from École Routhier at the Falher library.
“I love seeing the very audience I write for as it encourages me a lot,” says Woodbury. “Writers spend many hours alone so visiting schools is a terrific break.”
Woodbury’s presentations include dramatic readings from her books and tips for beginning writers. She explains stories come from memory, imagination, and research, and the key to being a good writer is asking “what if.”
As a former teacher and a creative writing instructor, Woodbury has lots of experience giving lively, entertaining presentations that both educate and motivate students. She also gives students plenty of opportunity to ask questions about the writing life.
Woodbury’s literary career began once her own children were already grown.
“I wrote my first novel 20 years ago,” she says. “I always say it was one of the most exciting years of my life, because my first granddaughter was born and I had my first book published.”
Woodbury went on to write numerous novels. She founded a publishing house and literary magazine, as well as the writers guilds of both Alberta and Newfoundland.
Woodbury’s juvenile novel Jess and the Runaway Grandpa was nominated for various awards including the Silver Birch Award, the Torgi Award, and the Manitoba Reader’s choice award.
It was also a runner-up in the Alberta Writing for Youth Competition. It is currently available online on Woodbury’s website at www.marywoodbury.ca.
Her latest novel was inspired by her husband’s war-time experiences growing up in rural Saskatchewan. Some 50,000 pilots were trained to fly in this country during W.W. II, and Woodbury asked “what if” her husband had been 16 years old at the time, rather than eight. Wouldn’t he have wanted to learn to fly?
Woodbury used her husband’s memories coupled with extensive research to bring the historical period alive, and even visited the town where her husband grew up.
However, to Woodbury the new novel is not really a departure from her mysteries.
“Half are mysteries, the other half are kids struggling with something,” Woodbury says about her books.
“In this novel the main character is coming of age, and learning how to fly.”
It is also similar to her other work since at heart it is an adventure.
“A mystery is really an adventure,” she says.
Woodbury’s tour is sponsored in part by the Young Alberta Book Society, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Peace Library System and local libraries.
Previous
Home
Next
|
