Tuesday, October 23, 2007


Land of the Silver Birch

Land of the Silver Birch
Home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders to Dinah ...


I am SOOO HONOURED!!!! Shadows on the Train has been nominated for Ontario's 2008 Silver Birch Award! This is my second Silver Birch nomination. The first was for The Mask on the Cruise Ship, a couple of years back; or, in my sister Madge's language, about 2,439 new outfits ago.

Melanie is floating on air - in fact, if you tilt your head, you can just about see her orbiting. Oooo, watch out for that Russian satellite, Mel - oh no, a mega-collision ... debris is flying everywhere ... Run for cover!

Pantelli: "Dinah, too bad about your late author, but I need to point out that beavers, in fact, do NOT live in trees."
Me: "What, you've never heard of Bocky the Flying Beaver?"
Pantelli: "I think that was Rocky the Flying Squirrel; and, no."

1 comment:

Melanie Jackson, author, editor, piano student said...

C. of North Van sent in these comments (plot spoilers have been edited out):

I really liked "Shadows on the train", but I had some questions about it. I
thought that it was a lot more serious than the other books. The other ones
were more funny, and this one had more to do with Dinah's past than just the
mystery ... The bad guys were a lot more tricky than the other books. Why did you try a different style of writing (more serious)
for this book? ... It was cool that
Pantelli had a "Treevial Pursuit" all about trees. It was hilarious when he lost
his lunch in the lid on the train. Please write more books about Dinah and
her adventures!! Does she do well in her "Tomorrows Cool Talent" show?
Maybe you could write a book about that! That would be soooo cool!!