Sylvia McNicoll
Canadian Author for Young People
Adding Media Fun to Reading
You never know how you're going to engage your young person with books. I love series reading because the entry point into the story becomes a safe home you've already visited. That is for the second, third and fourth book. How do we hook a new reader enough to...
Acting in character
After reading 70 mystery books in three months in order to judge them for the Arthur Ellis (novel) Crime Writing, I felt inspired to write one. Just one. Endlessly I walk my dog in Brant Hills so I instantly found a natural setting. An inciting moment was when I took...
Happy I Read Canadian Day!
We created this video as a special thank you to all the authors and illustrators who took the time to be videoed with my son Craig McNicoll at Epilogue Productions. You can view them reading, drawing and discussing their work at the Canadian Children's Book Centre...
A great year ends!
Making a shortlist and/or winning an award can make a difference in the life of your novel but it's not anything you have control over. I always tell everyone that I work just as hard on books that somehow don't hit a note with critics or readers as I do on ones that...
Reviewing Diamond Mistake Mystery Goes to Dogs
Because dogs and dog walking feature so prominently in the entire Great Mistake Mystery Series and because recently everyone in my family adopted dogs, we decided the canines needed to earn their kibble. We joined paws with epilogueproductions.com to get Rosie, the...
What I think about series
At talks I gave in Seoul and Bogotá on a standalone novel called Revenge on the Fly, the same question arose: "What do I think of series?" It was clear that the answer was supposed to be that they were a lesser form of literature that you shouldn't encourage or even...
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