In 1997 I travelled with an aunt and other family to Scotland. Aunt Lois was in her nineties. Once, as we younger people headed off to a beach that was not accessible to her, she urged us, “Bring me back something interesting.” As we walked along the beach, occasionally picking up a stone or feather,…

My daughter was once babysitting her nephew, my youngest grandson. For his bedtime stories that night, he chose what he called “the violin books” (The Man with the Violin and The Dance of the Violin). K: Do you know who wrote these? D: Who? K: Grandma! D: Yeah, she’s always writing books. Not precisely true…

The new year for Daniel means a new home — in Boston — a new school, and new friends. He told me in November, “When I come to your house at Christmas, I’m going to give you an extra big hug so you won’t miss me so much when I move to Boston.” As we…

This summer my blog will feature of series of posts inspired by my sister. (This is not the first time she has inspired me.) In a recent blog post of her own, she mentioned a question she posed to her followers on Facebook: If a holiday was named in your honour, what would it commemorate,…

By Father’s Day my dad’s apartment was empty. In the days since his passing in May, my sibs and I discovered many things there, things that, of course, brought back memories — happy ones over many years helping blur more difficult, recent ones. The two items pictured in this post are a reflection of a…

I am well and truly home. I’ve celebrated my daughter’s birthday, visited with my son and his wife, had lunch with my sister and my dad, and settled back into daily routines with my husband and my dog. On the work front, I’ve sent a writer whose manuscript I’m editing comments to congratulate her on…

I wonder if my sister cooked this one up as a way of getting me to take her to lunch. She’s clever enough to do something like that. Since 1999, when she designed my first website, Janet has been responsible for establishing and maintaining my presence on the World Wide Web. (I wonder how many…

My sister has been running lots of ideas past me recently, as she works on redesigning my web site. Hard to believe, but it’s been almost 10 years since she designed my first web site for me. It has been through a number of changes since then – quite apart from regular updates – but…

It’s now available! My first brand new picture book in sixteen years! Dave Jenkinson at CM (Canadian Materials) – a friend since I did my first Book Week tour in his province (Manitoba) in 1983 and who was sent a review copy – said, “Loved the imagination of it & the wonderful twist at the…

My granddaughter was tickled to see that the book she got from me and her grampa for her 6th birthday – A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It – had her name in the thanks and dedication. She also received, from both us and a great aunt, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a wonderful new…

Today my sister is coming. I’m pretty excited because she hasn’t been here since the day after we moved in, when she did a great job helping me get our new kitchen organized.  We instituted what we call our “sister visits” a number of years ago, when we discovered that much as we enjoy visiting in…

My sister Janet tagged me earlier this week. I’ve decided to use her challenge to “play along” with her as an opportunity to write about some of the things I’ve only thought about blogging about this month. 1. Perhaps a children’s writer should not admit to this, but for years I’ve felt rather “bah humbug” about…

Congratulations to Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who has been promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada “for her influence and contributions as a landscape architect who sets new standards of excellence through her environmentally responsible landscape designs.” Members of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects will have the opportunity to hear her speak at the organization’s…

It seems fitting, it being Inspirational Role Models Month in the US, that I should meet this week with a professor from Smith College to discuss her work on a book about Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. “Like you,” she said in her initial email contact, “I was asked by Cornelia to write a book, and like…

An email from a friend told me about the Christmas baking she’d been doing. I responded to her: You will be happy to know that even this grinch sees baking shortbreads as a must-do every Christmas. It’s even a want-to do. One year I baked shortbreads and other delightful sweet nibblies in the company of…

Years ago, when I first started celebrating Christmas with the Carver family, toward the end our turkey dinner my father-in-law Humphrey would begin a round of toasts. Each person at the table would in turn propose a toast to someone not at the table with us. Because the Carvers had extended family all over the…

Sunday was Mother’s Day. My kids took me and their stepdad to dinner the night before the official Mother’s Day, at one of their favourite Toronto restaurants and they gave me the lovely roses you see pictured here. I’m grateful for their presence in our lives and I imagine that as I grow older, that…

This has been quite a month for me and my family. My son graduated in the top 10 percent of his class, having completed his MBA while working full time. My daughter danced up a storm at a recent performance put on by the school where she’s been having a great time mastering the art…

There are serious approaches a person could take to World Food Day, but one of my ongoing aims in life is to be less earnest in my writing. (Hard when my best ideas for books lately seem to be about serious stuff.) So on this WFD, instead of blogging about world hunger, genetically modified foods, or…

My dad’s birthday is this week. I wrote this post about him in response to a challenge to “blog about great parents”. My dad didn’t tell me how to live a life of courage and integrity. He showed me, in how he lived his. When I was nine, and my siblings four and fourteen, he…

Last night, my husband, Peter Carver, marked the end of his 25-year career in teaching ‘Writing for Children’ by launching – at his retirement party – his first book, So You Want to Write a Children’s Book. Joining the students from across the years who gathered to honour him were: Peggy Needham, Peter’s much loved…

I’m going to let you figure that out. Matthew (inspiration for Big Or Little?) was born in 1975 and Kelly (inspiration for Red Is Best and “Babysitting Helen“) was born in 1978. This picture of my kids was taken at Matt’s wedding in 2001. I also have two stepdaughters born in 1967 and 1968 and…

To me, he’s my sweetie Petey, my life partner of 26 years. He’s the dad of my stepdaughters, the stepdad of my own kids, and Grampa to our grandkids. To the community of writers of books for young people in Canada, Peter Carver is a writing teacher extraordinaire, an astute and caring editor, a trusted…

The next excerpt from my PYI keynote in a series that started in December 2011… My son is in the bathroom shaving the water runs. I hear the scrape across his upper lip, the rinse, the tap three times on the side of the sink which makes me wonder if this is some primordial or…

The next excerpt from my PYI keynote in a series that started in December 2011… I would never write another poem if only I could show you in a few perfect lines what the touch of your fingers on my aging cheek means That’s “Poem for Sonia” from Hold the Rain in Your Hands: Poems…

This is my mother dancing with my father in 1974. It’s one of my favourite pictures of her. Sadly my mother passed away in 1996 with COPD, the same condition that took the life of Peter Gzowski. She would have been 86 in a couple of weeks. If you’re still watching over me, Mom –…

Since the two Sock Fluff posts straddling this one address some of my reading pleasures when I was growing up, I thought it would be fun to post a photo of me taken during that period of my life. Here I am with my dad. I blogged about him in the month of his birthday…

Having read several novels by Richard Wagamese, (Ragged Company, Indian Horse, and Dream Wheels), I knew as soon as I found out he offers workshops, that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from him. In the spring I registered for a workshop that was to take place in August, and was sent a copy of his handbook,…

My granddaughter will soon be celebrating her twelfth birthday. She’ll receive as a gift a copy of Alice in Wonderland printed in 1866 that has been passed down through her family for generations. Can a 12-year-old appreciate what an amazing gift this is? This one will. Claire comes from a long line of book lovers…

No, this post has nothing to do with “The Sound of Music”. Before anyone gets offended because they’re not in this photo, let me point out that I’ve clearly stated these are a few of my favourite things, and yes, I do know that people and animals shouldn’t be referred to as things anyway. I…

When I did the keynote address at CANSCAIP’s Packaging Your Imagination conference a few years ago, I included in my talk a number of poems that have been favourites at different times in my life. Here’s one that didn’t make it into “An Intimate Examination of Sock Fluff”. I think it came to mind recently…

Because my sister is clever in so many ways I’m not, I have an attractive, helpful, well-maintained website and blog, and have had a presence on Facebook and other social media networks for some time. This month, thanks to Janet, my online presence has been further updated. KathyStinson.com became “mobile-friendly” so it’s much easier to…

It’s not every day that a mom gets to hang out with her daughter on a beach on the Indian Ocean. Thanks, Peter, for capturing this moment at Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa — and to Peter and Kelly both for helping make it possible.

This second post in this summer’s series of three was inspired by my sister’s blog post about her answer to a question put to her by a prospective client: What 5 songs would you want to have with you if you were trapped on a desert island? This of course got me to thinking about…

Today would have been Keisha’s tenth birthday but five weeks ago we learned she had cancer and four weeks ago she visited the vet for the last time. For a week Peter and I together mourned her loss, at home, received condolences from family, friends, and dog-walking acquaintances, and poured over hundreds of photos in…

Did you know that Paul McCartney was 16 years old when he and John Lennon wrote “When I’m Sixty Four”? Paul and Ringo are the only two Beatles who lived to see 64. John was murdered at 40 and George died from lung cancer at 58. When the song was released in 1967, I was…

Labour Day weekend on the south shore of Nova Scotia included happy hours with family and then with beloved writer-friend, Budge Wilson. My first weekend home after a long summer away, I made seeing family here a priority: son, daughter, sister, dad, and attachments where applicable (including this lovely boy I hadn’t seen since July). …

Hang Up the Baby’s Stocking by Emily Huntington Miller Hang up the baby’s stocking. Be sure you don’t forget! The dear little dimpled darling, She’s never seen Christmas yet! But I’ve told her all about it, And she opened her big blue eyes, And I’m sure she understood it — She looked so funny and…

One of my favourite photo editing tools, PicMonkey, recently came out with templates for all kinds of neat photo projects, including one that helped me create this — How many selected significant events, captured here, can you identify? To the first person to list all 9, I’ll send a big e-hug. Oh what the heck.…

The little girl who insisted on wearing her red stockings 37 years ago — thereby inspiring “a Canadian classic” — celebrated her 40th birthday this month. Her brother and his wife hosted a party in her honour. Among the guests were women Kelly has been friends with since high school (and some even longer), her…