Sylvia McNicoll's Blog

Speaking about the theme of friendships in middle grade novels with good friends Karen Krossing and Richard Scrimger, corralled by moderator John Corr, what came to my mind was the communities of writers these events foster and promote. How we’ve missed these over COVID and even post pandemic. Rarely is travel funded anymore, when we […]

It’s been over 35 years that I have been a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada.  Probably over 37 years writing. My dream job. How lucky I am. I took a course at Sheridan College with Paul Kropp who mentored me through my first novel, Blueberries and Whipped Cream. He insisted I join the […]

Full disclosure–my local Burlington Public Library stocks one copy of my 2024 novel Blue to the Sky and when I vanity search to see if someone’s taken it out, there are suggestions of what to read “while you are waiting.” I love reading middle-grade novels, so I try to read all the books they are […]

Bringing fun to reading and writing, that’s always been my goal.  The joy of meeting the author–that should be accessible to all and it should start when you’re a child. Which is why every year I apply to the City of Burlington Culture Fund to give kids an up-close experience with a writer from their […]

  You can write the best story ever but if a book lands on a bookshelf and no one notices, it doesn’t get read. Canadian kids’ books compete with those from the behemouth to the south, complete with Hollywood platforms, full colour illustrations  and sparkling covers. One of our publicity paths is visiting schools. We […]

What better way to celebrate a new book that to do it with a friend. Double the fun, double the cupcakes!  I think what you’ll love about the two totally different novels is the characters. In Blue to the Sky, quirky 12 year-old Allergic-to-Everything Ella is determined to conquer her fear of public speaking by […]

Allergic-to-Everything girl comes alive in this book trailer for Blue to the Sky! 12 year old Ella is one of my favourite characters ever. You’ll love her. She’s so quirky. Share This:

Happy to have been selected to tour, in person, the province I think of as my long lost home, Quebec. For these tours, the cost drops significantly so it’s a great opportunity for a school to engage their young readers with a writer they may not know yet. Having written for 35 years and visited […]

                    How do you create a book trailer? I start with a short script that I run by my son Craig (epilogue productions.com). For Blue to the Sky, I wanted to show my main character training for her big CN Tower stair climb. Over the climbing […]

The colour has been corrected; here is the final image. In order to bond with it I will have a t-shirt made with the image on it. DCB will also create a poster for me to display at upcoming events. Can you see any differences between this and the last cover? Share This: