Cary Fagan

My friend Cary is here!  He is sitting on our sofa right now, and he’s going to help me hone my rather clumsy attempt at a picture book.  How lucky is that?

We’ve eaten warm butter cookies, and fresh fall Honeysweet apple slices and tea and coffee, and I’ll make my tomato penne pasta for dinner and maybe some hot fudge sundaes for dessert.

Anyway, he’s here because he’s one of the authors participating in The Vancouver International Writers Festival and I am going to go to his 1pm Kaspar Snit reading on Tuesday.  (I wish I could say that the fabulous spelling of that sprang fully completed into my head, but in truth, I checked the spelling with him, and I was way off.)

He has three books coming out this year.  Thing-Thing which I just read and it is an adorable children’s picture book.  And then Mr. Karp’s Last Glass for the middle grades (which I am going to devour tonight.)  He also has a literary adult book Valentine’s Fall, which has been ten years in the making.  So, really there is something for everybody.

Some of you may know Cary because his picture book, My New Shirt, was nominated for the Governor General’s award and is nominated for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, and is nominated for another great award…but it is not officially announced for another couple of weeks.  He is a highly respected writer, who is too modest to brag about his work. 

So, it is getting close to the holidays, and Cary Fagan’s book can be a one stop shop.

It’s so much more fun to brag about my friend’s accomplishments than it is to brag about my own.  Poor Cary, “what are you doing?“  he asks, suspiciously, while my fingers fly.

“Oh nothing” I say, a smug smirk on my face.  This is so fun.  I feel quite clever. 

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, October 19, 2008 in Chewing the Fat