I will be in London on Saturday 19th March to hold a number of events related to my novel, The Finding Place. If you have an interest in writing, or you’d love to chat with me about my book, I’d be thrilled to see you there! Here is my schedule: 9.30-12.00   Book Signing in the children’s section at Chapters, Wellington Street, London. 1pm              Creative Writing Workshop at the Arts Project (Dundas Street). This workshop is free, and open to ages 9-16 2.30pm         A Reading from The Finding Place, plus a book signing at the Arts Project (Dundas Street) All ages are welcome for this event. For more information on The Arts Project events, go to http://www.artsproject.ca/classes/the-finding-place-julie-hartley-author-reading I hope I have the opportunity to [...]

A couple weeks back, at the Arts Academy, one of my teenage writers brought in homework assigned by his Writer’s Craft teacher. It’s so boring, he told me. I asked what he had to do. His homework involved finding as many alternative ways as possible of saying ‘he said’ and ‘she said’, and coming up with creative adverbs to go alongside his chosen words. My writing student had a list, so far, that included such things as: he retorted vociferously she cried miserably he howled horrendously she whispered quietly Now, this Grade 11 student is a fabulous writer so I said, “You realise they all sound awful, right? Adverbs should be avoided – write well enough and you won’t need them. And he said/she said [...]

One of the most exciting parts of this process so far has been receiving reviews from readers – through Amazon and direct to my email and blog. I thought I would share some of the very first ones: A review on Amazon: I was absolutely gripped by the novel’s main character – 13-year-old Kelly – whose life suddenly becomes more complicated when her father leaves the family. Set in Ontario and China, this coming-of-age story has multi-faceted characters, an authentic sense of place, and movingly portrays the confusion a young Chinese adoptee might feel around identity and the meaning of family. An email received yesterday: I just finished reading The Finding Place and it was excellent! !! … I found it truly great and really [...]