Annette's Blog
My Stand-up Desk
My Stand-up Desk Unless you’re like Hemingway who is reported to have stood up while typing his novels, the writer’s life could kill you. Too many writers (me included) and social media types spend too many hours sitting in front of the computer. I enjoy physical...
Review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Review of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle I can’t say enough about David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It is a strange and wonderful novel that hooks the reader in a myriad of ways. The passages in which he describes nature are so lyrical and beautifully...
TACA airlines refuses to compensate for lost luggage!
Our luggage was lost on a recent vacation to Costa Rica. If you think this is unusual, think again. According to Barbara S. Peterson on the Conde Nast Traveler 26 million suitcases go missing on international flights and an amazing 1 million suitcases are never...
Wilma Robinson, Bird Woman of the Pitt Polder
My dear friend, Wilma Robinson, died on December 18, 2012. She was 89. I admired Wilma as a woman, a pioneer of the Pitt Polder and a conservationist. Wilma was the inspiration for Miracle at Willowcreek, my novel about a community that rallies to save the wetlands...
Amanda Todd: In Memoriam
Amanda Todd: In Memoriam To show her vulnerability, To open her heart, to say ‘I’m hurting,’ I need someone, Was an act of bravery. Most of us live our lives Hiding our hurts, fearful. We grow old and die, Allowing few people to know us. We pretend to be strong, But...
Sisterhood
Sisterhood For almost a decade, I’ve been writing about sisterhood in Circle of Cranes and though I hadn’t really thought of it until lately, I belong to a sisterhood in my personal life or to be more precise, I belong to several sisterhoods. Years ago, I organized...
One Helps One Program: Educating Girls in China
Educating Girls in China: One Helps One Program When I visited Cao Hai Nature Reserve in Guizhou, China, in 2000, to research Circle of Cranes, I was unprepared for the extreme poverty and the fact that so few of the girls could afford to attend school. Since that...
The Miao Minority: A Step Back Into the Past
On my visit to China to research my YA novel in 2000, I discovered the wonderful world of the Miao people. I became so fascinated by the richness of the Miao culture and history that I decided that the heroine of Circle of Cranes, Suyin, would belong to this ethnic...
What inspired me to write Circle of Cranes
An interview with a Canadian foster parent inspired me to write Circle of Cranes. Patty Lister (not her real name) was a foster parent who had worked for the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Families for many years. After a migrant ship was grounded off the...
Migrant ships in Circle of Cranes
I found it hard to believe that people, particularly children, could survive a two-month journey in a dark and cramped hold of a migrant ship with little food, only rice and water, and no toilet facilities. I doubted it could be that bad until I interviewed a Canadian...