Tim Wynne-Jones
Biography:I live near Perth Ontario, Canada. We moved to Eastern Ontario from Toronto in 1988; we being my wife, Amanda Lewis, and our three children: Alexander (Xan), Magdalene (Maddy), and Lewis. The kids have grown up and moved away to Toronto, London, England, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Amanda’s still around, although she’s in Ottawa a lot, where she is Artistic Director at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama. We live on 76 acres of rough and tumble land. It’s a landscape that has figured prominently in my writing over the last twenty years. I designed the house we live in, finally putting to use three years of architectural training received at the University of Waterloo back in the late sixties and early seventies. That was before the school decided that maybe it would be better if I didn’t design anything that people were actually going to enter… I left Waterloo and joined a rock band in Toronto. To find out more about my days with Boogie Dick, check out the autobiographical sketch for some of the painful details. I decided to return to Waterloo to get a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. I joined another band, there, Alabaster. We were primarily a cover band, doing songs by the Beatles, Cream, Neil Young, The Band, Credence Clearwater, Elton John, James Taylor, to name a few. We also did some original tunes, which got me writing, though it was still only a pastime. I met Amanda the summer I graduated from Waterloo. It was 1974 and my art school mentor, Virgil Burnett, asked if I would look after his beautiful old, house in Stratford for the summer. There was a beautiful, young woman he had asked to look after his horse. I fell in love with her. (Not the horse, the girl). Amanda was working at her grandmother’s bookstore by day and at the Avon Theatre by night. At the end of the summer we couldn’t imagine being apart, so we moved to Toronto, where she was entering her second year at York University in the theatre program. I found a job as a book designer with PMA Books. It was my first brush with publishing but on the other side of the table, you might say. Carol Martin and the folks at PMA Books were great. I liked living in a world of books and book talk. Canadian literature was on fire. It was an exciting time. It was also my first full-time job. And my last. I worked there a whole year and a half. Pretty good, eh? Amanda and I took off for Europe in 1976 and when we returned I started up my own graphic design firm with Michael Solomon. In 1978, I decided to go back to school to do an MFA at York. The summer that I graduated from York I was so bored with school that I wrote my first novel, Odd’s End. It was just something to do – like going on a summer holiday when you don’t have any money. Odd’s End won the Seal First Novel Award. There was a $50,000 prize. I decided that this writing thing might be fun. Presentation Information:When I was 11, I knew what I was going to be when I grew up – an architect. A world famous architect! I worked really hard to make this dream come true and it almost did. I mean, I got into architecture school, but after three years, they kicked me out. My profs were afraid that if I designed buildings people might die! So I did the only thing that seemed possible, when your dreams are shattered: I joined a really whacky rock band. And that’s when I started writing. (I also learned to play the electric baseball bat, but that’s a whole other story). The truth is, I had always been making up stories. For instance, when I was a kid I loved it when my mom asked the immortal question, “What did you do at school today?” Most kids just say “nothing;” for me, the question was an invitation to spin a yarn. Uh, you could call it lying. Anyway, this leads inevitably to the “What-if disease,” which plagues storytellers: looking at a perfectly ordinary something and what-iffing it into something extraordinary. This is more or less how I like to start a presentation, whether it’s for middle-graders or teenagers, but obviously I gear the material for the age of the audience. Middle Grade I like to read an excerpt or two from these stories and compare what really happened to what I made up and discuss with the students why a person would want to do that – the therapeutic joy of giving yourself a chance to get it right! There is always time for questions about writing and reading in general, or about my stories and the writing life. Young adults I like to talk about how becoming a writer kind of snuck up on me, in these ways, while I was doing other things, but that when I look back all of those things I was doing were good preparation for the writing life. I’ll read excerpts from The Uninvited and talk about the process of writing this most recent novel, how it all begun with a single word I’d never heard before, which led me to a place which looked like a perfect “stage” for something unexpected to happen. From there I can talk about the writing process in general and how it is different for everyone and different for me nearly every time. Sometimes I start a book with a stage, as I did with The Uninvited – a place that just seems to call out for action. Sometimes I start with just one particularly vibrant scene, The Maestro, for instance, that leads me to want to find out what happens next. Sometimes I start with a character I really care about, as in Stephen Fair. And, very infrequently, I actually start out with a plot as in The Thief in the House of Memory Whatever way I start out, writing for me writing is a voyage of discovery, so I never really start with an outline. Sometimes I don’t know what the theme of my story is until I read a newspaper review! Writing Workshop If I do a writing workshop, there can be no more than 20 students. And it is really great if the kids self-select. The whole thing only works with kids who want to be there and want to work. Book List / Discography:Rex Zero, The Great Pretender (Groundwood Books, 2009) Awards:Winner of the 1997 Vicky Metcalf Award for a body of work that is considered inspirational to Canadian Youth. The Boy in the Burning House Ned Mouse Breaks Away The Maestro Zoom at Sea Stephen Fair Some of the Kinder Planets Odd’s End |
 Craft:author Genre:picture books, junior fiction, YA fiction, teen fiction Ideal Audience Size:60 – 80 Maximum Audience Size:150 (if venue is suitable venue; not a gymnasium) Grades:5 – 12 Special Equipment:I like to have something I can draw pictures on, but I don't need any electronic equipment. Website:School Reading Fee:$157.50 per reading Public Reading Fee:$250.00 per reading (four readings covered by the Canada Council) Book Week Tour Contact:Nancy Cohen |