In case you missed it. February 19th was I Read Canadian day. A day created by Eric Walters and others to promote the reading of Canadian books.
I was honoured to help out on this day, by offering Epilogue Productions video services. From November to February my mom and I (my mom is author Sylvia McNicoll) interviewed 51 different authors, and also filmed them doing a short reading from one of their books. These can all be seen on the Canadian Children’s book centre’s YouTube channel.
There were many many memorable moments during the interviews. Here are just a few:
Author Paul Coccia wanted to make a mug cake for his interview. It made sense because his book is all about a young baker. I was pretty stoked for this interview, because I’ve always wanted to film a cooking show.
Another memorable moment was Patricia Storms, who brought her ukelale and finished her interview with a couple of lines of song:
It was also very cool seeing legendary author/illustrator Andrea Wayne Von Köningslow do an drawing live in front of us:
There were a lot more great interviews. It was so interesting to meet the different authors and hear about their writing process. Every single one of them was unique both in their personality and creative process.
Finally, to top off the event Epilogue Productions created a promotional video. The video starred both my daughter Violet, and my wife, Eireann. We decided to make a sort of fantasy short film for the promotion. A girl is living in a colourless world, and is able to bring joy into her life through the magical powers of books. We were able to use sections of some of the authors reading for the video. So much fun to film and edit.
So, I hope everyone enjoyed I Read Canadian Day. Remember you don’t have to wait till next February 19 to enjoy more of the wonderful Canadian literature out there.
