November 5th 2010

I have to apologize for the short hiatus from the blog. Chris and I have been traveling!

We went to Montréal for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Awards (Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse), on November 2nd.

We took the train in to the city and stayed at the Queen Elizabeth, which was a beautiful hotel. We had just enough time from our arrival to shower and get ready.

I met up with Mélanie, the wonderful author and publisher of Le Géranium, in the lobby of the hotel. We hit it off straight away. She was very sweet, and very helpful; (I was hurriedly trying to squeeze in some last minute French speech pronunciation with her!).

We proceeded to hop into a cab to the Canadian Centre for Architecture. It was a beautiful building and we were able to walk around some of the exhibit that was on display before the cocktail party began. There were some amazing hors d'oeuvres, but I was so nervous I could barely eat a bite. Then came the announcement; we were to go into the theatre and give our speeches and listen to Marie-Louise Gay, last year's laureate, speak. Luckily, we were the second presenters out of five to speak, because I was very anxious. Mélanie graciously took over for a good part of it! The presentation went on, and I picked up as much in translation as I could. It was really nice to hear the other authors and illustrators speak about their work. Finally, we heard the juror's verdict.

When we were getting ready to leave that morning I checked to see how my (old) vintage heels looked with my outfit, went to put them on, and snap; the strap broke on me. So the only other pair of shoes I was able to wear with the outfit were the shoes I got to wear on our wedding day next spring. (No more surprises, Chris! Sorry!). But they must have been good luck shoes, because we won!

We finished off the evening with dessert, spoke to jurors and other participants in the evening, then went out for dinner at an amazing local restaurant. It was the most incredible night. We met so many wonderful people and got to see parts of Montréal that we may not have known to visit. I can't thank everyone who organized, and was part of the night, enough.

Below, I've attached a clipping from the Montréal Gazette that showed up in front of our hotel room door the next morning. Exciting!

Also, for more photos from the trip, please visit my Flickr Photostream.

Lastly, I want to thank Mélanie Vincelette for having me be a part of this project. I had so much fun illustrating this book, and I look forward to working with you again!