Come Gather ’round, People Wherever You Roam
A Reading of Previous Works and Works-in-Progress
A cop’s courtroom testimony. A girl and a goldfish. A mother’s confounding hopes. A young singer-songwriter who is singing the blues. A man of faith who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
You’re invited to meet all of the above and others during a reading of my previous works and works-in-progress on Thursday, February 25th at 7:30 p.m. Stage plays, fiction, non-fiction: expect a grab bag of genres and excerpts. You can stay for a while or stay for the hour. You can be a part of it, too.
How, you ask?
I’ll be giving a sneak peek at some sketches and artwork by the wonderful Barbara Reid, so beloved and acclaimed there’s a school named after her. Barbara’s marvellous plasticine artwork will be married to my text for a picture book that’s coming out in Spring 2022 from Scholastic Canada. It’s called I Love You More, and it’s told through word play that I first shared in letters to my daughters when they spent their summers at a sleepover camp.
I love you more than runways love planes. More than easels love paintings. More than answers love question marks. Soon my daughters ended their letters in the same way. I love you more than sponges love spills. More than patches love holes. More than graters love cheese.
This kind of word game always comes in pairs, and in a certain order: the second part of the pair makes the first part feel happy because it feels needed. I love you more than mistakes love erasers isn’t wrong but it isn’t quite right. A mistake doesn’t have to be erased. It can be circled, crossed out, maybe sent to its room. But when an eraser sees a mistake, it jumps for you (if erasers could jump). You’re the reason I get out of bed! the eraser shouts (if erasers shouted and slept in beds). Whenever you think of a pairing of words, start with the half that feels valued by the other half: I love you more than erasers love mistakes.
So here’s the deal: send me your “I Love You More Than…” and I’ll read some or all of ‘em, depending on whether they amount to a trickle or an avalanche. Please send your submission to emilsher@gmail.com by February 23, and be sure to put I Love You More in the subject line. And feel free to send more than one.
Please register for the reading here
This reading is generously sponsored by The Writers’ Union of Canada
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