As my husband has been known to say, “I’m so proud I could pop.” The young authors in my writing program rocked the island with their stories last night. Not to mention their poise, humour, and professionalism.

Mad Rona’s Coffee Bar was SRO, and it’s not a small place. I would estimate that we had a turnout of around seventy-five people. The very cool thing about the audience was it was a mix of parents and relatives AND lots of people from the community who had no connection to the authors – they’d simply heard good things about the program and wanted to support it.

Some of the comments I heard from audience members about the authors included words like: confident, creative, imaginative, impressive, articulate, and amazing. I couldn’t agree more.

Here are some photos from the event. The light at the mic was pretty bad in there for photography, so these are all pre-show.

The Authors Chatting

Some of their books

An author tries to convince me she needs to read a longer selection.

An author shares her picturebook with a fan.

One author reads another's book while he waits to begin.

Bookstore owner and M.C., Gloria Hatfield, sits with her author daughter.

The authors talk with their proud teacher, Brenda Peacock.

An incredibly proud Writer-in-Residence.

This morning, when I was in the school, I walked past the Grade 5/6 classroom and a couple of the students were outside. A lot of those kids had both helped plan last night’s event and attended it. The students in the hallway stopped me to say that they were “writing stories” in their class now in prep for next year when they get to do the program. They were so excited, it really touched me.

Thanks to everyone who came to the event to support these young authors. Also, thank you for donating to the program for next year. We received nearly $150 last night and we’ve already designated the money for purchasing journals for next year’s authors.