From January 3rd until March 31st, I had the amazing opportunity to live in Pierre Berton’s house up in Dawson City, Yukon. It was the best three months of my life. Seriously, the best.
Not only was it a cozy home with a great space for getting writing done, the community up there is friendly, welcoming and vibrant, rife with stuff to do!
You might be thinking, “A small town in the middle of the Yukon in the dead of winter? What could there be to do?”
Well, I curled, I hiked, I snowshoed. I went dog mushing. I played a lot of ping pong. I went to trivia nights. I attended potlucks and worked with the kids at the school on writing for the newspaper, and on writing a survival guide for school. I went to concerts, movies, and plays. I also learned how to skijore, which is the best! It’s cross country skiing, but you also harness your body to a sled dog. They pull while you ski, and it’s so fast and sweaty and super fun! I saw the northern lights a lot, and I got to take a weekend trip up to Inuvik, which is in the Northwest Territories and even farther north than I was!
I would say that it was a once in a lifetime experience, but I don’t think it is. I’m already planning my return trip back next winter.
In other very awesome news, I found out that A Year in the Life of a Complete and Total Genius was up for a record ten awards in a classroom “Academy Awards” style competition at Deerfield elementary school in Short Hills, New Jersey! This idea is amazing; I love hearing about kids celebrating their reading accomplishments, and how creative and engaging to have them vote in different categories. Arthur and friends won six awards in total, including Best Book of the Year, and I won Author of the Year! I celebrated by eating pie* for breakfast (because my day is only starting when school is ending in New Jersey, so it only seemed right to celebrate at breakfast.) They celebrated by eating cake based on the American cover, and they shared a photo of this epic cake. It’s amazing, so I’m sharing it here with you!
