McNICOLL, Sylvia (Marilyn) 1954-

(Geena Dare)

PERSONAL: Born September 30, 1954, in Ajax, Ontario, Canada; daughter of Ernst (an electronic technician) and Gertrude (a homemaker and payroll clerk; maiden name, John) Ehret; married Bob McNicoll (a computer administrator), June 8, 1974; children: Jennifer, Craig, Robin. Education: Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), B.A. (cum laude), 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Martial arts, basketball, swimming, cross-country skiing, cycling, in-line skating, camping, ping pong.

ADDRESSES: Home—2646 Cavendish Dr., Burlington, Ontario L7P 3V7, Canada; fax: 905-335-9568. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Canadian International Paper Co., Montreal, Quebec, Canada, senior cash management clerk, 1973-80; freelance writer, 1980-88; full-time writer, 1988—. Sheridan College, creative writing instructor, 1989-96; York University, writer in electronic residence, 1994-95, 1996-97; frequent speaker at schools and other institutions; workshop presenter.

MEMBER: Writers' Union of Canada, Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers, Canadian Children's Book Centre.

AWARDS, HONORS: Several of McNicoll's books have been Our Choice selections, Canadian Children's Book Centre, including Jump Start, 1989-90, ProjectDisaster, 1990-91, Bringing Up Beauty, 1995-96, and The Big Race, 1996-97; Silver Birch Award, Ontario Library Association, 1996, and Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, Manitoba School Library Association, 1997, both for Bringing Up Beauty; Explora-Toy Award, best novel for children, Hamilton region, 2001, for Caught in a Lie.

WRITINGS:

JUNIOR FICTION

The Tiger Catcher's Kid, illustrated by Don Gauthier, Nelson Canada (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1989, McDougal Littell (Boston, MA), 1990.

Project Disaster, illustrated by Brian Boyd, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1990.

The Big Race!, illustrated by Susan Gardos, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Double Dribble, illustrated by Susan Gardos, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Smoky and the Gorilla, illustrated by Susan Gardos, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Blueberries and Whipped Cream, Gage Educational Publishing (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1988.

Jump Start, illustrated by Janet Wilson, Collier Macmillan Canada (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

More than Money, Nelson Canada (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1990.

Facing the Enemy, Nelson Canada (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), 1992.

Bringing Up Beauty, Maxwell Macmillan Canada (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 1994, Stoddart Kids (New York, NY), 2000.

Walking a Thin Line, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

Grave Secrets, Stoddart Kids (New York, NY), 1999.

Caught in a Lie, Scholastic Canada (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

A Different Kind of Beauty, Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Markham, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

FICTION; "STAGE SCHOOL" SERIES; WITH SHARON SIAMON AND LINDA HENDRY, UNDER JOINT PSEUDONYM GEENA DARE

Dan Clowning Around, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1998.

Matt Heartbreak Hero, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1998.

Lauren Dating Dreams, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1999.

Abbi Secret Stranger, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1999.

Jenna Standing Tall, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1999.

Dan Double Drama, Orchard Publishing (London, England), 1999.

The Spellbound Sleepover, Hodder (London, England), 1999.

OTHER

Moms and Dads' Guide to—Martial Arts for Kids: Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, and Six Other Sports; Rules, Vocabulary, and Techniques; How to Help Out at Home, Coles Publishing (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Contributor to the anthology Personal Best: The Sports Experience, edited by Sharon Siamon, Nelson Canada, 1993. Contributor of articles, short stories, and reviews to periodicals, including Owl, Toronto Star, Teaching Librarian, and Hibou.

McNicoll's books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish.

SIDELIGHTS: Sylvia McNicoll has established a reputation as a novelist, having issued nearly a book a year over several years. Her junior novels about home and school life feature effective pacing, authenticity, and humor, claim critics, while her novels for older readers tend to be sensitive and compassionate treatments of issues relevant to contemporary teens. Commenting generally on McNicoll's work, Oakville Beaver book reviewer Teresa Pitman attributed its success to "solid realism and strong characterization."

McNicoll was born in Ajax, Ontario, Canada, in 1954. By the time she was in grade three, she had lived in Prescott and Cornwall, Ontario, and Longueuil, Quebec. McNicoll never imagined she would one day make her living as an author. "I knew my skills were in the arts area," she once commented. "There was an affinity with psychology, sociology, and definitely English, always English. But never, at any point, did I think I was going to become a writer."

McNicoll got an early start in the work force. From the age of twelve, she worked each summer. She began with babysitting and graduated, during high school, to office work in nearby businesses. When she enrolled at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, she found summer employment with a large company, Canadian International Paper. She ended up working in corporate cash management there for the next seven years doling out expense allowances and making investments on the company's behalf. "It was a cool job for a kid of nineteen," she commented.

It was "cool" because McNicoll enjoyed what she was doing and "cool" because the company offered to pay all her tuition and book costs if she took her university courses at night and continued working during the day. It was an offer that set McNicoll on the path to becoming a writer. "For the first two years of my degree," she wrote, "my father basically pushed me into commerce. But, when I started going to school at night, I thought, I can do whatever I want now. I went into English, never thinking that it would lead to a job."

By the time she finished her degree, McNicoll was twenty-two, had several years of work experience, was well respected in the workplace and had received a twenty percent salary increase. However, her university English courses had introduced her to a whole new world. "I didn't have a great literary tradition behind me," she commented. "We didn't have Shakespeare lying around at home when I was growing up." Inspired by the "real" literature she encountered in her courses, McNicoll graduated with a new outlook and the idea that she just might like to write someday. The idea grew quietly but solidly during the coming years.

When Jennifer, her first daughter, was born in 1979, McNicoll left the paper company to become a full-time mother. She remained dedicated to and focused on that all-consuming task until after Robin, her third child, was born. It was then that the idea of writing resurfaced. "I set a goal," McNicoll remarked. "My goal was that either I would be published in some way that paid before the children were in school—and I don't mean, 'Here you go. Here's a magazine for your efforts'—or I would go back to work and forget about writing forever."

McNicoll had strong feelings about how thinly she could spread herself. "I felt that I couldn't go to work, have children and also write. A really giving parent can't do that," she commented. "As it turned out, by the time my third child was about two years old, my husband had a career change that involved moving to Burlington, Ontario. I think that was the happy coincidence that clicked my career."

Writers' workshops, writing courses, and writing contests became important parts of McNicoll's plan to reach her new career goal. It was interest in a writers' workshop that resulted in her first freelance writing assignment. It was participation in a course that led to the publication of her first book.

"We were so poor in those days. We'd just moved to Burlington and we didn't realize how much housing cost," McNicoll commented. "We were a slave to the mortgage and I wanted to go to a workshop sponsored by the Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers (CANSCAIP). So, I approached the local newspaper and said I would cover the workshop for them if they would get me a pass." The paper, the Burlington Post, agreed. McNicoll attended the workshop, wrote her article and, for the next two years, contributed occasional freelance pieces to the paper.

McNicoll's book breakthrough came in a writing course she had sworn would be the last one she would ever take. Canadian author and course instructor Paul Kropp was so impressed with Blueberries and Whipped Cream, the novel she wrote during the course, that he urged her to submit it to a publisher.

Encouraged by Kropp's enthusiasm, McNicoll sent out her story about a fifteen-year-old girl whose mother has cancer. "I think fifteen is a really different time of life and I wanted to show a young person meeting and dealing with some serious problems," she remarked. When Gage Educational Publishing snapped up Blueberries and Whipped Cream, McNicoll achieved her goal of being a properly paid, published writer before Robin was in school. McNicoll also received some high "first novel" praise. In her Books in Canada review Linda Granfield observed, "McNicoll succeeds in making her reader cry and laugh at the proper moments and handles sensitive topics with a light touch."

Looking back, McNicoll realizes there were early indicators that writing for children might just be her niche. "I was babysitting from twelve on and everybody always said how wonderful I was with kids," she commented. "Of course, I never thought about it at the time. All I thought about was the money. I didn't realize that I really liked kids or that I treated them especially well. And then, when I had my own kids, suddenly I looked at everything differently."

McNicoll's books for preteens and teens are about the real challenges they face. Generally, McNicoll spends four months writing a first draft. Over the balance of the year, she works on rewrites. "If you don't like rewriting," she commented, "this is not the field to be in." When she's not touring or teaching, she writes in the afternoons drawing inspiration from her environment, her family, and people she knows. For instance, Jump Start—described by Dana Eastman in the Canadian Book Review Annual as "sensitive and tender"—tells the story of a girl who struggles with dyslexia. It's a subject McNicoll knows something about. "My brother struggled in school," she commented. "He was not a good student and my parents were told he would never be able to read. By grade nine he had dropped out."

Because in real life McNicoll had coached her brother to help him hide his schoolwork problems, she included a similar scenario, one sister helping another, in her first draft of Jump Start. She was surprised when the young readers reviewing her manuscript protested. "Their response was that no sister would help an older sister without some kind of bribe," she informed. "So, we inserted one to adhere to what the young readers felt was plausible. But in my day, even though my brother and I used to have terrible fights, when it came to an exam I coached him. It was just something you did. You helped your brother."

McNicoll still has the helping spirit. In 1989 she became the instructor of the Sheridan College writing course she had taken with Paul Kropp. She presents workshops for CANSCAIP. She visits schools and libraries frequently to read from her books, discuss her writing, and offer how-to-write tips to young people. She has also been a writer in electronic residence and created a Web site.

McNicoll's readers began sending her strong messages. In 1996, Ontario school children chose Bringing Up Beauty as the winner of the Silver Birch Award. Manitoba school children have followed suit. They selected Bringing Up Beauty as the 1997 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award.

McNicoll also has a message for her readers. In her response to a questionnaire from the Canadian Children's Book Centre, she said, "The message I'd like to impart to children is that it's not important to be the best at something, rather to do your best. Being successful in writing is not like winning a contest although the odds sometimes make it seem that way. It's about hard work and determination—like success in all other aspects of life."

McNicoll more recently told CA: "Writing is a compulsion in which I work through the absurdities of the world through story. While earning a living is a primary motivation, the compulsion is stronger. I learn a lot by writing because I really live through what my characters do. If they're agonizing over the possibility of male/female friendships without romantic ties, I'm agonizing myself, and we usually come to the same conclusions. My goal every weekday is to write 1,000 words. I begin by reading what I wrote the day before and, as I make minor changes, I fall back into the story and creative mode, continuing on. Between scenes, however long they are, I usually need to take walk-around breaks.

"Often publishers ask for certain types of books, in which case I write three chapters exploring and researching my idea, altering my characters as I go. When those are complete, I bluff a novel in synopsis form. It's really the story about how I see the book going. I hate outlines and synopses because I feel as though I've already written the book by the time the publisher says yes. If they decline the idea, I feel bereft, as though I've had an abortion. The biggest change in my writing is that I now use this hated technique for almost all of my projects. It saves time and work to have a preliminary okay or nay on a future project, but it still soaks up lots of creative and emotional energy. Left on my own, I would 'spaghetti write,' chasing whatever story line or character development that fell my way. This sounds more creative, but sometimes it ends up as just a big mess of tangled story pasta.

"On a positive note, my work is reaching international audiences now. I get e-fan mail from all over and am blessed with much direct contact with my readers through author visits.

"Through my writing I've grown less arrogant and self-satisfied. I love the way life continues to surprise me and how there always seems to be a new idea I need to explore in a novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, March, 1989, Linda Granfield, review of Blueberries and Whipped Cream, p. 34.

Canadian Book Review Annual, 1990, Dana Eastman, review of Jump Start, p. 322; 1994, p. 492; 1999, review of Grave Secrets, p. 507; 2000, review of Caught in a Lie, p. 495.
Canadian Children's Literature, fall, 1994, pp. 79-81; fall, 1995, pp. 86-87; spring, 1998, review of The Big Race, p. 55; spring, 1999, review of Project Disaster, p. 85.

Children's Book News, winter, 1998, review of Walking a Thin Line, p. 33; spring, 1999, review of Grave Secrets, p. 29.

Oakville Beaver, May 4, 1990, article by Teresa Pitman, p. 19.

Quill and Quire, March, 1992, pp. 68, 70-71; January, 1995, Fred Boer, review of Bringing Up Beauty, p. 43; March, 1996, p. 75; November, 1997, p. 44; June, 1999, review of Grave Secrets, p. 64.

Resource Links, October, 1999, review of Grave Secrets, p. 29; April, 2001, review of Caught in a Lie, p. 25.

School Library Journal, August, 2000, Randi Hacker, review of Bringing Up Beauty, p. 186.

Teaching Librarian, spring-summer, 1997, pp. 22-24.

ONLINE

Canadian Review of Materials Online,http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/ (March 1, 1998), Dave Jenkinson, interview with McNicoll; (March 27, 1998), review of Walking a Thin Line; (October 29, 1999), review of Grave Secrets; (March 3, 2000), Gail Hamilton, review of Bringing Up Beauty; (March 30, 2001), review of Caught in a Lie.

OTHER

McNicoll, Sylvia, unpublished Canadian Children's Book Centre questionnaire response, c. 1988.