Edward Kay

Have spent most of this week working on animation projects. Am writing a series for an Australian production company but must keep it on the QT, since it’s a new series and they’d like to wait and announce the details in the fullness of time. But it has been an interesting cultural adjustment. Certain types of humour that would never be allowed in a North American series for tweens are perfectly fine in Oz. That means a chance to indulge in some of that classic Looney Tunes physical humour that we all love and miss! THWACK! Conversely, there are certain things we wouldn’t think twice about putting in a show in Canada or the U.S. that are unacceptable there. But come to think about it, face licking is pretty disgusting even if you’re a dog. Make that especially if you’re a dog. Meanwhile, I have started writing for the second season of Jimmy Two Shoes. It’s been only two years since I wrote for the first season, but so much has happened in between. I wrote my first novel, STAR Academy, and most of the sequel, and created a new animated comedy series that’s in development with Nerd Corps, which I also spent time on this week. I’m also in the early stages of co-developing a live-action science series – a natural outgrowth for me after the copious amounts of research I did to arm Amanda Forsythe with that formidably scientific intellect for STAR Academy. But it feels great to get back in to Jimmy and that uniquely warped/funny world! I spent much of my time between 2003 and 2006 developing it with Sean Scott, so it’s incredibly satisfying to see that it has kind of taken on a life of its own. I’m always pleasantly impressed by how much people enjoy the show and how Jimmy’s whacked-but-positive way of dealing with adversity is so cathartic to so many people, judging by the emails I receive. Heloise, for her part, seems to stimulate ambiguous feelings in viewers who seem to find her both attractive and repellant at the same time; creating that sort of complex relationship between a character and his or her audience is a little bit twisted – but very gratifying!

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One of my all-time favourite Toronto haunts, The Rivoli, will be the location for the first live reading of my novel, STAR Academy. I will be performing it as part of the the Box Salon, an eclectic arts and culture night put on four times a year by my sultry voiced and staggeringly articulate pal, poet and performance artist Louise Bak. It will take place the evening of Feb. 24th, 2010. I’ll post a more specific time closer to the day. Meanwhile, hope you’ll plan on coming out and hearing what Principal Murkly, Mrs. Wheedlbum, and all those other voices in my head sound like!

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I’m very pleased to learn that Today’s Parent magazine has given two thumbs up to STAR Academy by placing it in its “Bookshelf – Our Favourite Books This Month” section. You’ll find it on page 34 of the December issue. It’s a special honour because one of the other books that also made the cut is “The World Needs Your Kid”. Written by Marc and Craig Kielburger of Free the Children, it offers advice on how to raise socially aware, activist children. I haven’t read it yet, but as the creator of Amanda Forsythe, Derek Murphy, and a gaggle of other fictitious kids, as well as the father of two very real ones, I’m putting “The World Needs Your Kid” at the top of my must-read list.

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STAR Academy is now on Facebook! You can stay up to date with the latest news about Amanda Forsythe and her friends Derek, Evelyn and Sanjay by becoming a friend. Click here to join the gang and stay in touch!

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STAR Academy has just been reviewed in Canadian Children’s Book News, published by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Here’s a link to the online version of the review by Trevor Froates. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/STAR+Academy.-a0213032588

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N.B. The following is not my blog, but rather is a guest entry from Amanda Forsythe. Amanda has asked that I periodically allow her to blog on my site, and since so much of my content is devoted to STAR Academy and Amanda, I could hardly say no. I hope you enjoy Amanda’s occasional musings. Sincerely, Edward Kay.

“Hello. My name is Amanda Forsythe, and welcome to Day One of my diary. For those of you not familiar with me already – and I think that’s pretty much everybody, based on my knowledge of statistical probability – I’m 11 years old and live with my parents and my younger brother Daniel (who’s a bit of a pest) in Downview. It’s a small city in a mostly agricultural county known for the high quality of its turnips. I know, how exciting. I attend Grade Six at Downview Public School. The biggest thing there is the football team, the Downview Danes.

Neuroscience isn’t really my specialty (though I admit I’m a science geek) but I’d say that most of the guys on the football team are living proof that even modern helmet technology can’t protect you against brain injuries.
But that lack of intellectual capacity doesn’t affect the team’s popularity one bit. And another five or six years of taking concussions for the Danes will give the county a new generation of turnip harvesters, who will probably be both competent and content at their jobs, except for the occasional mood swing. So I guess it’s all for the best…

I don’t mean to sound sarcastic, it’s just that Downview is one of those towns where the school board puts such a high priority on the football team (”Go, Danes GO!”) that they spend the resources there instead of on other school programs like science, math, and the arts (they got rid of the music program altogether last year to save money).

They even have a giant head of a Danish Viking on the front lawn of the school in honour of the team. I don’t have a photo of it handy but here’s a link to a Viking head just like it (which I would publish except that it’s copyrighted material).

By the way, I tend to use a lot of parenthetical elements when I write. My English teacher says I should quit doing it, but it breaks up the flow less than footnotes, which is more academically proper, but most grade 6 kids don’t use them anyhow (and this is an outlet for my personal thoughts, not a thesis anyway).

Well, I’d better wrap it up for now. Tomorrow’s a school day and I’m putting together a project on photon-sail-powered interstellar space travel. It’s kind of a hobby of mine, figuring out ways to get out of Downview. Later.

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For those of you who don’t care about reading your copy of STAR Academy while having a nice, long soak in a hot bath, it is now available as a e-book to upload to your computer. You can find out more by clicking on this link:
http://www.shortcovers.com/mixes/Star-Academy/book-83EWspPSEkeKrn3b6fWNew/page1.html
If you do upload it to your computer and still want to read in the bathtub, I suggest you drain it first, or make sure that you’re plugged into a CSA-approved ground fault outlet. Happy reading!

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This week has found Amanda Forsythe somewhat distracted from her work on photon-sail powered interstellar space travel, due to the flurry of internet chatter and media reports about the impending collision of Nibiru, also known as Planet X. Since it’s slated to happen in 2012, Amanda is naturally concerned, since she was hoping to make it to her 14th birthday and beyond. Now, there’s nothing Amanda enjoys more than a good internet controversy (although actual internet conspiracy theories are more the domain of her pal Sanjay Dosanjh).

Still, Amanda thinks it’s an interesting enough topic that she’s going to do more research on it at the STAR Academy. She hasn’t had a chance to discuss it with George yet, who is something of an expert when it comes to previously unknown celestial objects. But it’s top of her list and she’ll have more to say about it in the coming weeks – coincidentally, when I am past my Dec. 15th deadline for the first draft of the sequel to STAR Academy.

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Just finished a script for season 2 of Magi-Nation. For those of you who don’t know the show, it is a world unique to itself, with lots of fantastical creatures and possibilities. So much so that it’s a lifesaver to have the highly competent Dave Dias and Shawn Kalb at the story editing helm to help me keep everything real. Or should I say unreal. They know so much about the Moonlands that I’m beginning to suspect that’s where they go after last call.

Now, back to the first draft of the STAR Academy sequel…

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It’s less than five weeks until I’m due to deliver the sequel to STAR Academy to my editor, Amy Black, at Random House / Doubleday. So it’s only appropriate that I procrastinate by writing about one of my favourite subversive passtimes, which is to sneak as many secret Canadian references as possible into the STAR Academy series so that people in other parts of the world will know about all the weird and wonderful things we do here.

I am frequently asked about the creepily Gothic location of the fictional STAR Academy as seen above. No one seems to think that anyone in their right mind would pack children off to school in a building located on a hilltop in the centre of a graveyard. Hence, they presume it is purely the creation of my warped imagination. However, the truth is that while I was delighted to borrow the idea, I was beaten to the punch by more than a century, and by fellow Canadians at that. Notby the creators of a work of fiction, I should stress, but rather by serious-minded educators, who, for reasons best known to themselves, decided that it would be an excellent idea to build a school that looks like it was last occupied by the Munsters, then locate it in the middle of a cemetery. Perhaps they thought that it would encourage students to pay attention to the blackboard and not look out the windows during class. As for those children who did choose to look out the window and daydream, I wonder what became of them? Could David Cronenberg have been a former student? Even he wasn’t, he should have been (he’d be a great director of a film version of the novel, come to think of it.) The point is, this scarifying edifice actually exists, and so far as I’m aware is still in use. I’m not saying exactly where it is, however, because I’d rather keep that mystery going a little longer, and encourage readers to solve that little bit of mysterious Canadiana on their own. Here’s a clue: the building I modeled the STAR Academy after is a different colour than the one on the cover of my novel. And I discovered while living in a region of Canada sometimes referred to as the Right Coast.

While I’m at it, there are a few other secret Canadian references in STAR Academy. One might wonder, for example, where the surname for those aviation-minded Zurakowski brothers came from. The Constellation Hall is largely modeled after the Great Hall at Woodsworth College, which was my college when I attended U of T. But the celestial ceiling design is inspired by an amazing church somewhere in Atlantic Canada (yes, you’ll have to do your own research on that too!)

As for George’s Studebaker Starlight, it comes as a surprise to many to discover that this very jet-age, futuristic car was built right in Canada in a little place that inspired Brian Eno in his sonic adventures, and which we in the Golden Triangle affectionately refer to as H_ _ _ _ _ town. There, another small bit of Canadiana mystery to be solved.

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