War at the snow white mo.., p.15
War at the Snow White Motel and Other Stories,
p.15
The Brotherhood of Interstellar Dirt
This whole collection of stories is dedicated to three of my writing buddies, who I don’t get to see half enough. I’ve made them the three best friends of Noah, the central character of this story. Artie, Ope and Ricardo are, in real life, the talented writers Arthur Slade, Kenneth Oppel and Richard Scrimger … except, not really; they just share the same names. I didn’t know these guys when I was a kid, but I sure wish I had. Bet they were a riot!
Like Noah, my birthday is August 12, and as far as I’m concerned, the Perseid Shower is my own very special birthday present from the universe. Thank you, universe.
What else about this story is true? Well, we do live on seventy-six acres of bushland, as I mentioned above, and we did once find a burned vehicle out in the middle of our property. It was a tractor. Never did find out who owned it or what it was doing there. The best thing about writing fiction is taking a curious or mysterious real experience and making up how it came about. And since it’s fiction, you get to change the real experience any way you want. I mean, I could have written about a tractor from outer space crash landing, and the beginning of an attack on the Earth by alien farmers. Hmm, maybe I still will.
Christmas with Auntie Annie Ping-Pong
There was an Auntie Annie Ping-Pong in my family, but that was back in England, where I was born, and I never met her. As I was about to write this afterword, I asked my oldest sister who Ping-Pong really was, and she didn’t remember. Anyway, it would be a great name to describe my own dear mum when dementia set in. She did have imaginary visitors all the time and mostly that was fine. It was no use trying to explain they were imaginary, although sometimes she found it frightening. I remember once saying to her, as gently as I could, “Mum, it’s okay, they’re only imaginary.” To which she replied, “Oh, I know that, but do they?” That’s a pretty amazing response.
Dementia can be really hard for a kid to experience in a beloved relative. It’s hard for anybody. Suddenly this person you’ve known all your life is just not there anymore, not really. They haven’t died — it’s just that the light’s on, but nobody’s home. Or should I say, there’s often this stranger who answers the door. All I could do in my mother’s case was roll with it, which is what Matt does, as best he can.
About the Author
Tim Wynne-Jones is one of Canada’s foremost writers for children. The author of over thirty-five books, he is a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and the Arthur Ellis Award. His short-story collections include Some of the Kinder Planets, The Book of Changes and Lord of the Fries. He is also known for his Rex Zero series. Recently, he wrote the young-adult novels The Starlight Claim, The Ruinous Sweep, The Emperor of Any Place (which earned seven starred reviews) and Blink & Caution. Tim is also the recipient of the Edgar Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People. In 2012, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He lives in Perth, Ontario.
Tim Wynne-Jones, War at the Snow White Motel and Other Stories
