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listed in British Columbia Non-Fiction Writers

Lyn Hancock

Ph: (250) 390-9075
Fax: (250) 390-9074
Lyn Hancockwww.lynhancock.com
lynhancock@shaw.ca

8270 Sabre Road
Lantzville, British Columbia
Canada, V0R 2H0
Looking for the Wild
Love Affair with a Cougar
There's a Seal in my Sleeping Bag
Winging it in the North
Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Yukon
Lyn Hancock is a well-published writer and photographer, a highly-recommended, captivating speaker, an inspiring, widely-experienced teacher and, according to a spokesperson for the Board of Education in Toronto, “an extraordinary person.” She will talk about her life, her books and her photographs to anyone at any age in any place.

She was raised in Western Australia, hitch-hiked through Africa, taught school in Australia, England and Canada (grade 4 to university level) and spent a decade raising seals, raccoons, cougars, bears, apes and other creatures which eventually populated pages in her 18 books such as the classic There’s a Seal in My Sleeping Bag and There’s a Raccoon in my Parka and the popular Love Affair with a Cougar. She wrote one book of history with the family of one of her students, the unique Tell me, Grandmother, the story of Sam and Jane Livingston, the first settlers in Calgary.

For three more decades she wandered alone with camera, notebook and backpack throughout Northern British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. From these experiences have come thousands of newspaper and magazine articles and books for all ages such as Nunavut, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Winging it in the North, Western Canada Travel Smart.

You can find a longer biography and bibliography with samples of her magazine work on her website – www.islandnet.com/pwac/hancoc00.html and www.travelwritersmarketplace.com Follow links to PWAC’s Reading Room.

Using dramatic slides and film clips, unique, rarely-seen artifacts, maps and manuscripts, entertaining readings, personal stories and informative discussion, Lyn presents lively and unforgettable shows. Two of her most popular are Living in Nunavut and Encounters with Animals.

You will remain riveted as she explores the Arctic Ocean with hunters as they harpoon walrus, picnic on an ice floe, and prepare the meat for igunuk, hide bags and rope; as she camps with sculptors while they extract and carve marble from the sea; as she eats a Christmas dinner of raw seal, muktuk (whale blubber), okshok (fermented seal oil) and the semi-digested contents of caribou stomach; as she visits Nunavut’s three mines – Lupin’s gold, Polaris’s lead and zinc, and Ekati’s diamonds; as she sleeps in garbage dumps, High Arctic weather stations and melting snowhouses, drives dogteams, stalks polar bears, meditates with dying muskox, even flies to the North Pole.

Closer to home, she sleeps with cougars, sits in eagle nests, babysits killer whales, hatches murres, nets puffins, lives with a hyrax in her bed and an ape in her classroom, and finds her lost sea lion in jail. These and many more experiences prove that truth is stranger than fiction.

They are informative as well as entertaining. Her approaches suit various areas of the curriculum – language arts, social studies, science, politics, career choices, media literacy, wholesome inspired living. Audiences remember her presentations for years afterwards and many say that they changed their lives. Read An Ape Came out of My Hatbox for a case in point.

Here’s what Shirley Coffin said after Lyn’s presentation in a Halifax inner city school, a slide talk which was also televised on CBC.

“The presentation you gave was most enchanting and dynamic. It kept our ordinary short-attention-span students spellbound for the entire hour of your talk. That is quite an accomplishment, believe me. Your vivacity and the engagement you share with your topic combined with a clear and vivid oral picture of your personal experiences made your talk and ‘use of visuals’ that much more engrossing. Thank you for sharing such an interesting lifestyle. You are an inspiration.”

Currently, Lyn is rafting rivers, hiking trails, and kayaking lakes in the vast wilderness of the Northern Rockies for the first book on this little known area but she is also squeezing time to write children’s stories on some of her most memorable characters, Sam the Seal, Rocky and Tabasco Raccoon, Scarlett the Macaw, Gypsy the Gibbon, Bubu the Bear – and……

Meanwhile, There’s a Seal in My Sleeping Bag which has been in print for over 30 years has been updated to include a glimpse of her current life from a home base in Lantzville, British Columbia. Lyn laughed when she read a letter from a reader who, having enjoyed her northern stories, wrote,

“In the 1960s and 1970s, I used to read your mother’s stories of animals, places and people in British Columbia. I especially loved There’s a Seal in My Sleeping Bag. You write in the same style as your mother. You even kept her name.”

The reader was stunned to learn that Lyn had no children and was still writing – and speaking.

New Book Announcement:
Tabasco, The Saucy Racoon



Tabasco, the Saucy RacoonFor almost thirty years, award-winning author and adventurer Lyn Hancock kept a special story close to her heart. At last, she is ready to tell it: the remarkable tale of an animal whose saucy personality enlivened Lyn’s days and brought joy and wonder to the lives of countless people.

At three weeks, Tabasco is a tiny, helpless ball of fluff. Already, the little raccoon’s life is unusual: tucked into Lyn’s pocket or tote bag, Tabasco accompanies Lyn on a cross-country tour, making friends every step of the way. By the time they get home, Tabasco is ready to explore the world—inch by exciting, fragrant, tactile inch. Nothing is safe from Tabasco’s clever paws. Dogs run and horses stand still when Tabasco comes to call. For some, the raccoon’s like her namesake: a little goes a long, long way. But children flock from all around to play with Lyn’s busy, talkative friend. Lyn's book, "Tabasco the Saucy Raccoon" has just been nominated for the Diamond Willow Children’s Literature Award prize

Much as Lyn loves Tabasco, she knows that raccoons are wild creatures, not house pets. The story of Lyn Hancock’s search for a new, wild home for her beloved companion will melt your heart.

Young and old alike will treasure the unforgettable tale of Tabasco, the saucy raccoon.

Selected Publications:


Awards:


What Others are Saying:


Date of School Visit: Oct. 7, 2004
Author: Lyn Hancock
School: Ladysmith Intermediate
Class: 8 classes from Grades 4 - 6; three classes of Gr. 4 individual
Teacher: Paul Grey

1. Would you have this person into your classroom or library again? Yes, Lyn was very well-received. Her slideshow "Encounters with Animals" accompanied with her artifacts was superb. The slideshow included Lyn's experiences with animals both as a classroom teacher and as an adventurer. She was able to captivate her student audience; she was also well-received by the Ladysmith staff. The content was extremely relevant to the Social Studies curriculum. In fact, several classes are studying adaptations of animals - the content applied well to current studies.

2. Would you support the program again? Yes, we would support the program again. It took a lot of preparation and time. It was entertaining and fun.

Thank you for sponsoring this event. Thanks for an entertaining morning and outstanding slideshow. I would highly recommend Lyn's show for other elementary schools. It motivated at least two teachers to modify their curriculum and add a different perspective to their teaching.
Sincerely
Paul Grey
Grade 4 teacher
Author of Easykayaker,Kayaking Vancouver Island, Easykayaking Basics
www.pgrey.com
www.easykayaker.com

Selected articles


To find out how to get funding to have Lyn speak at your school, library or other venue, please visit: www.writersunion.ca/hosting.htm