TORONTO - Dolly Parton is working well beyond 9 to 5 these days and is showing no signs of slowing down.
"I'm workin' 5 to 9, 9 to 5, around the clock!" the 62-year-old country music icon, who won an Oscar nomination for her hit tune "9 to 5" in 1980, said in her bubbly southern accent in a recent telephone interview.
Parton was on the line from fellow country artist Reba McEntire's Starstruck Studios in Nashville for one of many interviews to talk about the events clogging her day planner.
"I've been up all morning talkin' so I'm good and limbered up for ya," the multiple Grammy winner said cheerily.
Parton's most recent venture is her "Backwoods Barbie" tour, named after her album that was released in February.
The tour recently ran through Europe and kicks off its Canadian leg Sunday at Casino Rama near Orillia, Ont. Parton will play there again Nov. 10 before hitting Winnipeg on Nov. 13 and Saskatoon on Nov. 14.
"I can't wait!" Parton said of the Canadian performances, adding she was excited to see some of the fall colours.
The flashy blond country queen with the legendary hourglass figure and sparkly clothing has also been busy with the Imagination Library -- a not-for-profit program that mails out hardcover books to enrolled children, free of charge, from birth until they turn five.
The program began over a decade ago in Sevier County, Tenn., where Parton was born, and has since expanded throughout the U.S., the U.K. and several parts of Canada, where it's supported by the group Invest in Kids.
"Everywhere I go the children affectionately call me the book lady," said Parton.
The singer-songwriter grew up poor in a remote cabin with 11 other siblings and says she started the Imagination Library "mostly because so many of my own relatives could not read nor write, because they didn't get a chance to get an education."
"There was such a house full of kids you couldn't go, you know, check out books and that sort of thing because first of all it was too far away and second of all you had a house full of kids -- they had to eat the pages, tear 'em up, or whatever -- so I just know how crippling it was to a lot of my own relatives," she said.
"My own father could not read and write but he was so smart and I always wondered what all he could've done had he got an education, so that was how I started it and why I started it in my own community."
Parton is also becoming involved in the theatre world.
"Nine to Five: The Musical," based on the 1980 film in which Parton co-starred and sang the title song, recently opened to rave reviews in Los Angeles and will expand to Broadway next April.
Parton wrote all the music and lyrics for the show but says there's no chance of her making a cameo.
"I wouldn't want one, really, because it's not set up that way and I'm a little old for that part now," she said with a giggle.
Parton is writing a second musical called "Sha-Kon-O-Hey," the phonetic spelling of the Cherokee words for "Land of Blue Smoke."
It's scheduled to debut next year at her Dollywood theme park in the Great Smoky Mountains in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
The show will be part of the 75th anniversary of the area's national park, where Parton camped as a child.
If that wasn't enough, Parton is also interested in being on the big screen again.
"If it was something I felt I could do, I would love to do it," said Parton, whose other film credits include "Steel Magnolias" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (Parton, being the sweet and proper star she is, referred to it as "Best Little Chicken House in Texas" in the interview).
"I'm always looking for something," she added.
