I’ve been away from the desk for a few weeks, first taking a well-deserved break after a long rewarding year with The Writer’s Studio, and then battling a nasty virus in the first couple weeks of 2020 - but now I’m ready to get back to work. I checked my social media and my email … Continue reading The Book Launch: Emerge 19
Tag: books
Break Your Chains: Write Everywhere
Summer has finally arrived on the west coast - after a stormy beginning, the cool overcast mornings have given way to clear skies and sultry twilights. It’s a time to sit back and breathe, maybe take some vacation time, and slow down from the rush of work and school. After six months of surviving workshops, … Continue reading Break Your Chains: Write Everywhere
Giving Your Voice to Your Words
The first time reading your work in front of an audience can be both exciting and terrifying. It’s exciting because we get to share our work; it’s terrifying because we are exposing our heart and soul and opening ourselves up to criticism. Writers are not the most social creatures. We spend the better part of … Continue reading Giving Your Voice to Your Words
A Good Place to Start: Writing and the Internet
“The internet is a dark road to infinity potholed with links” - Rex Pickett, Sideways I read this quote in Rex Pickett’s novel Sideways and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Aside from the fact that it’s a brilliant metaphor, it made me stop and think about technology today - technology and its … Continue reading A Good Place to Start: Writing and the Internet
The Writer’s Studio
It took three months, an essay, an application, a resume and 20 pages of my own work, published or not, finished or unfinished, and works in progress. A month after the deadline, I got the email I hoped for: “I am very pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into The Writer's Studio Vancouver at Simon Fraser … Continue reading The Writer’s Studio
A Summer of Reading
Write every day. That’s the advice we are given when we start writing - to make it a habit, to incorporate it into our daily schedule, to just write. And for the most part, I do. But during the summer, my writing work slows down. Most of my deadlines have passed, the days are warmer … Continue reading A Summer of Reading
It’s All Worth It
We come to the desk every day and write. We send out our stories, poems and non-fiction articles just waiting for that one bite that will launch us into literary success. We wonder if we are making progress with all the hours we spend lurking in our own imaginations and putting all those words into … Continue reading It’s All Worth It
Taking Research on the Road
Research is necessary for the writer. We research everything from the right kind of devices for writing, publication procedures, literary agents, publishing houses, facts versus fiction, writing markets, coaches, editors, people, professions, places - the list is almost endless. Research is essential for us to find the right fit for our work, and often it … Continue reading Taking Research on the Road
A Celebration of Words
It’s that time of year when summer is slipping silently into fall and I am slipping into the world of writing festivals. I have attended two festivals every year for the last five years, soaking up extraordinary days filled with all the passions of a writer’s heart – author’s, books, inspiration, revelation and workshops. Tucked … Continue reading A Celebration of Words
A Freedom in Reading
It has been a scorching summer – the driest we’ve had on record in our temperate rain forest, a season of smoke and fire. It has been a season of drought, not only for the rain we crave, but also for the words I would bring to the page. I have lost my vision in … Continue reading A Freedom in Reading