BookLore Celebrates its Coming-of-Age!
We're over 20, nearly 21 and to celebrate our coming-of-age we're having a party! Join us Saturday, October 16 from 9 am to 6 pm for a day of draws, prizes and a 20% discount on all in-stock books. Meet some of our authors and enjoy refreshments.
At 11 am, the local authors, illustrators and musicians involved with the Runley Read-Along book series will entertain.
Author Shelley Peterson will be reading and signing at 1 pm. Her latest book, Mystery at Saddle Creek, is the fifth in her horse series for teens.
At 2 pm, 2 local authors will be signing - Stacey Fokas with her cookbook, Freshalicious, and Mary Lazier with her book, Stars of Dufferin County.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
J.K. ROWLING
I think it's always interesting to listen to other successful authors even if we only learn one new helpful tip.
OPRAH AND HARRY POTTER PHENOM BILLIONAIRE
J.K. ROWLING, Friday, October 1, 2010.
You never know . . . maybe it can unlock your writer's block or
maybe give you an idea for a short story or a novel.
OPRAH AND HARRY POTTER PHENOM BILLIONAIRE
J.K. ROWLING, Friday, October 1, 2010.
You never know . . . maybe it can unlock your writer's block or
maybe give you an idea for a short story or a novel.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
DOROTHY SHOEMAKER LITERARY AWARDS
Doesn't Literary Awards sound more impressive than writing contest?
Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards
The Kitchener Public Library is pleased to announce the 43rd annual
Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards Contest
Friday, October 1st to Tuesday, November 30th 2010.
The prose judge will be Michele Wan and the poetry judge will be Elizabeth Zetlin.
http://www.kpl.org/programs/contests_exhibits/dotshoe.html
Read rules and guidelines carefully.
NO ENTRY FEE!
Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards
The Kitchener Public Library is pleased to announce the 43rd annual
Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards Contest
Friday, October 1st to Tuesday, November 30th 2010.
The prose judge will be Michele Wan and the poetry judge will be Elizabeth Zetlin.
http://www.kpl.org/programs/contests_exhibits/dotshoe.html
Read rules and guidelines carefully.
NO ENTRY FEE!
Call for Submissions
18th Annual Short Prose Competition
for Developing Writers
$2,500 PRIZE
The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that submissions are being accepted until November 10, 2010 for the 18THANNUAL SHORT PROSE COMPETITION FOR DEVELOPING WRITERS. The winning entry will be the best Canadian work of2,500 words in the English language, fiction or nonfiction, written by an unpublished author.
PRIZE
$2,500 for the winning entry and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines.
JURY
Writers Tarek Fatah, K.V. Johansen, and Sharon Pollock will serve as the jury.
ELIGIBILITY
This competition is open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have not had a book published by a commercial or university press in any genre and who do not currently have a contract with a book publisher. Original and unpublished (English language) fiction or nonfiction.
HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES:
· Entries should be typed, double-spaced, in a clear twelve point font, and the pages numbered on 8.5 x 11 paper, not stapled.
· Submissions will be accepted by hardcopy only.
· Include a separate cover letter with title of story, full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and number of pages of entry.
· Please type the name of entrant and the title of entry on each numbered page. This is not a blind competition.
· Make cheque or money order payable to The Writers' Union of Canada. Multiple entries can be submitted together and fees can be added and paid with one cheque or money order, $25 per submission.
· Entries must be postmarked by November 10, 2010 to be eligible. Results will be announced in February 2011.
· Mail entries to: WFC Competition, The Writers’ Union of Canada, 90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1.
Results will be posted at www.writersunion.ca. Manuscripts will not be returned.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
MINUTES OF MEETING - SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
Diane was leading on Sunday and asked me to take the notes.
I would have posted them yesterday but Microsoft wouldn't allow me to cut and paste and I wasn't going to re-type the minutes. I just love Microsoft. When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy an Apple computer.
Rosemary joined us for the first time. She has been writing for a while. She writes poetry and she’s working on a fantasy book for children. She heard about our writing group from Richard and he forgot to mention that she needed a pen and paper. Shame on you, Richard! Just kidding.
Welcome Rosmary.
When Clare introduced himself he told us that he found it comforting to write when he was away.
Judy read her poem, Forfeit– from her upcoming poetry book Fat and other F words. We all loved it. Kelli asked if Marilyn was crying and she said no she had something in her eye.
Kelli – wrote about her health problems and she may post it to her blog. It’s called A Blimp in the Scheme of Things (great title). After she read it, Judy and I were curious about the cause of having seizures. Kelli told us that stress could be a factor or it could be if epilepsy is in our family. Please see the link to Kelli’s Blog.
Harry continues to work on his adult book about the circus. He’s going to have illustrations. He sent his twenty stories out using http://www.querytracker.com/
Welcome back Clare. He was away for six weeks. He made a wise decision and he decided to sip beverages, enjoy snacks in cafes in France, and write. He wrote twenty-five vignettes and he read one of his vignettes. We all laughed. He felt that it was like having an extended artist date as recommended by Julia Cameron. Ron said, “Clare is now a ghost writer.” Clare said it was become the keyboard is different than ours. “I’m not a computer geek. If I can figure out how to send emails from Europe anybody can.”
Marilyn writes a column called, The Last Word. It’s about writing down goals. I asked her to post it on our blog. Thanks Marilyn for posting on our blog.
Ron talked to me about posting to the blog. Thanks Ron for the excellent post and yes I hope it becomes an addiction.
I didn’t mention it at the meeting – but it would be wonderful for volunteers to start posting on our blog.
Ron is taking a grammar course at The Learning Enterprise. Ashley recommended the book, Sin and Syntax – HOW TO CRAFT wickedly EFFECTIVE PROSE by Constance Hale. We congratulated him.
Ashely read from her Sci-Fi novel. It’s thought provoking and interesting. She read from her first chapter, a child asks, “What’s the sun.” It caught my attention. Harry asked, “You’re writing about the year 3,000, how do you build it for the reader?”
It provoked a lot of discussion.
Harry mentioned the he’d asked Linwood Barclay the secret to writing a novel. “Start writing and keep going until you finish.”
Diane is writing a new thing that doesn’t have a name. She read Chapter 1. Creepy, I tell you but I want to read more.
_________________________________________________
Ashley asked authors the question, how did you plan your book? And she read their answers that follow:
“The first book I had mostly in my head before I started . . .except that once you start, it kind of takes on a life of its own and goes places you didn’t expect.
The second book I planned sort of chunk by chunk and the third I actually had each chapter planned and summarized. So . . . they’ve all been different.”
Holly, author of Bone Bender
“I didn’t plane it at all. Once I started writing the characters basically took over.”
M. Trotter
“First, I have an idea. After, I do some research on the subject, and the end, at the end. I write. I usually write after everything is clear: I know my characters, everything.”
My books began with the history. I weave the fiction through the fact and write the story in the spaces we don’t know about.”
___________________________________________________
Personally, I think outline or NOT to outline—the choice is yours. What works best for you?
Clarke used the prompt Can you see me forty years from now? Clare read. “Fat Chance.” We roared with laughter.
Marilyn brought copies of Gloria's latest book - DREAM QUEST DICTIONARY, for us to purchase. I mentioned at the meeting that I am a dreamer and I only use two books and Gloria's book is one of them. It's an excellent book. Check out Gloria's website:
http://spiralpress.ca/www.spiralpress.ca/Welcome.html
We look forward to attending the book launch.
Diane brought the following prompts:
Can you see me?
Fall means a lot of things to different people.
The windshield wipers squeaked against the window of the abandoned car.
I looked for an excuse to leave the room.
Ashley mention to check out http://www.writing.com/
NEXT MEETING: October 17, 2010 – Judy is leading.
I would have posted them yesterday but Microsoft wouldn't allow me to cut and paste and I wasn't going to re-type the minutes. I just love Microsoft. When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy an Apple computer.
Rosemary joined us for the first time. She has been writing for a while. She writes poetry and she’s working on a fantasy book for children. She heard about our writing group from Richard and he forgot to mention that she needed a pen and paper. Shame on you, Richard! Just kidding.
Welcome Rosmary.
When Clare introduced himself he told us that he found it comforting to write when he was away.
Judy read her poem, Forfeit– from her upcoming poetry book Fat and other F words. We all loved it. Kelli asked if Marilyn was crying and she said no she had something in her eye.
Kelli – wrote about her health problems and she may post it to her blog. It’s called A Blimp in the Scheme of Things (great title). After she read it, Judy and I were curious about the cause of having seizures. Kelli told us that stress could be a factor or it could be if epilepsy is in our family. Please see the link to Kelli’s Blog.
Harry continues to work on his adult book about the circus. He’s going to have illustrations. He sent his twenty stories out using http://www.querytracker.com/
Welcome back Clare. He was away for six weeks. He made a wise decision and he decided to sip beverages, enjoy snacks in cafes in France, and write. He wrote twenty-five vignettes and he read one of his vignettes. We all laughed. He felt that it was like having an extended artist date as recommended by Julia Cameron. Ron said, “Clare is now a ghost writer.” Clare said it was become the keyboard is different than ours. “I’m not a computer geek. If I can figure out how to send emails from Europe anybody can.”
Marilyn writes a column called, The Last Word. It’s about writing down goals. I asked her to post it on our blog. Thanks Marilyn for posting on our blog.
Ron talked to me about posting to the blog. Thanks Ron for the excellent post and yes I hope it becomes an addiction.
I didn’t mention it at the meeting – but it would be wonderful for volunteers to start posting on our blog.
Ron is taking a grammar course at The Learning Enterprise. Ashley recommended the book, Sin and Syntax – HOW TO CRAFT wickedly EFFECTIVE PROSE by Constance Hale. We congratulated him.
Ashely read from her Sci-Fi novel. It’s thought provoking and interesting. She read from her first chapter, a child asks, “What’s the sun.” It caught my attention. Harry asked, “You’re writing about the year 3,000, how do you build it for the reader?”
It provoked a lot of discussion.
Harry mentioned the he’d asked Linwood Barclay the secret to writing a novel. “Start writing and keep going until you finish.”
Diane is writing a new thing that doesn’t have a name. She read Chapter 1. Creepy, I tell you but I want to read more.
_________________________________________________
Ashley asked authors the question, how did you plan your book? And she read their answers that follow:
“The first book I had mostly in my head before I started . . .except that once you start, it kind of takes on a life of its own and goes places you didn’t expect.
The second book I planned sort of chunk by chunk and the third I actually had each chapter planned and summarized. So . . . they’ve all been different.”
Holly, author of Bone Bender
“I didn’t plane it at all. Once I started writing the characters basically took over.”
M. Trotter
“First, I have an idea. After, I do some research on the subject, and the end, at the end. I write. I usually write after everything is clear: I know my characters, everything.”
My books began with the history. I weave the fiction through the fact and write the story in the spaces we don’t know about.”
___________________________________________________
Personally, I think outline or NOT to outline—the choice is yours. What works best for you?
Clarke used the prompt Can you see me forty years from now? Clare read. “Fat Chance.” We roared with laughter.
Marilyn brought copies of Gloria's latest book - DREAM QUEST DICTIONARY, for us to purchase. I mentioned at the meeting that I am a dreamer and I only use two books and Gloria's book is one of them. It's an excellent book. Check out Gloria's website:
http://spiralpress.ca/www.spiralpress.ca/Welcome.html
We look forward to attending the book launch.
Diane brought the following prompts:
Can you see me?
Fall means a lot of things to different people.
The windshield wipers squeaked against the window of the abandoned car.
I looked for an excuse to leave the room.
Ashley mention to check out http://www.writing.com/
NEXT MEETING: October 17, 2010 – Judy is leading.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Collingwood Word Stock, workshop
September 10, 2010 was a banner day for any writer looking for
tips to sharpen their skills, and for me it was a workshop put on by
Ruth Garrett on that beautiful day in a beautiful town on Georgian
Bay.
The town is historic for many reasons, the least not being ship
building,
there's many others, but for today it was "Sweat, Blood and
Fears"
by Ruth.
The literary festival took in Friday night and Saturday that weekend,
and from all accounts was a roaring success. It must have been because
we were acquainted to the best of speakers in some historic venues.
It was really COOL by contemporary language.
Ruth put on a one hour time controlled talk with audience participation.
Her presentation had to be timed because her bubbling enthusiasm
coupled with her great grasp of writing probably would have gone on
long after lunch. It was easy to see how much she loves her subject,
and telling it to an eager audience.
Let me give you some meat from her titled workshop:
"The Blood": writing from the depths of who you truly are.
THE FOUNDATION OF FOUR
1. Access your true writer's voice
2. Nurture your creative spirit
3. Develop and deepen your writing practice
4. Name your motivation and objectives
"The Sweat" developing and deepening my writing practice.
(share with the world in your writings).
Some headings from "The Sweat":
Commitment and Persistence.
Developing and deepening your writing practice
The "If Only" way of writing ....... or more correctly not writing
"The Fears"
F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal
Ruth states: Feel the FEAR and do it anyway .......
all you have to lose are
your
inhibitions .....
what you gain are
your dreams.
There is much more that Ruth left me with, but at the expense
of plagiarism I will leave it at that, with the suggestion we invite
Ruth to our group to meet us at church one Sunday, under the
guise of a prayer meeting ....... maybe we can even coax her to
give us a workshop too, during the prayer session.
Keep writing bloggers.
This is my first ever contribution to a blog, and this could
become addictive.
Ron Lehman.
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