Posts tagged The writing life

It’s sooo hot outside, must be Canada Day tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Canada Day!
A perfect time to kick back, take in some fireworks, skip town and go hide from your day job at the cabin and catch up on your Canadian book list.

Which Canadian authors are on your ‘to read’ list?

Inquiring minds would like to know.…

Good Night, Sleep Tight, and May the Creativity Bug Bite you.

Tonight, as the sun slowly went down over the trees of Assiniboine Park, I thought about songs dedicated to going to sleep.

Sleep, we need it, we crave it and some times, in sleep, your muse is able to speak a little bit louder or show you how to fix that stupid plot hole you’ve been agonizing over for the past three months.

So here is a short list of songs dedicated to sleeping:

 

1. Insomniacs of the World, Good Night by Gordon Downie…

This Makes Me Smile (and Die a Little on the Inside)

So You Want to Write a Novel…

Writer’s Block!

When you fall victim to the dreaded ‘Writer’s Block’ what do you do to get rid of it? Do you have a go-to book for inspiration? Do you go for a walk somewhere? Do you post a bunch of random words on a cork board and throw darts at them?

 

Inquiring minds would like to know.

 …

The Seventh Day of Writemas

On the Seventh Day of Writemas my true love gave to me . . .

The Seven Deadly Sins from Dante and Pope Gregory I?!?

– “ALL highly applicable to writers!”-

Thank you Michael Van Rooy for this post!

To wit:

Extravagance – Eschew such that you may write.

Gluttony – Eat when you can that you might have strength to write.

Avarice – Turn your back upon wealth as it distracts from the story that you should be writing.

Discouragement – Don’t be, not …

Michael Van Rooy likes to pretend he knows EVERYTHING a.k.a. The Weekly Update…


November 12, 2010 Weekly Writers Collective Update:

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Aqua Landsdowne Series Reading – in partnership with Aqua Books and the Writers’ Collective – featuring Slam poet Skip Stone, with Aaron Simm and Nereo II

Date: November 25, Thursday

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 1H3, Phone: 204-943-7555.

Event: Aqua Landsdowne Series Reading

Cost: Free!

The Aqua Lansdowne is Manitoba’s largest poetry prize. Based around the award and hosted in conjunction with the Writer’s Collective, this series celebrates the

Are you up for the Speaking Crow Challenge??

Hey y’all, the website elves here, and we wanted to introduce a guest blogger today,

please give a warm welcome to Ms. Shayla E….

(insert applause here)


Hi, I am Shayla Elizabeth, a member of the Aboriginal Writers’ Collective, and I wanted to write a few words on my experience with the Speaking Crow Open Mic series.

At the beginning of 2009, one of my new year’s resolutions was to start going to the Speaking Crow on a regular basis and try to make as …

Writer seeks literary magazine…

Let’s face it, submitting to journals and magazines is a bit of a crap shoot… your odds are improved by a lot of digging, researching, and, of course, writing and editing, but in the end, you’re just playing in the sand and hoping for the best!

Yet, this is not as discouraging as you might think, good research is not to be undervalued, look long enough and you can find the perfect publication for what you are working on, and just because the one you …

Full Circle

  • Time travel, Manitoba politics and family drama
  • Murder and donuts
  • Writer’s block
  • The Russian revolution and coming home

Those were the stories and verses on display at the Writers’ Circle wrap-up on June 9. Four brave souls (full disclosure: I was one of them) took the stage to read some of the work they had honed in the past year at Writers’ Circles.

Then we spent the remainder of the evening with our adoring fans, talking about writing, gardening, sci-fi and everything in between.

It …

Unleashing the Solitary Beast

Last month, I took a break from my solitary writing life (and my day job) to spend a week with ten other fabulously talented fiction writers. I also got to mingle with a few dozen more writers who were working on poetry, life writing and writing for children and young adults. Where did I find this eclectic and inspiring congregation of scribes? The School of Writing at CMU.

For me, the School was the perfect balance of working alone and in collaboration with other