Spoken Word Night

Well group. Are you ready to go public with your pieces?

I spoke with Pierre and he's happy to host us on a Friday night. He just needs notice.

Because there are so many of us and consensus might be difficult on a date, I will post some options. If you have a preference of one of these dates let me know and if you cannot make any of them let me know in the comments section of this blog entry.

Friday May 21st

Friday May 28th

Friday June 4th

If any or all of these dates are good for you, let us know (the next meeting is Tuesday May11th) or you can place your vote on the poll to the left.

Library Renovation

If you haven't already heard about our wonderful little library undergoing renovation, you've heard it now. During the course of the makeover we will be unable to access the older titles. They are, however, letting patrons take out books from the old sections and asking that they do not bring them back until the renovations are complete.

That means you can seriously stock up with all the books you want to read this summer and take your time doing it. So if there's a pile you've always wanted to read, and not have to worry about overdue book fees, now's the time. By the way, I think the last day is today, April 28.

Ideas from the sole

Last night was proof that even the smallest suggestion can result in the biggest idea. Heather was our facilitator and the writing warm up was a great as ever. Heather brought with her an array of unique items, all no bigger than what you can fit in one hand and each with distinct characteristics. We were to choose an item and write. Simple and creative. Many of us were coming off of poetry mode after a week of getting ready for the poetry contest on the 30th. Even Mike wrote a poem, more to his own surprise than anyone else's.

For the main event Heather's idea was simple, "shoe on the road", and from it all members that turned up came with varying ideas and some of the best writing we've heard to date.

Nola started us off with her first person journey from the shoe's comedic perspective. Susan weaved her story of a satin Italian hand carved heel through three generations of shoe wearers until it met its fate. Nicole (I) made the shoe the victim of a sour relationship that ultimately panned out on a city freeway. Margaret inspired us with an uplifting Father/Son piece. Heather continued with three shorter pieces one in particular that dug deep with feelings of grief. Mike was so inspired by the prompt he completed the first chapter of a new mystery novel that involved several fingers of Highland Park Single Malt.

There was plenty of applause and much hootin' &hollerin'.  I'm particularly proud to say that we're are slowly inching our way into a more critical mind frame. Heather had some suggestions for critiquing one another's work; I think we should try this at our next meeting.
1. What would you like to hear more of?
2. What did you appreciate?
3. What would you have approached differently?

I think this meeting has definitely inspired me to keep the prompts simple more often than not. With simple prompts the imagination opens a gate to a huge garden of possibility. What fun!

See new "writing prompts" in the column to the left...

The next meeting will be Tuesday May 11th. I will be loosely facilitating (I'll just bring a warm up exercise). We'll be changing the format slightly for this meeting. Many of us have been working on larger manuscripts and so this will be an opportunity to bring print-outs for everyone to look over or take home. Alternately between now and then we will also be emailing one another with our writing. I know all those in attendance last night will be happy to read, edit and give feedback so let's get those pieces circulating!


Nice work everyone!

Shoe on the road...

O.K. folks. I'll agree to facilitate the next meeting and let's save the personal items for critique for another one if that's OK with everyone. As I was driving to Cranbrook awhile back, I noticed a shoe on the road. I thought that would be a great item to build a writer's evening around. So the assignment is this: write something in whatever format flows from your pen about a shoe in the road. That's it. I don't want to lead into this with any details but leave it wide open for you to explore. However, you may want to think about who's shoe it was, what kind it is and how that reflects on the wearer, how it got to be there on the road and the steps it's 'walked' to get there. Have fun!

Next meeting

I have a proposal.... since we don't have (to my knowledge) a facilitator, what about if we bring in personal projects for our next meeting and have a constructive critique. We could bring in our poems/stories too, and then something that we would personally like some help with. What do you think?

The Secrets

I have recently acquired a new toy that has opened up a little world for me. This toy is called an ipod (don't laugh at me, I'm what marketers call a laggard) and although I don't need it to do all of the things I'm doing with it, for that the Internet is availbale to me, I find the portability fantastic and have taken to looking for and listening to podcasts.

Now if you've never listened to a podcast before it's basically an internet radio show. There are podcasts out there for EVERYTHING. One of the most popular podcasts in the writing category is called "The Secrets" and I am quite excited after listening to a couple episodes... so whether you have an ipod or MP3 player or just access to a computer, sit back and listen to the tried and true methods from Michael A. Stackpole at stormwolf.com


Click here for a list of podcasts

Also, you must promise not to laugh at me for bringing your attention to the obvious, and if it's not obvious hop aboard the podcast train; destination: "seeing-your-name-on-the-spine-of-a-book".

Life of Pi

I was looking at Nicole's profile and one the books she sites as a favourite is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I decided to pick it up at the library. After reading a few chapters, I became curious about the author. I googled him. He has his own website, and then one that he calls What is Stephen Harper Reading? This is an excerpt from that website; it speaks for itself....

Who is this man? What makes him tick? No doubt he is busy. No doubt he is deluded by that busyness. No doubt being Prime Minister fills his entire consideration and froths his sense of busied importance to the very brim. And no doubt he sounds and governs like one who cares little for the arts.

But he must have moments of stillness. And so this is what I propose to do: not to educate—that would be arrogant, less than that—to make suggestions to his stillness.

For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website.

Good press

At the Literacy meeting a number of people commented on reading about our group in Mike's column, how we laugh, cry and have a great time writing. Thanks Mike! The word is getting out...

Kimberley Literacy Meeting

Hi all,

I went to a Kimberley Literacy meeting today representing our writing group and Kimberley Arts Council/Centre 64. I have a question for fellow Write-on-ers. At the meeting I said that everyone is welcome to our writing group, youth included. I thought afterward that I should run that by the group to make sure that that is OK with everyone. I figure if we have youth keen enough to come to our meeting we would welcome them, but if others would rather keep it adult only, that's fine with me too. I had to put it in writing but have yet to send the final draft, so I can easily change it. Any comments?

Fw: Slam Poetry workshop & performance - Eye on Entertainment

FYI This could be an instructive workshop and performance experience for
those of us interested in developing our own literary performance
evening(s).
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Katherine Hough" <KHough@thehub.literacy.bc.ca>
To: <redruth@shaw.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 6:04 PM
Subject: Slam Poetry workshop & performance - Eye on Entertainment

> hi Mike
> we have an exciting day coming up on May 1st - I have attached a copy of
> the poster going up around Cranbrook. We're targeting teens (they get in
> free to both workshop and performance) but its open to anyone ($3 charge
> for aduts). Below is an outline.
> Whatever you can publish for us would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Barbara Adler, one of Canada's most exciting young performance poets, is
> coming to Cranbrook on May 1 to host a Slam Poetry workshop and
> performance.
>
> Barbara has been a Canadian Slam Champion as well as a CBC Poet Laureate
> and CBC Poetry Face Off winner. "Adler's carefully crafted rants are
> breathlessly precise," says Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg.
>
> The workshop will begin at 6pm and the performance will follow at 8 pm at
> the Manual Training School beside the library. You can attend one or both,
> but pre-registration would be appreciated (email khough@cbal.org with your
> name and Slam as the subject).
> If you are 18 or under, it's free! Adults are $3.
>
>
> cheers
> K+
>
> Katherine Hough
> Cranbrook Community Literacy Coordinator
> Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy
> Phone: 250-417-2896 Fax: 250-417-2672
> khough@cbal.org
> www.cbal.org
>
>
>

Writeon

Hi Nicole Would you mind adding my name to the list of names in the Writeon Group? Thank you Cheers Don

Poetry contest entry form

Hi,

Karin sent me the library poetry contest (the same one that Mike told us about some time ago) entry form, if anyone is interested.....

I can't figure out how to add it as a link. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can forward the original email and attachment.

2nd annual Kimberley Public Library Poetry Contest

To be eligible, each entry: Must be written in English; Only one poem per page Arrive at Kimberley Library by closing on April 30th, 2010 Poems are not eligible if they have already been published or accepted for publication. Plagiarism rules apply. Authors retain the rights to their writing Entry Fee by donation

April is National Poetry Month. The Kimberley Public Library is celebrating by holding its 2nd annual Poetry contest. Entries will be accepted from until closing on April 30th, 2010. Entries will be judged by a three person panel. Poems can be written in any poetic form, Contest entry is open to poets as young as ten years old, and separated into divisions of 10-13 years, 14-17 years, 18 & up. There will be prizes for each division. For more information please contact the library at 115 Spokane Street, Kimberley BC V1A 2E5 Phone: 250-427-3112 Email: staff@kimberleylibrary.net (include “Poetry contest” in Subject line) Thanks and Good Luck!

Kimberley Public Library Poetry Contest

Entry Form

This form can accompany up to three poems. Three entries maximum per person.

NAME:_________________________________________________________________________________

PHONE:_________________________________________________________________________________

ADDRESS:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (E-MAIL) _________________________________________

TITLE(S) OF POEM(S):

a. ________________________________________________________

b. ________________________________________________________

c. ________________________________________________________

I have read the contest rules and regulations for The Poetry Contest. I understand that I must be a Kimberley area resident to enter. By entering this contest, I give the Kimberley Public Library permission to publish my entry and my name in the event that I am declared a winner.

Signed,_____________________________(Date)_____________________________

Please circle age group : *10-13 years* *14-17 years* *18 & up*

(Under 14?) Parent signature – consenting to the release of the name, photo, and winning poetry of entrant:

___________________________________________________ Date_______________________________

Writing contest

Hi all, Karin sent me this email to forward to our group.

Hello writers,
Please pass on the following information to your writing groups. (email attached below)

Thanks,
Karin

Karin von Wittgenstein
Director, Kimberley Public Library

From: Kara Donadt [mailto:karadonadt@shaw.ca]
Sent: April 8, 2010 3:17 PM
To: Director@kimberleylibrary.net
Subject: Writing Contest

Dear Karin,

We are an Edmonton based publishing company who’s aim it is to give writers an opportunity to have their voices heard. We are currently running a writing contest which your local writer’s groups may be interested in. I would be grateful for your help in passing on this information.

Christmas Chaos Writing Contest

We invite you to share your favourite Christmas stories. For our upcoming anthology, Christmas Chaos, we are looking for your tales of “Christmas gone wrong.” Your stories can be humorous or heart-wrenching, light-hearted or ironic, but they must be well-written, and they must be true.

Your story may be recent or from the distant past. It might be an account of a holiday road trip or a Christmas dinner fiasco. It might be the story about a gift you didn’t expect to receive or the tale of your perennially tippling aunties’ antics.

Please visit: www.prairiedogpublishing.ca for Submission Guidelines and information on our company.

For your convenience, I have a PDF Poster that I would be happy to forward to you.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Kara Donadt
Prairie Dog Publishing
e. kara@prairiedogpublishing.ca

Aloha

Hello

Well I am off to Hawaii for 2 weeks. As exciting as that is I will miss hearing your wonderful writings on Tue. See you on the 27th.

Write On

Nola

Conference Reminder

Just another reminder about the upcoming Fernie Writers Conference...

www.ferniewriters.com

July 18-25 2010, Fernie, B.C.

Join the Fernie Writers' Conference this Summer with Governor General’s Award winner Robert Kroetsch and Governor General’s Award Nominees Sid Marty and W.H. New. Fernie's intimate yet spectacular setting creates a stimulating, collegial environment to hone your writing and visit with established and emerging authors on a day to day basis. Visit our website to learn more and feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions.

Our core courses include:

·      Crafting Fiction with Peter Oliva

·      Fiction-Writing with Steven Heighton

·      Writing Compelling Non-Fiction with Sid Marty

·      Songwriting from Scratch with Mae Moore

·      Screenwriting Take One! with Geo Takach

·      Finding the Want, Defining Desire - Fiction with Betty Jane Hegerat

·      Youth Writing Workshop with Kim McCullough

·      Writing in Place - Poetry with Alison Calder

In addition to the core courses above, the 2010 Conference includes readings, discussions and events as well as a festival open to the public. The two-day festival will be held July 23^rd and 24^th at Island Lake Lodge, Fernie Alpine Resort and Historic Downtown Fernie.

Conference registration opens March 15^th 2010

Festival passes go on sale on April 1^st 2010.

Visit www.ferniewriters.com for more information.

Fernie Writers’ Conference
P.O. Box 2313 Fernie, B.C. V0B 1M0

info@ferniewriters.com

250-423-7461

 

Thank you for your interest.

 

Randal

 

Randal Macnair

Fernie Writers' Conference

P.O. Box 2313

Fernie, B.C. V0B 1M0

 

info@ferniewriters.com

www.ferniewriters.com

 

Testing!

Hi Everyone!

I'm just trying to get caught up on all the new happenings with Write On!  It's like leaving a child for a time; it's growing up without me.

See you all on the 13th.

Margaret