Blog - October 2011

The risks and rewards of Life Writing

31 October, 2011

What are the risks of writing non-fiction about real people, real family heartbreaks, real relationship challenges? Does writing about life’s difficulties produce any catharsis and relief? Why would a writer want to revisit tragedies in his or her past?

LifeWriting2.jpgThose were just a few of the questions addressed last week by authors Barbara Stewart, Lynne Van Luven and Jane Johnston. In an engaging evening panel discussion at Cadboro Bay Book Co., the three shared their experiences and insights as writers and, in Van Luven’s case, as an editor of many others’ memoirs.
 
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What E-Books mean to writers

18 October, 2011

E-books presentation.pngIn September, I gave a presentation to the Wired Words conference (Federation of BC Writers). My presentation was on my LinkedIn profile but difficult to find, so here is a direct link to it on SlideShare.

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Homes, writing and the sense of self

5 October, 2011

‘You can’t go home again,’ Thomas Wolfe wrote in his famous 1940 novel that carried the phrase as its title. But for writers the greater truth may be that you can never leave home. Or that home never leaves you.

I recently had the pleasure of co-leading a “Writing Home” workshop for the Writers Guild of Alberta with my colleague Judith Williams, an international award-winning author of non-fiction for young readers.
photo.jpgIt was fun to pull some highly influential books from my shelves and revisit writers’ perspectives on writing about place. I quickly accumulated quite a stack of sources – more than I could even touch on in the afternoon workshop.
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