The Margaret Atwood event yesterday (Feb 14) at the University of Calgary was like a rock show. I lined up an hour before starting time and got seats three quarters of the way back in the hall. Once all 850 seats were full, they closed the doors on the later arrivals. Stay tuned for a blog post with details.
I’ve now registered for the When Words Collide writing conference, the best bargain in town for Calgary writers. For $50 (advance registration until April 1) you get 2 1/2 days of hourly panels, readings, presentations, workshops, kaffe klatches with guest authors and editors, pitch sessions and blue pencil cafes – about eight choices per hour – plus evening parties hosted by local writing groups. The Saturday banquet is a reasonable additional $50 and you can sign up for master classes given by the guest authors during the days before the conference.
This will be the third annual When Words Collide conference in Calgary. I attended the first one and was so impressed with the energy and quality of the conference that I returned the next year – and will be there again August 9-11, 2013.
The conference is multi-genre, although Calgary’s science fiction and fantasy writers are the driving force behind it and their influence permeates everything. I find this a positive, perhaps because it’s a change from my usual writing events with their literary or mystery focus. Even though I don’t write science fiction or fantasy, every conference hour offered something relevant to my writing interests. I usually had a hard time choosing what to attend and was reluctant to take breaks for lunch or walks.
One thing I like about the conference is its mix of top heavy and democracy. They bring in some impressive guests, like Robert J. Sawyer, Canada’s top science fiction writer, who was there the first two years. Yet, everyone is welcome to sit on a panel. You just tell them you want to do it, the organizers e-mail their list of suggested panel topics, you pick the ones you can talk about and they’ll assign you one, two, three. You can also give a reading or share your expertise through a presentation or workshop. You don’t have to register for the conference to participate this way, although you can’t attend other conference events without paying your $50. This seems fair, when you consider all the work the organizers do for no compensation.
A change this year is a move to a new venue: The Carriage House Inn on MacLeod Trail South. This is great for me, since it’s much closer to my home than the previous venue in the northwest. With a shorter distance to drive, and maybe a supper break at home, I hope to have some energy left this year for the evening parties.
Today and tomorrow I’ll be attending two free events at the Calgary Public Library.
Tonight, Feb 1, my cousin-in-law, Diane Guichon, will be reading her poems at the Fish Creek Library as part of a poetry and photographs of Alberta presentation – with free wine and cheese. Her fellow readers are Calgary poets Bob Stallworthy and Micheline Maylor. If you want to go, check the library website to see if any places are remaining. Last time they had to turn people away. Your Calgary Public Library card is your ticket to enter.
Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb 2, is the free writers weekend in the John Dutton theatre at the Central Library. Presentations and panels run from morning through the afternoon on the topics of Writing Memoir and Biography, Engaging an Audience Through Online Writing, Ask the Editor, Children’s/YA Writing and Book Cover Design. A panel of writers will also discuss and answer questions about the writing process in the current publishing environment. Calgary writing groups for various genres will be hosting information tables. I’ll be organizing and helping to staff a table for the Calgary Crime Writers. Stop by and say “hi.” For more information, visit http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/services/programs-events/register-for-programs Keywords – writers weekend
I’m glad for this warm spell of weather so I can comfortably transit and walk to these events.
Starting Tuesday, Jan 22, I’ll be teaching a 10 week novel course to writers beginning their novel projects. I look forward to meeting the 10 people in the courses and hearing about their work. The course is full, but if you’re interested, a new session of A Novel Idea, taught by Anne Metikosh, will be offered this spring at the Alexandra Writers Centre.
The first weekend of February I’ll be taking advantage of a host of free programs at the Calgary Public Library.
Friday evening, Feb 1, my cousin-in-law, Diane Guichon, will be reading her poems at the Fish Creek Library as part of a poetry and photographs of Alberta presentation – with free wine and cheese. I’m told the last time Fish Creek Library held this event they had to turn away people at the door. Who knew poetry was such a draw? If you have a Calgary Public Library card, you might want to secure your spot by registering on the library website.
Saturday, Feb 2, is the free writers weekend in the John Dutton theatre at the Central Library. Presentations and panels run from morning to afternoon on the topics of Writing Memoir and Biography, Engaging an Audience Through Online Writing, Ask the Editor, Children’s/YA Writing and Book Cover Design. A panel of writers will also discuss and answer questions about the writing process in the current publishing environment. You can register at http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/services/programs-events/register-for-programs Keywords – writers weekend
Hope to see you there!
The guests have departed, the decorations put away. Time to implement those pesky New Year’s Resolutions. Mine are the standard ones: lose weight, get fit and work on that novel. These resolutions aren’t so much new as a return to my life as it was before my slide into holiday mode, about a month ago.
Of the three resolutions, getting cracking on the writing appeals to me most. My January project is to return to a novel-in-progress that has gone through two drafts. This is less daunting than facing a blank page, although due to the time lapse between the second and third drafts I’ll be making a lot of changes. In a perfect world, I’ll also find time for a couple of short-stories-in-progress, but past experience tells me that when I’m working on a novel it consumes all my writing time.
Getting fit is my next favourite task. Well, fit compared to my more athletic friends is too much to hope for – I aim for reasonably fit. This fall, I attended a drop-in Zumba class roughly twice a week at the local fitness centre and found that I enjoyed it. I like the music and dance, the cardio builds up more sweat than machines or low impact aerobics, and the Salsa rhythms leave me feeling like I’ve had a brief trip to Mexico. And who knew my class was so trendy? One of our regular dance tunes was the Gagnam Style song featured in last year’s most watched Youtube video ever, with many of our moves similar to the Gagnam ones. Zumba resumed last week. I’ll also be doing a regular fitness class one or two other days a week, outdoor walks and cross country skiing on the golf course.
Losing the weight I gained over the holidays is my least fun resolution since it involves less enjoyable eating. Farewell yummy cookies, nuts and fudge. Hello salad. A couple of people have told me they were advised by nutritionists to increase their protein intake to lose weight. This seems to be a popular philosophy these days, as my previous exercise class instructors promoted high protien as well. I half-heartedly tried their advice a few years ago and increasing protein didn’t do anything for me. What worked, in the end, was cutting back on high calorie foods like meat, potatoes, rice and desserts, maintaining my already plentiful amounts of vegetables, and gorging on salad. I love salad, but not a plate full every supper. Salad also tends to require a lot of preparation and Calgary’s wilted winter lettuce can be uninspiring. Still, it’s the only thing I’ve ever tried that works – along with giving up writing for six months.
Yes, I’m afraid, that writing works against losing weight, since some of those sedentary hours at the computer could be spent on calorie-burning activities. We all chose our priorities.
Another small weight loss thing I do, which contradicts common advice, is weigh myself almost daily. During non-holiday times, I do this most mornings, before eating and wearing roughly the same amount of clothes. I don’t obsess about normal fluctuation, but when I find the pounds are higher than they’ve been, I try to cut back a little on eating that day. I think this prevents the weight from creeping up without my noticing.
And, now back to my favourite resolution- writing. I’m looking forward to revising that novel on the new large screen monitor I received for Christmas.
Happy New Year to all. If one of your resolutions is to take a writing course, I highly recommend the Alexandra Writers Centre Society.
I’ve been going there for the past fifteen years, first as a student and volunteer and later as an instructor.
The Centre offers a host of varied courses at a reasonable cost. Class sizes range from four to nine students. It’s a low pressure atmosphere where you learn a lot. This winter I will be teaching a 10 week course for beginning novelists called A Novel Idea and a weekend intensive on revising your manuscript called Getting the Words Right. As always, I look forward to meeting new writers and reading their work.
I hope to see some of you at the Alexandra Writers Centre. Best wishes for a fruitful year of writing.
Happy Holidays everyone. I’m on a three or four week break from writing. My first guests – one son and two cats – arrived Sunday night. More visitors to follow this weekend. I vow to plunge back into writing in early January. If our cold spell here in Calgary continues I’ll be glad to stay inside and write. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2013. 
Here’s a feel-good blogging story for the Holidays.
In August, I wrote a blog post about Charlotte Bronte’s umbrella owned by my aunt in New Brunswick. Aunt Edith has been trying for years to get the umbrella to the Bronte museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK. Her efforts have been stalled due to the umbrella handle being constructed of ivory, a banned substance.
A few days after the post, I was surprised to receive an e-mail from Julie Akhurst on behalf of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. My post had appeared in their Google Alert for anything remotely connected to the Brontes. Julie said the staff had read my account with fascination and remembered the case clearly. The person who was dealing with it at their end left shortly afterwards and the correspondence lapsed. They were now keen to revive it. Could I put them in contact with my aunt?
I e-mailed my aunt, who got in touch with Julie. The two are now occupied in sending correspondence and forms back and forth and the museum is dealing with government departments. It turns out that my aunt had the umbrella examined by a local expert, who determined the handle substance was bone, not ivory. This kind of bone is not a banned or restricted animal substance, which means that the parasol can be sent without a CITES license. The umbrella will, as Aunt Edith puts it, go home where it belongs.
The museum’s interest got me curious about exactly how my aunt came into possesson of the umbrella, which, it seems, is more accurately a parasol.
Here’s Aunt Edith’s explanation:
Julie Akhurst says she’ll keep me posted on the museum’s progress. She thanked me for my helpful post and added that, without it, the parasol would have been forgotten.
I expect the parasol would have made it to the museum eventually, but I’m glad to be part of the story.
Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope that you, like Charlotte Bronte’s parasol, make it home, if not literally, then in your heart.