Susan Calder

The pandemic is still at the top of most of our minds, but when it is finally over will writers want to put it behind them or explore it in their stories? I ask this question on today’s BWL Author blog.

In my BWL author blog post for the new year, I discuss how how I get my ideas for my stories.

I hope your Christmas celebrations were happy this year, despite the difficulties. Calgary was fortunate with its weather. A few days before Christmas, we got a huge dump of snow, which made for a pretty holiday season. The weather turned relatively mild after that. High temperatures slightly above freezing and abundant sunshine continue into January. [...]

I write this minutes after sunrise in Calgary, at 8:37 am, this shortest day of 2020. My clutter clearing project continues (see my recent blog post). Yesterday, in a box of old papers, I stumbled upon an article from Writer’s Digest magazine, ‘How to know when workshop criticism is useful or destructive, irrelevant or priceless.”  [...]

Today I write about one of my winter COVID-19 projects on the BWL Author blog.

Monday evening, I watched the live streamed Scotiabank Giller Prize show. Today, on the BWL Author Blog, I ask the question, Do Short Stories Sell? I’ve published ten short stories in the past twenty years. Payment ranged from copies of the magazine to $1,000 to perks like broadcast on CBC radio and having my story turned [...]

Happy Thanksgiving. October 12th is also my day for the BWL Author’s blog. Today I write about attending my first online writers’ festival, which was the first online version of When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers.

I learned today about a new poetry form – Haiflu – attributed to poet Liv Torc, who coined the term for National Poetry Day. It means a haiku written in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. It seems my Lougheed contest winning haiku is haiflu. The Lougheed House has now posted my recording of the haiku [...]

Today, on the Books We Love Author Blog I write about my poetry contest win in the 2020 Lougheed House Haiku Contest.

On Youtube, I stumbled upon this excerpt from the Print(ed) Word Documentary, presented at the Calgary Central Library in January 2020. Sylvia Arthur and I discuss our art book collaboration for my short story, “When a Warm Wind Blows Off the Mountains.” The art book is on permanent display in an alcove off the central library’s [...]