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!

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.

Saturday, Nov 17, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Join me and fellow Calgary writer, Garry Ryan,  for an interactive workshop on making your characters come alive and about using E-Resources. Bring your questions and meet other writers. Everyone welcome. Workshop takes place at the Calgary Public Library, Central Branch,  616 Macleod Trail S.E.  You’ll get to see my first ever power point presentation. To register visit Calgary Public Library .

My friend and promotion mentor, Susan Toy, recently published her first novel Island in the Clouds, a murder mystery set on the island of Bequia, where Susan lives part-time. To promote her book, Susan developed a blog feature called WHO in the World is Reading Island in the Clouds ???

My day trip to Vulcan, AB, inspired my copycat version WHO Out of this World is Reading Deadly Fall ??? Look who started it off.

Saturday, I had a lovely time teaching the Mystery Writing workshop at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre. Now, I’m into organizing a couple of events for February and a series of ones in Toronto for May/June. Check out my Events page for details. I hope to see you at one or more of them.

As part of my pre-Christmas wrap-up, I’ve finally updated my photo gallery page in “Meet Susan.”  Check it out for photos of some of my events since May 2011.