I attended the Ottawa Independent Writers (OIW) October meeting, where author Nichole McGill made a presentation regarding writing successful books. I was advised by my mentor, Mrs. W., to touch base with a writer’s group if I could and I was lucky to find this one. They have monthly meetings covering different topics. I […]
Tag Archives: Writing
Celebrities as “authors”
For those that haven’t heard, Hilary Duff is currently promoting the second novel in her series about the paranormal and the afterlife – Devoted. The first novel, Elixir, became a New York Times bestseller. I haven’t read either novel – so I won’t speak to the actual books themselves. I just wanted to comment on the concept […]
Inspiration
Who inspires you to follow your dreams? For me, one person who does this is my former high school English teacher. She read the first half of my novel and encouraged me to keep going. This was important to me. Although writing the book was something I wanted to do, and I would […]
Dark subjects…
As part of my research for my novel, I’ve been doing some reading into a bit of a dark and somewhat misunderstood area – mental illness and young people. I’ve come across troubling material and also stories that are hopeful. All in all, I hope it will give me a more informed and balanced perspective […]
Canada Writes! – Short story competition now open!
Competition opens: September 1, noon EST. Deadline to submit: November 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET This prize is awarded once a year to the best original, unpublished, short story submitted to the competition. All Canadians can participate. The competition is blind. A jury composed of well-known and respected Canadian authors will select a 1st place […]
Thinking, thinking, thinking…
Today as I was riding the bus to work, I had a breakthrough as to where I would go with the second half of the novel. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be having a few celebratory drinks right now 😉 One of these would do the trick! 🙂
The writer’s audience…
“The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.” — E.B. White
Advice for a writer….
The best artistic advice, according to Rainer Maria Rilke, is to ignore artistic advice. In Letters to a Young Poet, he writes, “You ask whether your verses are good…. You compare them with other poems, and you are disturbed when certain editors reject your efforts. Now (since you have allowed me to advise you) I […]
Digital lit: How new ways to read mean new ways to write
KATE TAYLOR Globe and Mail Last updated Monday, Jul. 11, 2011 The Next Day is a graphic novel about people who have attempted suicide. Once it is posted online in September, you’ll be able to click your way through it according to your own preferences about how it should unfold. CityFish is a […]
Still working away…
…At the novel. At the end of April, I had completed half the story. However, I got to a point where I realized it would be prudent to do more research on the main topic I am writing about in order to ensure accuracy in the details of the story. I also got a surprise […]