Building a Writer’s Life

I've always wanted to be a writer, and of course, to be a writer there's only one thing you really have to do: write. That's what I tell my students, and it's true. But building a life as a writer is a different matter, and one thing I quickly learned is that it requires more than writing. It's taken me a lot of years to build a writer's life, but these days, I feel I might actually be there. What do I mean? Well, a writer's job is multi-faceted. I write. Every day. That's a given. But there are other, equally vital components... Marketing and Social MediaWriters promote themselves. They need an online presence. A blog. Website. Twitter. Facebook pages and groups. A Goodreads presence, [...]

2024-04-01T09:52:00-04:00November 12, 2019|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Writing Retreats, Young Writers!|
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Beat the Blank Page: Inspiration for Writers!

This post is most definitely for the writers among you! Have you ever sat down at your desk and tried to write – only to find you have no ideas at all? Here are 6 ways to get you started on a new piece of fiction: Choose a novel off your shelf – preferably one you haven’t read. Open randomly and let your eyes land on a portion of a sentence that sounds vague. Write from there. Examples:           Hearing a noise behind him, he turned and… It was a house they had never noticed before… Alternately, choose the first line of a story and write from it, or choose the last line of a story, and write towards it. (When you are done, change [...]

2019-04-30T20:59:36-04:00April 6, 2017|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Writing Retreats, Young Writers!|
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A Typical Day on our Writing Retreat

Early Morning… We wake to the smell of tropical vegetation and the screech of parrots. The world is glistening as we make our way through the trees and down to the poolside restaurant to greet the group. There are fresh fruit smoothies, slices of papaya, ice cream fruit, tortillas, rice, beans, pancakes, eggs and toast. The eggs are brought in by a local family and the crusty bread is made on site. The ‘ice cream fruit’ was picked just moments ago. After a group breakfast, we agree to meet on the outdoor veranda in half an hour for our morning writing workshop. Two of us spend that time climbing to the lookout tower where we gaze down on the tops of the rainforest as a [...]

2016-11-25T21:20:20-04:00November 25, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, The Finding Place|
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Join us on Retreat in Costa Rica

In February 2017 we will be holding our second annual writing trip to Costa Rica! As with last year, we welcome solo writers as well as writers with accompanying family members. We’re staying in a spectacular lodge in the rainforest, 10 minutes from La Fortuna. Mornings will consist of workshops for participants whose focus is on writing, while other group members relax around the pool, climb the viewing tower, or enjoy nature from one of the many hiking trails. In the afternoons, writers can take advantage of the serenity to work on independent writing projects, or join other group members on local sightseeing trips: hot springs, zip lining and more. This is a fully escorted tour: we meet your flight, and return you to the [...]

2016-10-17T18:44:44-04:00October 17, 2016|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place|
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It’s ‘Authors for Indies’ this weekend!

These days, emerging Canadian authors rely on thriving independent bookstores more than ever. Why? You may have noticed that it’s often difficult to find works by emerging Canadian writers in the big box stores. And though you’ll find them in online stores, they are often buried among the works of more established authors. So the support of independent bookstores, and the enthusiastic readers (and writers) who work there, can be essential to new Canadian authors as they establish a firm readership. This coming Saturday, 30 April, is Authors for Indies Day across Canada – a time for Canadian writers to give back, and a terrific opportunity for readers to meet their favourite authors, whoever they may be. If you want to learn more about Authors [...]

2016-04-29T13:09:27-04:00April 29, 2016|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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Costa Rica Writing Retreat

My first family/solo adult writing retreat to Costa Rica has now concluded – and what a wonderful week it was! Our group stayed at Finca Luna Nueva, a gorgeous bio-dynamic farm and lodge in the heart of the rain forest, where sloths lazed outside our windows and hummingbirds flitted past the pool. To kick start the week, I gave a reading – from The Finding Place, and from two new novels, one written (Beyond Chaos) and another in progress (The Hibernators). There followed six mornings of writing workshops – an hour long for the younger participants, and two hours for the adult writers. We explored surrealist writing prompts, looked at structure (and planned a novel!), discovered how fiction is inspired by life experience, tried out [...]

2016-02-01T19:37:52-04:00February 1, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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Five More Writing Prompts for the Holidays

Hoping for some writing time over the next few weeks? Here’s some more prompts to get you started… A gift is delivered incorrectly to your home. It’s an intriguing shape. What do you (or your characters) do? Choose your genre.. is the gift magical? Sinister? Suggestive of an imminent crime? Do you open it – or is this a human story about what happens as you seek the rightful owner? Write for ten minutes without stopping, beginning with the following prompt: I packed a suitcase, the scent of winter in the air. Attempt a picture book for the holiday season. Your main character is a child who has never seen snow. Write about one of the first holiday seasons you can remember. How old were [...]

2015-12-17T18:03:15-04:00December 17, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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Writing Prompts for the Holidays!

Have some free time on your hands in the next few weeks, and want to get creative? Here are five prompts that might just help! 1. Write about a character alone and away from family for the first time ever during the holidays. Are they are alone by choice, or out of necessity? Where are they? What has happened? How do they spend their day? If you have time to write for a longer period of time, ensure your character undergoes some form of transformation in the course of your writing. Their perspective and emotional state is quite different, by the end. 2. Ever had the feeling, during a snow storm, that the snow is never, ever going to stop? Write about a time when [...]

2015-12-10T19:17:54-04:00December 10, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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Five Editing Tips for Young Writers

So you love to write, you’ve finished your first draft of a short story (or maybe something longer) – but how do you make your work as good as it can be? A circle of writing friends to nurture and critique your work is fairly important, because we all reach a point where we think our work is as good as it can be, and we can’t see potential weaknesses ay more. But there are a few things you can do for yourself as you start to edit your first draft: The ‘was’ edit! Do a search for the word ‘was’ and replace, where possible, with more direct and active verbs. Consider the difference between: “The girl was standing by the door, waiting for him [...]

2015-11-11T19:39:42-04:00November 11, 2015|On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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Why I Love to Write for Children

When my daughter was about six or so, we were walking in a forest. It was mid morning. She paused, looked up through the trees and saw the faint outline of a moon in the sky. She turned to me, wary and suspicious. “That should not be there,” she said. I was reminded of a similar feeling I had had at about the same age. I was walking home from school on my own, because that was still something six year olds could do, back then. Cutting across a park, I saw what was probably a carpet of mist and dew caused by English fog. I was certain, however, that it was an endless network of spider-like webs, suffocating the world. I ran home as [...]

2015-11-04T16:28:25-04:00November 4, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|
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