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Newsletter: 13/5/21: Conference, Figments and Contests, This Week
Hi everyone.
I hope you had a great Victoria Day long weekend. We got a lot of gardening done in our yard. This is a week of transitions and potential.
(Last) Meeting June 5
Let me start by reminding you that our last meeting this year is in two weeks, on June 5. This is a Bring Your Own Snack event, if you feel like eating. A kitchen is available. This meeting is also the launch of Summer and all the possible stories and poems that seek us out in this Season.
Moving into Summer
Some of us are graduating from high school. Congratulations. I wish you all luck, prosperity, energy and happiness in your journeys after graduation and commencement. Remember to keep writing; it can be an oasis when life gets too crowded.
Spring Send-off: Writing Conference May 24-26
Before our last meeting on June 5, there is the Words in 3 Dimensions writing, editing and publishing conference starting this Friday (in three days). I have already suggested you check out the conference’s program page, but I would like to point out a few features to pique your interests.
Blue Pencil Cafe — meet one-on-one with an established author or editor to ask those burning questions you’ve always had about improving your writing. This is a great way to network with the pros and get advice on writing and editing.
Pitch Camp — pitch your writing idea one-on-one to a publisher, agent or editor; get valuable advice, connections, and experience. Your idea may just catch fire as they run with it.
Chat Rooms — three informal round tables with either an editor (Christi Howes), publisher (Nancy Flight) or editor-writer-humourist (Chuck Sambuchino), where you can ask questions about the vagaries of writing; editing; writing book queries; getting noticed by, and working with, agents and publishers; magazine writing; the children’s book market; publishing and more.
Writer’s Circus — here you will find several writing triggers of various shapes, sizes, stripes and colours performed by writers, novice or otherwise, via live wire/open mic acts of daring and courage, wit and skill. Poetic streets will cross prosaic streets, memoir with satire, opinion with humour. You are welcome to travel from writing trigger (tent) to writing trigger (tent); performers perform their works and you learn about performance styles. You can also take your piece with you for further contemplation and/or consider performing it at a future date. (The description of this event is such that I can’t tell whether you are an audience member or performer.)
Alberta Book Awards Gala and Dinner — the Alberta Book Awards Gala honours the winners of the Alberta Literary Awards, which recognize excellence in writing by Alberta authors; Alberta Book Publishing Awards, which celebrate excellence in book publishing in Alberta; and Alberta Readers Choice Award, awarded for best fiction or narrative non-fiction book written by an Alberta author. Keynote and dinner included.
Boot Camp and Workshops — from grant writing (boot camp) to contemporary children’s picture books to structural editing to being agent-wise to personal branding.
Presentations and Keynotes — conference schedule
Marketplace and Silent Auction — shop ‘til you drop, as you stock your writerly toolbox with information, advice, memberships, books, and more, from publishers, writing organizations, support agencies, authors, editors, and agents. The silent auction features book collections to trips into Alberta’s past to soothing spas, and so much more.
That’s all wrapped up under one roof this weekend, from May 24-26.
Competitions
There are new competitions listed on our Write Group Wiki competitions page.
And Finally: Prompts
First, Figment has more offerings for us, starting with an intriguing opening line and ending with an unusual photo prompt. The second and third prompts develop scene and character respectively. How does our perception of a place or experience change as we change? Does your character have an opportunity to make such a comparison, or experience a scene twice, with different perceptions? How would others react if your character stood-out, or went unseen, somehow? How would your character react? The fourth prompt mixes scene and character. How would you describe a common thing — character feature — in an uncommon way? How does that change the appeal of your character? Of course, all this can be written in prose or poem. Have fun.
Second, let’s end where this newsletter began, with a prompt that starts in a garden: The Hidden Room.
Enjoy the prompts.
And that is all I wrote. Have a great week, and keep writing,
Shawn
The Write Group 