Open Forum

Good morning everyone and Happy Friday!

This is where I would really like to be marooned today. And now I understand why I have been watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies over and over and over again.

Maybe I'm just torturing myself, but it gives me hope. And hope is good. It's -20 degrees Celsius here, I mean, I've gotta throw myself a bone.

So, there it is for all to see. I'm lying on the beach completely alone with the sound of the waves gently lapping at my feet. I have a big soft towel, a hammock, a cooler of my favourite food and beverage (in this case Heineken) and my journal next to me. I turn when I feel sufficiently warmed on one side, just like a cat taking a luxurious nap. Ahhh...it's a pirate's life for me!

The Journey

Good morning to you all!

Today's journey day. I just took a journey (literally) to my favourite country-breakfast spot in Hudson. The sunny, horse-tail sky inspired me to leave my home office and journey into the country. It was absolutely worth it.

The Cafe Campagne is a picturesque stone house that is now a breakfast and lunch spot. It's open from 7am to 3pm (though there are some exceptions, it can be open for parties at other times, for example) and it is the ideal place to settle in, drink tea and eat a hearty homemade breakfast. I love going out for breakfast and I have spent many a morning there writing and reading.

I hadn't been there for over a year and the waitress still remembered my usual order and the owner welcomed me as if I'd only been away for a month or so. You've gotta love the West Island. Once they accept you as one of them they never forget you. A very welcoming community!

The journey wasn't only physical however. Driving into open spaces frees the mind as well. It just feels as if there's more air, more space and more freedom somehow. I guess the rat race seems far, far away when you are surrounded by fields and water. ( I always drive back along the lake road.)

It is possibilities that I feel when I am out in the country. The pace of the country always reminds me that creating takes time. You can't make things 'grow' any faster than they will.

The lake is still frozen over and the little fishing houses sit on it as houses of fortune.

Soon the little houses will be towed away and stored for another summer leaving room for the cranes and geese and ducks that will be returning from the south.

My pace always slows when I come back from Hudson.

Being in Hudson and the surrounding countryside helps me focus, not on the results, but on the process.

Writing is all about process. Process is a journey in and of itself. And it gets you where you eventually want to go. So, I am going to focus more on the process and less on the result. Why?

Because I think the process will always take you to the result on an unconscious level. I think being one with the process makes the result uniquely you every time. I think about the process the way I think about life.

I don't have a plan about where I am going to be in my life, but I do have a plan for where I am.

I am here, in the now. Tomorrow will come and yesterday is gone, but now is real. If you experience the process in the now then the result will unfold.

Writers' Union of Canada Workshop

Good morning one and all.

I am going to skip 'The Mechanics' today because I want to talk about my experience at the writers' workshop yesterday.

The Writers' Union of Canada is hosting workshops in most of the major Canadian cities over the next two weeks.

The workshop yesterday was one of the most valuable seminars I have ever been to (and also one of the most affordable). Two very well-established writers spoke, Genni Gunn and Wayne Grady, and the executive director of the union, Deborah Windsor, spoke as well.

The whole workshop was very well organized. It was never boring and the information being shared was current and valuable.

There were two things that made this workshop different in my mind: one writer was non-fiction-based and the other fiction-based and it was extremely inspiring because of the enthusiasm the speakers and executive director brought to the discussions.

I write fiction and poetry and I know more about those genres and the standard requirements for submitting work and so on. I really didn't know much about writing non-fiction novels, however, and realized from yesterday's discussion that I'd really like to send off some proposals.

We were all free to ask questions, the site was very comfortable and well-organized (and that really does make a difference) and at the end of the day we had a round of informal chat sessions with each presenter, which made the presenters seem very real and accessible. In other words, just like the rest of us!

That's important when you are a writer because writing is so solitary. It's easy to forget that other writers have gone through exactly what you have and made it.

That is why I love these kinds of venues, they inspire me so much!

I always get little gems of ideas from other writers, things I may not have thought of or tried or even knew existed. And being surrounded by other writers helps me feel connected to another whole.

As Deborah Windsor reminded us yesterday, we, as writers, are the substance behind the publishing industry and we should never forget that! Without us the newspapers, book and poetry publishers, literary journals, networks and film makers would be out of business.

I thank the Writers' Union of Canada for organizing such a great event.

I will see you all tomorrow. Enjoy your writing!

Writers' Union of Canada Workshop

Hi all. I was at a workshop all day--it was amazing--I will see you all tomorrow for The Mechanics.

Have a great evening!

The Voice

Good morning to you all. Welcome to The Voice!

My voice has been developing quite rapidly recently. I don't know why there are periods in our writing careers where we feel stuck in a rut and other periods where we can feel change flowing from our finger tips.

I guess we couldn't possible handle rapid changes constantly. It would throw off our equilibrium too much.

The evolution of the writer's voice is important. As I have said before if you don't learn more about your world and your feelings in that world your work just won't evolve. Fair enough.

So I guess I'm evolving.

I know myself well enough to realize that I have sudden bursts of insight before periods of relative calm. I try to let the new voice emerge and nurture it until I know it better. I have to sit next to the new voice, listen to it, talk with it and just be.

It is a good time for me to learn new information from other writers. It is a time where I am open to new input and points of view.

I like that.

Soon enough I will understand what this new voice wants me to say and I will buckle down and let it out in earnest. Stories, poems, queries, all sorts of creative projects will emerge from this knowing.

I always welcome that (even if it makes me feel a little vulnerable at first).

I have chosen to be kind with myself for the next couple of months and see where this new voice takes me. It is changing in rhythm to other awakenings in my life and so there are lots of elements coming together.

I don't think this world will ever fail to amaze me.

As Alexander Woolcott says, "There's no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."