PRISM International and the Fiction Workshop

It has been a busy week. Not only has it been blowing and snowing to such extremes that the highways in my neck of the woods were closed on Wednesday and all schools were closed today, but my writing has been more structured and dedicated.

It has been a long haul but, with the deadline of Jan 31st acting as a fire under my ass, I was able to finish Small Town Secrets at long last. At only seventeen pages it's one of my shorter fiction pieces but the subject matter was difficult. The middle and beginning were subject to countless revisions but the last six pages are almost exactly as they flowed from the pen late Wednesday night. I typed out the last of it Thursday morning, printed the manuscript and mailed it off to PRISM International, the University of British Columbia's literary magazine for their annual short fiction contest. I just noticed that the deadline has extended so if you hurry, you can enter to. Entering is a no-lose proposition as the entry fee just so happens to be the cost of an annual subscription to their excellent magazine.

I've mentioned a few times the Fiction Writer's Workshop presented by the Elora Centre for the Arts hosted by Michael Hale. The first get together was last night. In my last post I voiced my fears regarding writer's workshops and such and I'm glad to report there was nary a whiff of black nor angst in the room. There are four of us plus the host which makes for a cozy, intimate group.

The workshop consisted of discussions about the craft of writing, the business of writing and what each of us wanted to get out of the workshop. We also did some spontaneous exercises and I've included one of them over at my Fiction Notebook. You can go straight to the Alphabet Exercise by following this link. After each workshop I pick something to add on the Elora Centre for the Arts Fiction Workshop page.

I'm finding the workshop very helpful. Writing is such a solitary thing and egos are so easily bruised that it's refreshing to find a handful of folks who are willing to take the risk and connect and share. I came away feeling refreshed and certain that this workshop will help me build the schedule I need for sustained daily writing.


With ambitious plans for 2008, a sustained daily writing schedule is just what I need.

Happy Birthday to me...

So here I am on my 42^nd trip around the sun.

As I (and everyone else, for that matter) travel along at 107,000 kph or 67,000 mph (thanks for the math, NASA) along a lazy elliptical path, I am left to reflect on my previous 41 trips, what I’ll be doing this time around and to wonder just how many more circumnavigations this body has left in it.

Looking back on my previous 41 trips I must say that I’ve run the gamut of what can happen to a person in a lifetime. I’ve had loss and love, happiness and hardship. I’ve feasted and been hungry. I’ve travelled afar and been happy close to home. I’ve been brave and so frightened that looking back on it I’m amazed I’m still around. I’ve been disappointed and wonderfully surprised. I’ve identified a body for the police. I’ve been unintentionally on fire twice (stop, drop and roll really works!!!). And through it all, when I look around at the world, I’ve had a really, really great life.

Trip number 42 promises to be the best yet. At my job, things appear to be coming together, but even if they don’t there are plenty of other ways to make money. More importantly, I have figured out a way to build writing into each and every day. I’m going to need to because I have a lot of projects that need to be finished and other great ideas that need to get onto paper. In six days the first of my writing workshops takes place and I am eager to see what it’ll be like.

I have to be honest here…I have avoided writing workshops like the plague. It all stems from University – probably Trip 20 or so – when I was convinced to attend a fiction and poetry club meeting at McMaster University. It wasn’t an official club or society or anything like that – it was a group of English students who wanted to share their thoughts and ideas, their poetry and prose… Well, I went with all the hopes in the world and I really wanted it to be something I could sink my teeth into but as I walked through the door to the sequestered classroom in Hamilton Hall I feared the worse. The room was devoid of colour. There was a sea of black and, had this been twenty years earlier there would have been, I am sure, a beret or two. In my jeans and probably green t-shirt (always liked green – always will) I joined the circle.

There were quick introductions – this was the inaugural meeting – and then there was a discussion about what each person liked to write. There was a gasp from someone when I admitted that I kinda, sorta liked to write fantasy and science-fiction. Others there liked to write about suffering and the human condition and social justice and the futility of life. “Wow,” I remember thinking, “You could cut the angst in here with a rusty, bitter carving knife, handle meticulously wrapped in a clammy skin of black electrical tape.”

To be fair this was not a writing workshop but a loose association of like minded folks whose outlook appeared far more pessimistic than mine. I heard that they met every week throughout the year and the person I went with enjoyed every meeting, but it just wasn’t for me.

The differences with this workshop is that it is being run by a published author who has navigated the pitfalls of the publishing industry with the result of a paper and ink book. I’m looking forward to learning what I can and moving ahead with my own writing.

Oh yes, Trip 42 is promising, indeed.

3 Day Novel Contest Results

I just received an e-mail from the good folks from the 3 Day Novel Contest and it's sad news for our friend, Mr. Beynon. Although Patriot was a great effort and a very good story, it didn't catch the eye of the judges.

Last year, when The Platinum Ticket failed to be short listed I was admittedly crestfallen. I was very pleased with The Platinum Ticket and could not believe that it had been overlooked. I went through a lot of negative self-talk (as the therapists like to call it) and questioned whether it was just a big waste of time and effort. I thought I couldn't write - that nobody would ever be interested in what I had to say. I was a useless hack. I was frustrated and angry and foul.

Today? Well, I'm disappointed. I had hoped that Patriot would resonate with the judges at least enough to earn a spot on the short list but I have come to realize that you can't second guess these things. Everything hinges on the first reading. If the initial judge likes what you've done, your effort will graduate to another reader, but if you happen to write sci-fi and the initial reader likes- let's say- mysteries and can't stand sci-fi - well, your fate is sealed. This year my main character was a deposed Paraguayan dictator who had ordered the deaths of 62,000 people. If you can't see past that and get in touch with his warm and cuddly side, then you're unlikely to see Patriot for the feel good story it is...

What's next? Easy - now that the judging is done, Patriot can easily be fleshed out to novel length. I also intend to finish fleshing out The Platinum Ticket in the next little while and with the meticulous pick through of Loremaster, there will be three novels looking for a home in 2008 - I just hope Canada Post doesn't plan to hike their postage rates.