I’m pretty excited about attending this conference again this year! Not only does it mean a roadtrip to Kamloops, but I also get to meet some fantastic authors both of the professional and aspiring kind.
Category Archives: literary festivals
Radio Interview, Culture Days, and a Free Book!
At noon today I’m doing a reading on a pop-up radio station called Leave Your Mark FM outside the Richmond Cultural Centre. In honour of the event, you can get the Kindle version of Rise of the One-Eyed King FREE.
For more information on the pop up radio station, follow this link!
Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival
On Saturday, August 25th, I participated in Pandora Collective’s Summer Dream Literary Arts Festival. I was a featured author in the children’s author tent, where I gave a 30-minute talk about what inspires me as a writer.
Later that day, I gave a one-hour talk on publishing – focusing on the difference between getting paid to publish and paying someone else to publish you. There’s lots of misinformation out there about publishing, and if you are thinking about self-publishing you may want to take a workshop first.
By the end of the workshop, the participants were feeling much better about their publishing future. The general consensus was that they wanted someone to pay them to write, even if it means publishing their work will take much longer.
Summer Dreamin’
Come out and meet your local authors at one of Vancouver’s most lively literary arts festivals! CWILL BC will have a table promoting authors in your community.
As well, kc dyer and James McCann will be reading from the children’s tent from 4:30-5:30 p.m., and will also be celebrating* their new books Ms. Zephyr’s Notebook and Pyre!
The Summer Dream Literary Arts Festival is an annual, engaging, outdoor festival established to raise public awareness regarding the on-going literary events, programs and resources available in the community. This year the festival will be located in beautiful Stanley Park at Lumberman’s Arch on Saturday July 21st from 12:00 to 7:30pm.
This literary celebration will be comprised of performances by twenty literary groups, including multi-cultural readings in various languages, a Poetry Slam and a Story Slam competition to be judged by attendees.
Entertainment will also include dancers and two local bands. There will be a children’s area with puppet shows, music, storytellers, face painting and a craft table.
Throughout the day Pandora’s Collective will offer workshops, a panel discussion, a creativity table for crafts and writing, a poetry contest, open mic readings and there will be information tables showcasing community groups and resources such as the Vancouver Public Library and
The Federation of BC Writers.
Vancouver Poet Laureate, George McWhirter, will do the opening reading at the Festival. For more information, see here:
http://www.pandorascollective.com/sdrfestival.html
*due to park regulations, books cannot be sold at the festival. If you’d like a signed copy, simply pick up your copy ahead of time from your favourite bookstore and bring it with you!
Spring Book Hatching 2007!
The Spring Book Hatching was a resounding success! With anywhere from 300-500 people (depending on who you ask), we kept a packed house of revolving (meaning not the same all day) people who came out to meet their local authors.
A big thanks goes out to the Spring Book Hatching planning committee, namely kc dyer, Diane Haynes, Melonie Jackson, Jaquie Pearce and Lee Edward Fodi. I also feel the need to thank Pam Withers for suggesting this idea to me during her 2005/2006 Presidential term over CWILL.
For those of you who couldn’t make it, here are some photos.
A Great Review
What one student had to say…
In school, we are told to suppress our creativity. We have to write generic essays, follow one formula for math and learn certain words in French class. Last spring, I got the wonderful opportunity to go to a writers conference. Each student at the conference got to go to two workshops, one of them being James McCann’s. The workshop was filled with excitement, because all of that suppressed creativity was being released. His workshop helped thirty potential writers find another way to write.
After the workshop I sent him my story that I had been working on for quite some time, Alone in the Dark. The next day, he sent me a list of suggestions that I could use to make my story better, as well as a list of places to get my story published. Long story short, my story got published in Wet Ink and Potluck Magazine. Without James’ help my story would have not been published, let alone I would not have known where to go to get it published.
-Sarah, a student from
the Surrey Young Author’s
Conference 2006
Nearly Forgot About Book Expo & SBH
For those of you attending Book Expo in Toronto this weekend, or the Spring Book Hatching here in Vancouver, this is a poster that you can pick up.
The poster was designed by Andrea Armstrong, a very talented graphic designer. The character was drawn by Jen Moore, who has done artwork for TV (such as the Masters of Horror TV show where the book RANCOUR appeared as a prop!).
