Canadian Author's Association - West Coast - April 10,2013

The board meeting took place at the White Spot where the halibut and fries are truly scrumptuous. Much serious business was transacted thanks to the leadership of our president, Margot Bates.
Grant Brandson, our stalwart secretary, scribbled notes surreptitiously on all the writers events, motions, countermotions, secondings, all in favours, bon mots, grandstanding, giggling and even the occasional burp.
Bernice Lever and Jean Kay waxed poetical about the National Poetry Writing Month and NaPoWriMO (www.napowrimo.net)
I shared that I'd heard a group of poets in Victoria had done a charity event, "Poetry in the Nude". After a brief discussion with no board volunteers forthcoming, the meeting mooved on to discuss upcoming Writer's survey and the Can Write festival.

At the meeting proper, Margot Bates introduced Bernice Lever, the evening's Stand and Deliver Opening Act. Bernice, our writer in residence, has many books of poetry to her credit as well as a book on writing and grammar. An editor and writer as well as a poet she is a great promoter of 'writers helping writers', the Canadian Author's Association mottol Between readings she shared tidbits of inspiration. One poem she read had won a prize and been published but was her least favoured contribution. "So don't be your own worst judge," she said, "You can't know what people will really like till you try."
Her sensual poem of love brought a loud round of ovation.

Margot Bates then introduced our main speaker, Susan Juby, (www.susanjuby,.com) author of 8 highly acclaimed and successful novels with a 9th just completed.
I was so happy to be here as some years before when her best selling teen teen novel, Alice I Think, was just being bought for a tv series, I took Susan's creative writing course at UBC. Not only is she a captivating writer, her books impossible to put down, she's a truly amazing teacher. The audience tonight got a taste of her whacky sense of humor and exuberance for all aspects of writing. I loved the image she painted of the promotional chicken purses she'd distributed across the country when she published The Woefield Poultry Collective, a comedy about aBrooklyn woman inheriting a derelict Vancouver Island farm.
Tonight I bought her book Nice Recovery with stories about young people recovering from addiction, delighted to have a resource to share with parents in my practice struggling with their adolescent children. When Susan spoke about her speaking engagements with young people, where she encounters creative talents thinking that they need to live some skewed version of the 'artist's lifestyle' she shared her pleasure in telling them that that's more a "detour" than any path to success.
Her science fiction novel, Bright's Light has the most outlandish picture of her with a space age hair do. She definitely has a thing for alien fashion and exotic hair stylists as she shared, to her mother's horror, that the tales she told of Alice in Smithers and Prince George Northern British Columbia were based on fact.
Her words fairly dance on the page as her speech sings in person. Her presentation was over all too soon.
After long heartfelt applause, the meeting came to a close. The after meeting chatting then began.










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