Word on the Street and the Canadian Authors Association

This morning I attended St. James Anglican Church with Gilbert. It was too long since we’d seen our favourite people including Alice, Father Mathew, Karen,  Kevin, AJ and the kids.
After I picked up Laura for the opera, leaving Gilbert at her place, we had time for coffee at Starbucks where the bull of finance stands then took a quick tour of "Word on the Street".  This is one of Vancouver’s premiere writer’s events with everyone who is anyone there.  I’ve enjoyed previous years, listening to the readings and music.
Were it not for the opera I’d also be manning the Canadian Author’s Table alongside Bernice Lever and Margot Bates.    It was great just to see them.   They’re two of the most inspiring women and wonderful writers.   They’ve both got new books out . As usual they are ‘Writers helping writers’.  Bernice just finished editing my new book, Addiction and Psychiatry, now at the printers.  She’s also  been hard at work editing Al Cool’s latest. We would have liked to have stayed. Sometimes too many good things are happening all at once on the same day.  I loved the Vancouver Library venue with its  incredibly creative  architecture.  A favourite Vancouver place for me.

Canadian Authors Association - West Coast Branch - Annual Summer Dinner

The Canadian Authors Association - Writers Helping Writers- held their annual summer dinner at the Fire fighter’s Public House.  Great idea, Margot Bates!  Margot, president, arranged a tribute to the service of Bernice Lever.  Bernice Lever, writer in residence, was stepping down from her many other organizational positions in CAA.  Her knowledge and guidance has been so appreciated by each successive board member given her wealth of organizational knowledge, her wit and charm and her personal accomplishments as a poet, editor and writer.  Together we’d all contributed a comment on how much Bernice had helped each of us.  Jean Kay  provided orchids to accompany the booklet of praise presented by Robert Mackay.
Next, Children of Air India award winning author Renee Salikhar read from her book based on that tragic bombing of the Canadian flight in which more than 80 children died. After she spoke of the role of artists in history and tragedy. In her poem, the word ‘redacted’ sounds like the chorus of a Greek tragedy, accusing the terrorists and all who conspired through action or silence to kill these innocent children.
Later as writers we talked together of craft and subject, process and characterization.  But mostly we spoke of summer holidays, children and grandchildren, books being published, books being written.  Margaret told me of her latest family reunion, speaking of  generations and survivors.
I sat with Lilija and she, like Dennis, who joined us, have been have been joyfully experimenting with various forms of live and recorded musical back up to their poetry readings. . Lila’s autobiography is at the publishers and she promised she really had included the kangaroo.
Robert Mackay’s , latest novel, Terror on the Alert has just been released.   There were dozens there and I’d no chance to speak to all. Joyce had just returned from touring the art galleries of Europe.  It was great to see Russ who does so much for the CAA website. As he lives in Victoria we rarely see him..
I really enjoyed the group.  Writers, not surprisingly are fine raconteurs.  In person, they’re interesting, not terribly judgemental, because if anything they’re ‘collecting’ material for their books.  If they don’t particularly like you, you might end up a corpse in a detective novel.If you’re adorable you might well become a pet rabbit in a children’s fairytale.  In person, though,  they really do appreciate and celebrate character.  They’re not even averse to conflict if it moves the story.   Among writers there’s always depth.  One knows the wheels are turning when you’re talking with a writer. It might just be a hamster in a cage but it might well be the wheels of history.
 

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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Canadian Author's Association - West Coast - March 13 2013

What a joy to be among genius!
Margot Bates (http://www.margobates.com) , opened the night by introducing the Stand and Deliver reader, Joyce Goodwin.  Joyce read an excerpt from an Irish short story previously published in Anthology.  A  coming of age tale of an Irish boy in the 'troubles', the  pranks in Catholic school  back dropped by a callously grenade slaughtered horse outside in the road. Joyce's characterization and wit well deserved the applause she received at the end of a very fine reading.
Dennis Bolan (http://dennisbolen.com)  introduced himself and his  fellow panel members,  Eileen Cook (http://www.eileencook.com), Ian Weir (http://ianweir.net) and Margaret Hume (Margaret A.Hume - Author, Biographer, Editor :: Hosted by CAA Vancouver Branc What amazing creative and talented folk they all were.  Yet they looked and sounded simply human.
Each of these gloriously published writers spoke humbly of their extraordinary achievements.  Each and everyone is the envy of their literary communities.  The breadths of their works ranged from poetry, fiction, non fiction, play writing, movie scripts and television, biography and memoir. For 2 hours they each and together enthralled us with personal anecdotes and writer's perspectives on career highlights and lateral shifts.  What remarkable story tellers they were.  The question and answer period was equally telling with audience members, mostly writers, asking questions of their own struggles to find a voice and to be heard.  Talk of character and copywrite mixed with insights into plot and characterization.  To quote a cliche I don't know where the time went.  Yet everyone was applauding. Laughter and handshakes as people were standing pulling on coats, lingering and mingling before leaving for the door.
I remembered we entered that special room.  Some magic spell  was cast.  P.S. Don't Tell Your Mother. Daniel O'Thunder , Arctic Air. Stupid Crimes, Kaspoti. The Wake Trilogy. The Almost Truth.  Just Mary.
I'm so thankful to have been there.  I feel touched by something more than human, that which is truly human.
Today smoke rose above the Vatican.  Light had flooded the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo's God touched Adam,  St. Francis, the first pope of the Americas.  There was a spark in this room tonight.  A special glow.  I felt it.  The holy ghost on a donkey or a pony?

CAA-West Coast Branch - Nov.14, 2012

CAA - West Coast Branch - monthly meeting Arts and Cultural Alliance Centre, Howe Street Nov. 14, 2012 I arrived and right off hugged Margot Bates, Jean Kay then Margaret Anne Hume and thought there was a time I would have been awed to 'touch' real live published authors. Later I sat with Anthony Dalton and Bernice Lever. What a treasure it is to be a member of this organization that brings us all together. Surely our motto 'writers helping writers' sums up this organization well. What follows are my rough notes (unedited) taken while listening to the nights offerings. (I just wish I knew Douglas's last name. His reading and writing were amazing! addendum? Thank you Margot Douglas's name is Douglas Cameron Aitken, and now I won't feel badly years hence when someone says 'aren't you the guy who didn't know Margaret's last name was Atwood) Jean Kay announced that the Anthology of writing and poetry has gone to the printer. Copies will be available for sale at meetings and on line. Bernice Lever announced her poetry and picture appearing in BC Bookworld, an excellent source for publishers for free. Goes to all the libraries. Robert Mackay, author of Soldier of the Horse, announced he was awarded the Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in Navy and with Veterans. Dec. 8 is the annual Christmas meeting. James McWilliams won first place Edith Hanning (sp) won second place Ed Griffin and Georgia Hunter were tied for third place. Alan Twig is presenter at the January meeting. February's meeting is an open mike night and readers are invited to put their names forward. Readings from French Canadian Bed Time Stories - Douglas - included men working in wilderness logging camp, Jean Baptiste, the bunkhouses, canoes, argument with the devil, blizzards, day before Christmas, letters from loved ones, birth of twins, father trying to force a daughter to marry a known philanderer, invitations to come and rescue the fair French girl, cookhouse, camp boss, fields of snow glizzening white under the full moon, a strange little man, dressed in Indian buckskin, a proposition, flying canoes, crystal waves of the moon, celestial palace, Milky Way, Indian shaman, church steeples, Trois Rivieres, bright red pom poms, high pitched little chants, little people, bears awoken from their dens, Voyageurs, enticing music, people dancing, true love - a delightful ingenius tale of fantasy and charm Heidi Greco Poet, Writer, Editor, SFU instructor Surrey's Resident Poet, commissioned to write a poem of the city Heidi's blog "Out on the big limb" Blond bespectacled pleasantly attractive woman dressed in slacks, grey turtleneck and button vest sweater, round blue white shell medallion necklace: "I billed this with Margot as a conversation." "All of us have our own story of how we came to writing and committed ourselves to pursuing it.....mine is not that different from many of you.....I learned to read from an early age....I was the child with the proverbial flashlight under the blankets....when I was about nine there are the earliest fragments of my writing......summer holidays there were kids everywhere and all the backyards were open to all of them......one summer I wrote a play....I have the surviving 2 pages....all very corny and resolving happily ever after....I would direct these plays and star in these plays and there'd be dancing .....I moved along to writing stories for my girlfriends, heavy romances, putting their names and their current flames names in....no sex of course because we were all very innocent.....I had a poem published at 13....I got a dollar for it and it was a very important dollar .....I did get more serious about writing poems....in university I sent out poems....different small literary magazines in Canada....then absurdly....I had someone who was important to me....said not very kindly, this is crap....you should not waste your time....I didn't write for 25 years....I was in my 20's at the time and only took up writing again when I was in my 40's. I was a single parents and this was a male and a writer and I had no self esteem....for a man to authoritatively say this , well he must know....and I didn't write....I did other things....I did crafts....I found other ways to be creative ....I crochetted and tie died....I thought then it was ridiculous I was doing all this needle work....I had everything I could make and had given gifts to everyone who I could and I turned back to writing.....I think so many women like poetry because it's a thing you can enclose in a space of time....you can do it in a page....you don't have sub plots and such to carry around." At this she read a poem: from one of her several books of published poems Shrinking Violets - Quattro Books A: American Poems Rattlesnake Plantain Siren Tattoo About her mother. Next she read a poem "Hype" Listening to her I found her voice resonant, expressions engaging, lilting, words accented, ablaze with intonations , musical, deep, soft and wildly civilized An amusing moment occurred when her reading set off the building alarm which took seconds to subside. She described reading a poem at a Surrey forest saving event "Begin with a single tree.....notice the shape.....like waiting hand to cup the rain.....ways it bends around itself stretching.....contemplate .....listen to it's branches tips so fine in green.....a mystery....a forest....so much more than the sum of its trees......" New online magazine, Cascadia Review - poets are always looking for place for their poems.....they put a series of my poems last week. Regarding Obama election she said "It seems as though the better choice was made." Following this she read: "Faithful" "I didn't mean this just to be about poetry. I also write book reviews," she said. "The Pacific Rim....one of the publications that still runs reviews, has published my reviews.....Subterranean Review....another which has published my reviews." Why book reviews are important, 'just remember when you write a book, you will hope someone will write a review of your book and now we can all go on Amazon and write a paragraph saying why we think a book should be read." "I never say I teach things, I lead groups.... I don't know if I have anything to teach but I like working with writers....I had a group which wanted to produce a 'chatbook'....our group is putting out it's 8th chat book" "I was in good company one of the Eco poets....in an old growth forest in Seattle..we gave a workshop after the readings." This one, "Beatitudes for the 21st Century" , I'd like to read. I've found God creeping into my work recently and this one was inspired by Matthew." "This was published by Lipstick Press back when they were in Abbotsford....I've always been fascinated by Amelia Erhart....conspiracy theories are my real attractions...unsolved mysteries....I dive off the deep end in the middle of the book..my theory is she crashed, alright, but she was supposed to crash, on a spy mission for the US, she ditched where she was supposed to, but they decided she was somewhere else, allowing her to be imprisoned on a tropical island....these are theories many have....that she was given a false idea....I take it s step further....saying she ended her life in an insane asylum in New Jersy...this was a kind of crazy book....you can do anything you want with poems 'especially when they are researched'. "Amelia Erhart did write some poems". "I'll read one of these when she was in the asylum "Joan of Arc lives down the hall". "I'd like to shift gears ...I'm speaking about different genres....Shrinking Violet is more a novella....my friends Steve describes a novella as taking a canoe down a narrow canyon and just seeing what it is the canyon....my idea is of a snowball ...not much room for subplots...this book started as a 3 day novel....it's an interesting experiment....you have to be ready to not answer the phone.....when I started all I knew it was a young woman who had bright orange hair....I just sat down on a Friday night and wrote till my fingers bled....that 3 day novel did not win...it went into that drawer...everyone has that drawer....then in 2010 a friend had a really sad cancer and I couldn't write....but if I don't write I get kind of crazy so I pulled this thing out and it went through a complete revision and entered it in a novella competition...it won and that's why it was published." With that Heidi read from her novella. (A fascinating read) "It's not very happy at home with Randy" "her body is soft and flabby and not what he expected" "she dreams" "the baby starts to cry" "I had a hard time with that book. It took me to places I didn't know I could go. I thought of pulling it ." Asked by the audience about the contest and why she went in "I just did and didn't know I could write 30,000 words....the contest has gone on for 30 years." Discussion in the group about the 3 day novel....."Anvil press had it....Pulp had started it in the late 60's...then another outfit jumped up and they continue to call themselves the 3 days novel." "Were you at SFU and have a child in daycare?" someone asked and they then waxed poetic about the day care at Simon Frazer...."there was so much cultural enrichment...there was always something great going on...these little kids would traipse on over to the theatre at noon." Room - is a vancouver based publication - here is a poem I'd like to end with "The Poem I am not going to write". The poem I'm an not going to write excuses herself daily........ Questions and answers followed. Break the meetings over.

Word on the Street 2012, Vancouver, Canada

Word on the Street, Vancouver Book and Magazine Festival, 2012 was a big hit this year with thousands attending and hundreds of participants. Tents surrounded the Vancouver Central Library, a fitting venue for a world class festival. Readings from local and international authors ranged all day. Booths for writers, editors, schools and just about anything related to writing were represented. There were even reading glasses on sale.
I was impressed by the volunteers at the Canadian Authors Association booth. I'd just missed Anthony Dalton, I heard, but was delighted to chat with Margot Bates, Robert Mackay, Jean Kay and Bernice Lever. I actually met Bernice's adult children who ,no doubt because of Bernice's poetry, turned out themselves to be highly creative. It's part of the fascination of the Canadian Author's Assocation and festivals like this that one actually meets the genius behind the books we so enjoy. Patrick Taylor, author of the Irish Country Doctor series was on site, there for a reading later in the day.
I walked about and heard several readings going on in tents. A couple of musical poetic events were truly avante garde. The crowds certainly spoke to the ever increasing appreciation for this event. Despite or because of digital we all are reading more.
While I bought a t shirt for the event, I did come away with the 'feel good in the hand real old fashioned paper version of the book Gas! The Battle for Ypress 1915 by James L McWilliams and R. James Steel, recalling the Canadian soldiers in the WWI encounters with mustard gas and other neural toxins.
A great day for readers and writers alike!
































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