So, it's been a week since the end of CanWrite, but I haven't been able to put anything together because of the sheer volume of information I gathered there. It was a fascinating experience, and highly educational.
Jean Kay, the coordinator, was very nice, and extended a generous invitation to the awards banquet on Saturday. She was intensely busy all weekend, and I rarely saw her for more than a few consecutive minutes.
I spent the weekend mostly at the registration desk with Sheila Martindale and Brock Clayards, both Victoria residents. Sheila Martindale is the venerable English author of eight (soon to be nine) volumes of poetry, and is a member of the local branch of the Canadian Authors Association, and is the Poetry editor for Island Writer magazine.
Brock is a retired RCMP officer and now has a small vineyard and many dogs. He's had a fascinating career in various branches of the RCMP.
Thursday all three of us manned the desk, as there were registrations all afternoon. Friday and Saturday we all switched off as we attended sessions with the various speakers.
Friday we were joined by Julie, a publisher and the creator of InspireABook, who helped manage the blue pencil sessions - the ten minute periods where conference attendees could make an appointment to talk to four authors who had volunteered. Behind the desks were kc dyer, Lois Peterson, Anthony Dalton, and Bernice Lever.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
CanWrite starts tomorrow!
I'm volunteering all weekend at the CanWrite! 2010 conference. I'll be at registration, and then doing signup for the blue pencil sessions. I'll probably be everywhere, but I can be tracked down there, if anyone is so inclined. I'm excited at the prospect of my first writing conference, and this one is focusing on something dear to my heart - applying technology to your writing.
It's interesting how technology is changing the industry. People are experimenting with storytelling via Twitter the mind-bogglingly broad spectrum of webcomics. Two of my recent discoveries have been Metaphysical Neuroma by Attila and FreakAngels, written by the iconic Warren Ellis.
Comics are their own separate world from writing and publishing books, but they have strange and sometimes beautiful overlap, such as that personified in Neil Gaiman, who has written everything from the screenplay and then novel of the BBC's Neverwhere to the children's book Coraline to the fantastic graphic novel Sandman to the novel American Gods. He's amazingly dynamic, and has had a definite impact on both my writing and the variety of vectors my interests follow.
It's interesting how technology is changing the industry. People are experimenting with storytelling via Twitter the mind-bogglingly broad spectrum of webcomics. Two of my recent discoveries have been Metaphysical Neuroma by Attila and FreakAngels, written by the iconic Warren Ellis.
Comics are their own separate world from writing and publishing books, but they have strange and sometimes beautiful overlap, such as that personified in Neil Gaiman, who has written everything from the screenplay and then novel of the BBC's Neverwhere to the children's book Coraline to the fantastic graphic novel Sandman to the novel American Gods. He's amazingly dynamic, and has had a definite impact on both my writing and the variety of vectors my interests follow.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Open Source - not just for computer people
Open source is more than a way to get great software like web browsers Firefox and Chrome, word processor Open Office, art program GIMP and antivirus program ClamWin. It's a movement towards freedom of intellectual property - towards intellectual communism.
Open source software isn't new, though - the GNU Project, the precursor to Linux (a family of open source operating systems), was started in 1983. But in the past few years, open source has moved from a computer thing to a culture thing. Creative Commons took the idea of open source and applied it to intellectual property other than code.
Now some of the same principles - not being forced to pay for interesting things - are being brought back to the physical world through things like Decentralize Dance Paries. Which looks completely awesome.
Open source software isn't new, though - the GNU Project, the precursor to Linux (a family of open source operating systems), was started in 1983. But in the past few years, open source has moved from a computer thing to a culture thing. Creative Commons took the idea of open source and applied it to intellectual property other than code.
Now some of the same principles - not being forced to pay for interesting things - are being brought back to the physical world through things like Decentralize Dance Paries. Which looks completely awesome.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Character Creation
The Victoria Writers' Society had its last meeting before the summer on Wednesday. Tricia Dower spoke about character creation and read from her book, Silent Girl. Despite being sick and having to leave the room a couple times, she gave a really great talk.
Character creation, and the role of the character in the story (should they drive the plot? should the plot dictate everything about them? is setting a character, and should it be?) is a topic that comes up on every writing forum I'm a member of. Every writer is different, and takes different approaches, even amongst different of their own works.
Tricia Dower had an interesting approach to interviewing one's characters, getting to know them as individuals beyond the page so that they inhabit the page as whole beings.
Character creation, and the role of the character in the story (should they drive the plot? should the plot dictate everything about them? is setting a character, and should it be?) is a topic that comes up on every writing forum I'm a member of. Every writer is different, and takes different approaches, even amongst different of their own works.
Tricia Dower had an interesting approach to interviewing one's characters, getting to know them as individuals beyond the page so that they inhabit the page as whole beings.
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