Heart Matters
Mood:  happy
Topic: Writing Outings
Thursday 10:32pm 19Oct06

My first Talk/Interview for IFOA was Adrienne Clarkson (the ex Governor General) interviewed by Pamela Wallin.

Adrienne's talk was about her memoir, Heart Matters. She both talked and read from the book. She was excellent. I kept questioning myself whether I really wanted to attend and not go to a reading instead. How interesting is she going to be? Really interesting.

My only disappointment was that Pamela Wallin didn't give the audience a chance to ask any questions which is the norm at interviews. I actually had a question for Adrienne. So I'm going to try and find her email address to ask her the question.

Adrienne discussed coming to Canada from Hong Kong as a refugee and that each family member could only bring one suitcase per person. Imagine looking through all your belongings and only being allowed to fill a suitcase. What would you choose? What could I choose? What would I be able to limit myself to?

She quoted Margaret Laurence - "you must feel in your heart the reality of others."

Her memoir is filled with her memories, stories her mother and father told her and the information that she gleaned from her father's memoir that he'd worked on for years and then left for safe keeping in the Bank of Montreal in 1946. When Adrienne was the Governor General she went to that Bank and asked if they still had stuff left there by her father and they did. And they gave it to her. More than 50 years later. That fascinates me beyond belief especially since Kali gets to read Rachel's memoirs in my novel White Wishes.

Her Talk was mostly inspiring to me for my work on White Wishes.

It made me think about what my mother used to always say, "I could write a book." How we as our parents children take their stuff a step further. She could write a book and I am writing one. In White Wishes both mother and daughter write a book. Adrienne said that she and her brother had to go to University 'for our parents'. It wasn't the opportunity they were given - the father who cried himself to sleep every night because he couldn't attend high school and the mother who'd felt abandoned as a child when her brother shoved her out of the way and no one from the family noticed that she wasn't with them. She sat on the street waiting for them for several hours to come back for her.

She talked about the Chinese being big into photos of which my mother was and the importance for her to look back at those photos when she was working on her memoirs. My mother used to drive me crazy with all the photos she took of us growing up but then those photos were my life line when she died. My fascination with the mother/daughter relationship is because of my relationship with my mother so our stuff is just as important as Rachel and Kali's stuff.

Pamela discussed Adrienne's ability to stand outside of her life story as if she were looking at herself as a stranger. The level of immersion versus detachment.

Adrienne mentioned a girl that interviewed her last week who was Lithuanian or something along those lines and how the young girl compared herself to Adrienne said, "I'm just like you. I have to be more perfect than perfect." Which was how I was raised. In a white man's world a black child should be beyond reproach because we're already seen as savages, criminals, not good enough and the whole nine.

The question posed regarding writing her memoir was, "What am I ready to tell?" That's a great journal question, a great blog question, and a great character question. "Rachel, what are you ready to tell?

And the final thing of note was that Adrienne said that her father gave her the confidence to know that she was competent to be who she wanted to be in a man's world made for men. I wrote it down as, "in a world made by white men for white men."

The interesting thing about memoirs is that there is a universality. We all have a knowledge of our families especially about things we weren't told about. Feelings that couldn't be expressed because we were too young, secrets that are kept that we sense or know on a subconscious level. Families are fascinating. What are all the pieces that you would choose to tell to make people understand you or gain an essence of who you are? What do you stories do you remember that were told about your beginnings?


Heart Matters, another book added to my wish list...

EY

Word on the Street - Less Writing related
Topic: Writing Outings
3:25pm Sunday 24Sept06

I'm about ready for a nap! What else is new.

So I got some other stuff (free loot) that was above and beyond my pick up goals at the Word on the Street.

1- A Spiritual Guide to Happiness from the Institute for Research in Human Happiness. - No Website info. Also got three of their newsletters.
They also had a poster set up that you answer all these questions like using a flowchart and then at the end you find out who your guardian angel is. I did it, because it was free, and the info I received was pretty funny in how bang on it was.

2- Nalanda News - a newsletter from the Naranda College of Buddhist studies. It runs out of the university of Toronto.

3- Read Me a Story! - Folktales & Picture books from around the world. It's a special exhibition catalogue which gives a sampling of pieces around the world.

4- The Original Canadian City Dweller's Almanac - facts, rants, anecdotes and unsupported assertions for Urban residents. by Hal Niedzviecki and Darren Wershler-Henry.
The little bit I've read thus far is pretty funny. I got it as a gift for subscribing to the Broken Pencil.

5- a thin book of Simple vegetarian recipes.

6- a brochure for Raja yoga meditation.

and some other magazines that were free:
- SGI Quarterly - a Buddhist Forum for Peace, culture and Education
- Life Peak - feel young at the peak of life
- New Internationalist - the people, the ideas, the action in the fight for global justice.
- fuel
- vervegirl

Gotta make something for dinner then work on White Wishes.

EY

Word on the Street - Being There
Topic: Writing Outings
Sunday 2:05pm 24Sept06

Okay, so people are catching on to getting to the Word early. What's up with that? The place was packed when I got there at 11am. Brutal! Good for the Word of course.

I saw my buddy of Black Bastard comics. He thanked me profusely for seeking him out third year in a row. He only had one comic that I didn't have but the good thing is that it is 72 pages! So a big plus.

I subscribed to the Broken Pencil magazine (which I used to subscribe to). It is the magazine of zine culture & the independent arts. Link is here.

I also subscribed to Esteem magazine (embracing success). I've not read it before but thought I'd give it a whirl since the subscription was $10.

I got a free copy of Canadian Screenwriter and some brochures.

I bought the back issues of Shameless (For girls who get it). 6 issues for $5.00. It's another magazine that I've not read before. Link is here.

I bought a couple back issues of Humanist in Canada for $1 each. Also haven't read before.

I avoided most of the other magazines because I only had a limited amount of cash that I planned to spend plus I have back issues of them like: Geist, Maissoneuve, Lichen, Canadian Storyteller, Brick, This Magazine, and others...

Brochures that I picked up, in no particular order.:
1- Packaging Your Imagination organized through Canscaip - a day of workshops on writing, illustrating and performing for children. It's Saturday, November 4, 2006. Canscaip.org

2- World Horror Convention 2007
March 29th to April 1st.
I've never been, could be fun. World Horror Convention

3- Writers & Editors Network
Writers/editors

4- Working for Screenwriters from the Writers Guild of Canada
Writers Guild

5- 2006 CBC Literary Awards
Deadline 1Nov06
Categories
- Short Story (2000 - 2500 words)
- Creative nonfiction (2000 - 2500 words)
- Poetry (1000 - 2000 words)
Literary awards

6- PWAC - Professional Writers Association of Canada
- membership info
- seminar series 2006/2007
- Fall 2006 Workshops for Writers
PWAC
PWAC Toronto Chapter

7- The HSW Literary Agency at the Humber School for Writers
HSW Literary Agency

8- The Writers' Circle 2006/2007
Saturday workshops from 14 Oct06 to 31Mar07
Thought Humber School for Writers.

9- The Humber School for Writers - Correspondence program in Creative Writing.
a 30 week program where you get matched with a professional published writer. Great way to work through a novel that you have a full draft of.

10 - Canadian Storyteller Subscription Form and Submission Guidelines.
Storyteller magazine

11 - Solotext editorial Workshops
Solo text

12- The Writers' Union of Canada
- membership info
- Dear Writer newsletter which include information on Canadian literary agents, Canadian Writers' Organizations, Resources, Government Resources, competitions and more.
Writers Union

13 - The Word Guild
Connecting, developing and promoting Canadian writers & editors who are Christian.
The Word Guild

14- Canadian Authors Association
- Literary Awards
- Related Groups of Interest to Writers
- the Virtual Branch
- Writers helping writers
Canadian Authors Association
- CanWrite Annual National Conference 5July-8July07
in Ottawa.
Ottawa Branch

15- Broken Pencils Hotel Canzine
Ezine festival Sunday 29Oct06 1pm-7pm at the Gladstone hotel on Queen St West.

16 - Romance Writers of America
American based - RWA
You have to belong to the Romance Writers of America before you can join the Toronto Romance writers. They will be having a writer's conference in Toronto next year, I believe the woman said.
Toronto Romance Writers

17 - Horror Writers Association
Horror Writers Assoc

18- Bloody Words 2007
it's in Victoria, British Columbia 15Jun07 - 18Jun07
Bloody words conference

That's it!
I've got a few things to save up for and check out and keep me busy.
I'd like to check out some conferences of genres that I don't write. You never know who you can meet and what can inspire.

EY

Word on the Street
Topic: Writing Outings
Sunday 8:11pm 24Sept06

I forgot that today is Word on the Street. It's around Queen's Park now, it used to be on Queen Street. I'm going to swing by to see if I can get any brochures on writing conferences and festivals and the like. Same thing I did last year. That was how I found out about the Bloody words writing conference and the Canscaip writing conference. I need to get info on the comic book conference. And I need to catch up with my buddy that has his own comic book series called, Black Bastard. I bought some of his comics two years ago and loved them so much, I went back last year to buy more.

I just spent the morning riffling through my stuff to find out where I put them so that I don't duplicate my purchases. Good fun politically incorrect. Just love them.

What I used to go looking for, in previous years, were French Harlequin romances. Something to read when I finally get into studying French. I was going to start with French children's books but then realized that the romances would be a more interesting read and cheaper. I have a stack of them now that I have yet to get into. Hmm, seems like a Christmas goal. Something to do during my Christmas break. Read my French romances, pull out my French English dictionary. Possibly try to translate a book or two into English. It's a thought.

So got my goal for Word on the Street. I've got to make sure I don't buy any books, just the Black Bastard comics. Pretend I have some book will power, it will be tested during the Festival of Author's in October as it is. sigh! Mind you, if I come across another Jasper Fforde who excites me, I'll probably buy his or her series.

Off to meet my breakfast buddy for 9am.

EY

Humber School for Writers
Now Playing: John Mayer
Topic: Writing Outings
Saturday 6:12pm 16Sept06

Went to the International Reading Series at harbourfront on Wednesday. It was the faculty and students from Humber College School for Writers program that I did in 2003.

Here are the notes that I wrote from that evening:

Wayson Choy
When we face a black page we're all equal.

M. G. Vassanji
he talked about being poor and not growing up with books in the house. He would go to the book store and try to read a book chapter by chapter until the owner kicked him out.

He read a piece that he wrote about writing, some of it was tongue in cheek ... a writer makes friends of the gossip and back biter. A writer has no life outside of writing. As a writer you think that you are the perfect subject for a novel. A writer should keep writing when 10 teachers tell you that you haven't a hope in hell.

Paul Quarrington
said being a writer is indicative of an unhealthy psyche. A writer hides behind a veil of lies.

A writer has a pocket of obsessions.
He talked about the first two writing assignments that he gives in his class. The first one is to think of the perfect lover and to describe that person. He gives the room 25 mins or so to do this. The second assignment he asks the room to take the same lover and give him or her a tragedy. He gives them 4 mins to do this. He says that because they only have 4 mins they pull certain ideas out quickly and those ideas are their pocket of obsessions. That tends to be what a writer is obsessed with. Writers tend to write about what they are obsessed with.

What do you really want to write about?
What are you afraid to write about?

Kim Moritsugu
She discussed how she had done every writing program in Toronto for several years and every writing instructor told her that she wasn't any good. When she got Paul Quarrington as her instructor he told her that her writing was okay. She took that as a positive and did the correspondence program with Paul and ultimately published her first novel.

Francine Prose
said that writing was justification for all your bad traits such as eavesdropping, betraying your family etc.

EY