One more tour. And some news! September 30, 2011
Posted by thishotplace in Awards, Ramblings, Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Tour, young adult fiction.Tags: swg short manuscript awards, ya
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In October, I’ll be making my way to the Maritimes for a couple of readings (details forthcoming), a couple of CD launches and a radio appearance as well as a stop in Ottawa to visit my daughter and give a reading with a group of writers I’ve met through various parts of the writing community, including two of the finest writing schools in the country, the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Banff Centre.
It’ll be great to finally see eastern Canada as well as to meet and reconnect with singers and writers!
But before I do that, I’ll be celebrating the success of my new work! An unpublished excerpt from the young adult fiction I’ve written has netted me First Place in the Children’s Literature category of the Short Manuscript Awards sponsored by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild.
(Do you know how many entries I’ve sent to that competition over the years?)
To say I’m very excited to receive this recognition is an understatement. When I sat down to write this manuscript, I thought I was going to write a poem about divorce. But the voice of the main character, Chrissy, took over. I knew enough about writing to know that I needed to listen to the work, to let it guide me. And I did. The working title quickly became Crybaby. This work quite literally cried its way out of me. Needless to say, a theme running through Crybaby is the reclamation of crying as a healthy human capacity.
So, yes, of course I cried when I learned the work had placed first. I laughed and squealed and hollered, too. And I jumped up and down!
I feel quite privileged to be both a product and a beneficiary of the programs, services and other assorted offerings of the SWG. I’m thankful the judge, Janet McNaughton, saw fit to single out my work at this time. It’s a great vote of confidence! I’m also very grateful to have the support of the Canada Council for the Arts to work on this manuscript. And, I am truly honoured to be named a winner of a SWG Short Manuscript Award!
It’s been a long time coming!
Who knew?!? September 10, 2011
Posted by thishotplace in Ramblings, young adult fiction.Tags: Crybaby
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I’m at the Banff Centre for Continuing Education for just over a week. What an awe-inspiring place this is! I’ve been accepted into the Writing With Style program which means I get to study with Arthur Slade, one of Saskatchewan’s — and Canada’s — best Young Adult fiction writers.
I know, I know, Bernadette’s a Poet, not a fiction writer! But one day four or five years ago as I sat in my back yard determined to write the definitive poem about my parents’ divorce, it happened. I wrote for about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour, nonstop — one of those Natalie Goldberg-style free writing exercises, really. When I stopped writing and read what I had written, I quickly realized it was not a poem. What had come through me was a strong voice, one of a teenaged girl who was trying to tell her story, not through poetry but through fiction!
I was baffled! I’d always said I couldn’t write fiction because I couldn’t think in sentences, but here it was, proof that I’d been lying to myself! I tried to let the work sit for a time, but I found myself coming back to it over and over again until, finally, I decided I had to get the first draft finished. One winter, at the Saskatchewan Writers / Artists Colony (Retreat) at St. Peter’s Abbey, I did just that. My poor neighbour, fellow colonist and writer extraordinaire, Dave Carpenter, expressed concern about me. I did a lot of crying as I wrote.
I guess some would say that writing that first draft was a healing journey for me. The crying bit is how the novel got its working title, Crybaby. I’ve crafted the work a fair bit since then and I’m looking forward to hearing what Art has to say about it!
