authors, podcast, short stories, writing, writing proces, young writers

Bad Things Happen (Episode 4: Plotting)

An episode about plotting stories, with guest authors Robin Stevenson, Wendy McLeod MacKnight, and Amelinda Bérubé. Featuring an original story, “The Critter Cam.” With excerpts from Harold and the Purple Crayon; “The Band-Aid;” and Holes. 45 minutes. PG-13. Check out the Episode 4 webpage for audio, show notes, and author bios.    

Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest
contests, public libraries, short stories, What's New, young writers

2020 Winners Announced

The Award Ceremony for the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest had to be cancelled this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So the judges (including me) made short videos to announce this year's winners and honourable mentions, and the wonderful folks at the library put it all together into two ceremonial videos:… Continue reading 2020 Winners Announced

contests, public libraries, short stories, What's New, writing, young writers

Awesome Authors 2019 – Decision Time

Every year, the Ottawa Public Library holds a youth writing contest for which hundreds of local kids write stories, poems, and comics. The winners and honourable mentions are published in the annual anthology, Pot-pourri. But the contest's title -- Awesome Authors -- applies to all of those who enter. The contest deadline for 2019 has… Continue reading Awesome Authors 2019 – Decision Time

author talks, authors, contests, public libraries, short stories, young writers

Awesome Authors 2019 – Submission Call

It's time for all the young writers in Ottawa to get their awesome on! The Ottawa Public Library wants you to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and write a poem, short story, or comic (or all three!) to enter into the OPL's 2019 Awesome Authors youth writing contest. The contest is open to Ottawa… Continue reading Awesome Authors 2019 – Submission Call

authors, litmags, short stories, writing

Writing Spaces

My tiny home office was featured in this week's "Writing Spaces," a regular blog post from The New Quarterly. This is a fabulous weekly feature from TNQ that offers a peek into the working spaces of each issue's writers, along with inspiring anecdotes and tips from the authors. Definitely a blog worth following. My writing… Continue reading Writing Spaces