Posted on September 11, 2019
by Catherine Austen
2 Comments
Good things come to those who wait. Years ago, I wrote a story about a clever squirrel who grew tired of waiting for a daily handout, so she decided to steal a whole bag of peanuts, along with the little girl carrying it. I…
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Category: books, children's books, featured, illustration, picture books, squirrels, What's NewTags: authors and illustrators, book development, books, Canadian writers, canlit, children's books, creative process, delays, editing, featured, fitzhenry and whiteside, grey squirrels, illustrations, inspiration, patience, picture book layout, picture book process, picture books, publishing, revising, sean cassidy, squirrel books, squirrels, squirrels stole my sister, writers
Posted on November 26, 2018
by Catherine Austen
4 Comments
I posted a motivational blurb on the SCBWI Canada East website today, about slogging it through the last days of November’s novel-writing challenge. I have never actually made the NaNoWriMo journey, meaning I’ve never done a start-to-finish draft in the month of November. I’ve…
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Category: writing, writing procesTags: books, Canadian writers, children's books, children's novels, creative process, discipline, fear, inspiration, motivation, nanowrimo, novels, orca book publishers, procrastination, revising, walking backward, word count, writers, writing, writing practice
Posted on August 10, 2018
by Catherine Austen
2 Comments
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…
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Category: authors, litmags, short stories, writingTags: canadian literary journal, canadian literary magazines, Canadian writers, canlit, creative process, english literature, featured, fiction, home office, inspiration, lit mags, literary fiction, literary journal, literary journals, literary magazine, literary magazines, literary short fiction, literature, litmag, office space, offices, publishing, reading, revising, sulphur mountain, the new quarterly, tnq, workspace, writers, writing, writing space
I always look forward to my regional SCBWI conference. This year it’s especially exciting because I’ll be giving a workshop myself. My topic: revision. I used to dread revisions. I loved drafting; I loved polishing; but I loathed the grunt work in between the…
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Category: author talks, authors, children's books, What's New, writing, writing conferenceTags: art of story, author visits, books, Canadian writers, children's books, children's literature, creative process, critiques, kidlit, novel revision, ottawa, publishing, revising, revision, scbwi, scbwi canada east, writers, writers conference, writing, writing conference, writing workshops
Yes, it’s on! The Ottawa Public Library is holding its annual Awesome Authors Contest for youth aged 9-17. If you’re a young person in Ottawa with something to say, get to work on saying it well. (BTW, the 9-year-olds don’t have to compete with…
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Category: contests, monday markets, What's New, writing, young writersTags: Apollo the Child, author visits, awesome authors, Canadian writers, Catherine Austen, Contests, Eric Peladeau, fiction, graphic storytelling, Katherine Battersby, Michel Lavoie, OPL, Ottawa Public Library, poetry, poetry contest, publishing, revising, short fiction, short stories, writers, writing, writing contests, writing workshops, youth fiction, youth poetry
Posted on April 8, 2016
by Catherine Austen
2 Comments
There are still a few spaces left for Ottawa’s SCBWI Art of Story Conference scheduled for the end of the month. For two days, guest speakers will offer workshops and presentations to everyone interested in writing or illustrating children’s books, from aspiring picture book illustrators to established YA novelists. There’s something for every…
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Category: authors, children's books, What's New, writing conferenceTags: art of story, books, children's books, children's novels, conference, creative process, critiques, illustrations, ottawa events, picture books, publishing, revising, scbwi, writers, writing, writing workshops, YA novel
I went to Laurentian Regional High School yesterday and spoke with Secondary I and II (Grade 7 and 8) students who’d been reading my novel, All Good Children, in class. The students were great audiences: attentive, informed and enthusiastic. They sent me a long list of questions…
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