No pre-registration required.  Location:  The Bay School of Art 80 Simcoe Street

Cracking the Creativity Code

Date and Time: Saturday, September 10th at 2:30 pm

Description:
This is the perfect workshop for poets, songwriters, budding novelists, or anyone who wants to crank up their creative abilities. Karen will help you hone those skills and blast through any creative roadblocks, regardless of artistic persuasion! This workshop will both move and inspire you.

Workshop Leader: Karen Hood-Caddy

Karen Hood-Caddy has been noted in The Globe and Mail as a “writer to keep an eye on”. She is the enviro-fiction author of Tree Fever, Flying Lessons and The Wisdom of Water, novels set in Ontario. Her latest book, Howl, will be published this fall. Karen was nominated for a Woman of Distinction award in Muskoka. As well as being a successful writer, Karen has over 30 years’ experience as a personal coach, helping people envision and create their best lives.
She began her writing career by writing articles for dozens of well-known magazines, interviewing and profiling prominent Canadians like Farley Mowat and Lynn Johnson. Karen has also written and read two stories on CBC’s “First Person Singular”.
Karen is an avid kayaker, and is happiest with a paddle in her hand. She has a place on Georgian Bay. In summer, when Karen is not in the water, you can often find her writing on the deck of her cabin overlooking the bay.

Self-Publishing: The Ultimate D.I.Y Project

Date and Time: Saturday, September 10th at 11:00 am

Description:
Whether you’ve written a tiny collection of haiku, the definitive how-to on llama-grooming, or the Great Canadian Novel, you may want to go the self-publishing route to get your work into people’s hands. Learn both the advantages and drawbacks of this increasingly popular form of publishing, as well as the ins and outs of traditional books and eBooks.

Workshop Leader: Stuart Ross

Stuart Ross is a Toronto-based fiction writer, poet, editor and creative writing instructor. He has been active in both the Toronto literary scene and the Canadian publishing industry for over three decades. He has worked at literary presses and Harlequin. He self-published and sold over 7,000 copies of his poetry and fiction chapbooks during the 1980s, and is co-founder, along with Nicholas Power, of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair, an underground literary institution since 1987.

Stuart has also edited several literary magazines, including Mondo Hunkamooga, Who Torched Rancho Diablo?, Dwarf Puppets on Parade, Peter O’Toole, and, most recently, the poetry magazine Syd & Shirley. He has given readings at hundreds of venues in Canada, the U.S., England, and Nicaragua. He appears widely at festivals, and regularly leads workshops on poetry, publishing, and memoir writing at This Ain’t the Rosedale Library in Toronto. Stuart is the author of Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, and the novel Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew, available on Amazon.

MAKING IT AS A WRITER

Date and Time: Saturday, September 10th at 1:00 pm

Have you always wondered what it takes to become a successful writer? Internationally acclaimed novelist Dorris Heffron shares insider information about the publishing industry. In this workshop, Dorris covers everything from how to complete your first draft and to tackle revisions, through to preparing and submitting your writing for publication. She’ll also speak about fresh new ways to promote and publish your work.

Workshop Leader: Dorris Heffron

Dorris Heffron, novelist and frequent book reviewer for The Globe and Mail, has an honours B.A. and M.A. in Literature and Philosophy from Queen’s University. She lived in Oxford, England, from 1968 to 1980, where she was a tutor for Oxford University and the Open University. While in Oxford, Dorris wrote three novels about teenagers, acclaimed internationally as pioneers in the genre of young adult fiction. Her first adult novel, A Shark in the House, remains a popular book club choice.

Since returning to Canada in 1980, she has served on the National Council of the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Board of Directors of PEN Canada, the Writers’ Trust of Canada and others. She was writer-in-residence at Wainfleet Public Library. Dorris also participated in the British Columbia Government Task Force inquiry into the killing of sled dogs at Whistler, BC after the 2010 Winter Olympics. She was selected because of her years of research into Canadian sled dogs, conducted while writing her most recent novel.

Her latest novel, City Wolves, is a work of historical fiction, telling the story of Canada’s first female veterinarian. At the heart of City Wolves is the ancient story of how wolves became sled dogs in the Arctic. Set partly against the background of the Klondike Gold Rush, Heffron creates a wide range of unforgettable characters and manages to explore the deep conflicts and interconnections of social beings in a way that is uniquely Canadian, yet profoundly universal.

Dorris now lives at Little Creek Wolf Range, near Collingwood.

MY LIFE, MY LEGACY

Date and Time: Saturday, September 10th at 9:30 am

Description:
Everyone has a story. Every story deserves to be told. And only you can tell your story in your own words. Author, editor and writing coach Christine Cowley specializes in memoir and family history. Christine will be leading the “My Life, My Legacy” workshop, sharing techniques that will help you create compelling narrative. By using Christine’s tools, you’ll be able to preserve your family memories for generations to come.

Workshop Leader: Christine Cowley

Christine Cowley has been writing professionally since 1979, and is the author, collaborator, editor and/or publisher of more than 25 books. In 2005, her passion for sharing life stories led her to found LifeGems Personal Histories, which assists people with the writing and production of personal, family and corporate histories.
In 2008, Christine authored and published Butchers, Bakers and Building the Lakers: Voices of Collingwood, and award-winning oral/pictorial history that weaves stories from generations of Collingwood residents with narrative based on her research of Collingwood and Simcoe County history. The book was awarded an IPPY Gold Medal for self-publishing in the Best Regional History – Eastern Canada category. In 2010, Christine received the Fred Landon Award Certificate of Merit from the Ontario Historical Society, for the best book on regional history.

Christine’s latest release is a two-book set entitled The Gift: Sharing Your Life Lessons with the People You Love Most and The Gift Companion Workbook. She is currently writing a history of the Collingwood grain elevators, and continuing her research into the Gowans Home for Missionaries’ Children.