Hello friends and writers!
I hope you’ve all been able to enjoy the lovely warm weather, and now the even more glorious rain if you’re in BC! I’m soaking it up like a moisture-starved plant, and I can feel my withered leaves starting to plump and unfurl again.
I’ll be getting back into a regular posting routine once school is back in session (expect some fun and unusual writing prompts and exercises, plenty of wistful romanticizing over the leaves changing, and likely a soup recipe or two), but for now I wanted to get the word out to anyone in the Victoria or Peninsula area about a writers group I’m co-hosting, starting in a few weeks.
Cynthia Philp—the witty and entertaining editor of Island Writer—and I have been wanting to help build a stronger writing community for some time now, and we’ve finally come together to organize a writers group with the fabulous support of the McTavish Academy of Art in North Saanich. We’ll meet on the first Sunday of the month in one of their classrooms, from 6:30-8:30pm, and everyone is welcome, from beginners to veteran writers, across all genres and styles. The plan is to run a series of writing exercises and prompts with the focus on getting words down on paper. This isn’t a critique group, but somewhere to write, explore, experiment, and see what comes out of the creative energy. We will be reading each exercise aloud, but that’s strictly for the sharing aspect, and to practice giving those words some life in a supportive environment.
The aforementioned fabulous staff at McTavish Academy of Art have been extremely generous, and we’re able to host the group at no charge for September and October, in the hopes that we can encourage writers who might be hesitant to come and try it out. From November and on, it’ll be $5/person, to help cover the cost of the room. Cynthia and I will bring a robust selection of prompts to each meeting, but everyone is encouraged to bring their own as well.
So if you live in the Victoria area (or are visiting on a Sunday evening!), join us! You never know what brilliant bits of writing you might uncover!