Last year, during the leave with income averaging I took following the launch of The Art of Floating, I went to the Stillwater retreat at Loretto Maryholme with Kim Fahner and Laura Young. I enjoyed it so much that I registered for this year’s Stillwater as soon as it opened in the fall but had to withdraw because I was hoping to go to Banff’s Science Fiction Workshop.
I was not accepted into Banff, however, freeing up a chuck of my writerly budget, and when Wild Ground Writing announced a new Ontario retreat in the fall, Writing on the Rocks, I jumped on the opportunity. Yes, this was a TAKE MY MONEY situation.
Serendipitously, it was scheduled for the last weekend in October, just as I was starting my next leave with income averaging.
In another bit of kismet, Kim had registered for the retreat as well, and we decided to travel together.
When we arrived Thursday evening, the trumpeter swans were calling to each other in the near-darkness after sunset, and I heard the slap of their wings on the water as they took off. It was a poetic moment that boded well for the retreat. We’d hear them every night. Just *sigh*.
Inside, the other three retreaters, Judy, Lori, and Linda were already gathered in the living room, chatting while our host Anita bustled in the kitchen preparing supper. She saw us to our rooms and, when we joined the others, facilitated introductions.
After supper — Looney Spoons better butter chicken; the lot of us ended up asking for all the recipes Anita used — we had a grounding, intention-setting session using Mary Oliver’s “The Journey” as a jumping off point. Writing and sharing soon gave way to more animated conversation, and we eventually all found our ways to bed.
What I hadn’t noticed before was my goodie bag: a copy of Maggie Smith’s Dear Writer, a notebook and pack of gel pens, stickers, and — most important for me as I’d forgotten mine at home — a sleep mask and ear plugs. Not that I really needed them. The cottage was blissfully quiet.
In the morning, I started the coffee pot and headed outside to get a better look at the property in the daytime — it’s gorgeous!
In lieu of description, which would not do it justice, I’ll share a few photos here.
After a breakfast of baked oatmeal, fruit and Greek yogurt, I absconded with a pack of tarot cards to do some journalling, went for a walk, and when I returned, Anita had started a fire in the old stove on the covered patio and was stoking the sauna. Lunch was chicken sandwiches and squash soup — yum!
Some pictures from my walk:
I spent part of the afternoon on the patio and the rest inside. It was my most productive day. I checked the water temperature — too cold for a dip — before a trip to the sauna. Then, it was time for supper, which was a delicious beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes, and broccolini.
That evening, after even more chat — Judy absolutely must write her humorous story collection, “It Gets Better”! — Linda, Lori, and Judy wanted to watch the first game of the World Series. I settled in for another writing session.
Saturday morning, I took my coffee out onto the covered patio and tried to start a fire in the stove. Tried was the operative term. The flow of the day before had faded, though, and my morning writing session was not as productive.
After journalling, I went inside for a late breakfast of strata, which was nam (Finn for yum). We had an informal check-in and discussion of Billy Collin’s “The First Line of a Poem.” That devolved into a discussion of the AMA methodology and program.
Kim and I hit the road to shop in Coldwater. They’d just had their Witch Walk the week before and the downtown was turned out for Halloween. I think we were looking for a bookshop, but we got distracted.
Again, my descriptive powers are not up to the task. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
And a few of my purchases.
An unexpected call about a work-related pay issue ate up my spoons in the afternoon, but I still managed to write a bit before supper, which was salmon. I think I ate more than my share but was comforted when most of the retreaters when back for seconds.
We had a bonfire after supper, which was lovely. The second game of the World Series was on that night, but I opted for an early bedtime.
The final morning was quiet and gentle. I took my coffee out onto the covered patio again and watched the songbirds, waterfowl, and wildlife (mostly squirrels and chipmunks — but brazen!). Sunrise was lovely and then morning mist rose from the water.
Breakfast was pumpkin baked oatmeal, and we stayed at the table for a final check-in. I got a last journalling/writing session in before packing everything up and getting ready to depart.
One thing I loved about Writing on the Rocks was the largely unstructured nature of the retreat. Tarot and oracle decks and other prompts (there was a new poem every day) were available to anyone at any time, as was Anita. My goal was to kickstart my month-long leave, and for this, the retreat was perfect.
A lovely cottage with more than enough room for everyone to find their ideal writing spots, a beautiful location with opportunities to wander, a casual atmosphere that encouraged bonding and camaraderie, fabulous food, and even a chance side-quest into Coldwater. It was a Mary Poppins retreat, practically perfect in every way.
I just may be more burnt out than I thought I was.
Life in general
Though I knew I needed to rest during my six-week leave with income averaging (LIA), I thought it would only take a few days and then I’d be ready to hit the ground running with some planned activities.
I was hoping to:
Recover my garden from two years of neglect and three of minimal effort before that.
Paint the outside door (to match the other that has been painted for, like seven years now?).
Give the house a thorough cleaning.
Rearrange my office.
But the most I was able to accomplish in May was to repot some plants and get my bird feeders and bird bath set up. I bought the paint for the door, but never got around to the repainting.
Also, I was still seeing signs that I was dysregulated. Stumbling around and bumping into things; forgetting that I had something in my hands (like a freshly-emptied incense holder) and carrying it with my into another room only to realize I had it in my hand, putting it back, and forgetting why I was walking into another room; forgetting my meds; forgetting components of my rituals. And the list goes on.
As a result, I thought I’d let my recovery process guide me until after the Stillwater Writing Retreat (see below) on the second weekend of June. The retreat itself would be a bit of a reset with minimal/no access to social media, streaming, and my favourite time-waster game.
No revenge procrastination (though there’s no longer anything to revenge?) for two days. I was hoping that might help to reset my internal clock.
Since the onset of my LIA, I’d been routinely staying up until 1:30 or 2 am and sleeping in to compensate the next day. In June, that naturally started to sort itself out and I was getting to bed at midnight or 12:30 am.
I did get to bed earlier at the retreat, but it was only two days and as soon as I was back home, established habits took hold. I slowly came to the realization that I may not get many (or any) of my big goals completed during this leave.
And then a heatwave arrived. In a house with no central air, it was a miserable few days.
Just focused on recovery. And revision/writing.
But … I seem to have recovered from my sinusitis (at last). The third course of antibiotics was finished the day I left for the Stillwater Retreat. And I decided to discontinue both the antihistamines and the neti pot while I was away. I would have been too much to manage while travelling.
I resumed the neti pot when I returned but stopped it again after another week. I never got used to the sensory ick of it. Yes, it was effective in clearing out my sinuses, but my eyes watered, I drooled (!), and I sneezed multiple times during each session. Even if the water was cool, the saline solution felt like it was burning my nasal passages. Thoroughly unpleasant.
I am keeping the neti pot and remaining saline solution sachets as well as the remaining month of antihistamines in case the seasonal allergies return in the fall. A few days of discomfort is worth fending off another bout of sinusitis.
And I have a follow up appointment with my doctor on July 2nd. We’ll see what he says.
The month in writing
The month was devoted to continuing revisions/rewriting of the third act of Reality Bomb, as well as the work I committed to when I enrolled in Ariel Gordon’s workshop.
A gentle reminder that I’ve stopped sharing screenshots of my Excel writing and revision tracker because I’ve stopped setting goals in it. It’s purely the tracking of the writing and revision I accomplish within the given months and year. And I’m not tracking RB at all. At this point there’s more rewriting going on with that project than straight revision, and it’s had to compare previous drafts with this one, particularly when I’m combining bits of what were separate chapters in the last draft and then shifting bits around so that none of it even vaguely resembles what went before.
It’s actually made writing and revision easier. I don’t feel the pressure of not meeting a particular goal. I used to revise my goals multiple times a year because I wasn’t “up to par,” which is ridiculous. I’m feeling better about my writing and revision progress now. I’m flowing with highs and lows of my energy. I do what I can, when I can, with the energy I have, and it is enough. So am I 🙂
June 6th was a good news day. First, my poem, “Vasilisa,” was published in Polar Borealis 30.
Then, I received an email that work was proceeding on the anthology that one of my stories was accepted for last year (!). I can’t talk about it now, but I’ll share what I can, when I can.
On the 13th, I received an email from a reader telling me how much they appreciated “The Art of Floating.” It warms an author’s heart to know that they’ve touched someone with their words.
On the 14th, The Temz Review released this thoughtful and thorough review of The Art of Floating. It gave me all the feels. But mostly gratitude.
Then, of the 15th, Trish Talks Books posted this lovely review on Instagram.
On the 18th, I received the notification that my reading fee and travel reimbursement for the Conspiracy of 3 reading last month would be deposited by the end of the week.
I only had one meeting with Suzy this month because I had to work around the Stillwater Retreat (see below). We met on the 20th. It was a good meeting. I’m still getting many of the same comments, but I’m anticipating them now, and I have a better idea of the revision I need to complete after each session. We’re moving on to the climax. The end is in sight. Exciting!
On the 21st, I received notification that I have been accepted as an Access Copyright Affiliate.
And then, on the 28th, The Wordstock Sudbury literary festival announced its lineup for this year’s festival, including me (!), Kim Fahner, Ariel Gordon, Danielle Daniel, Drew Hayden Taylor, Hollay Ghadery, and more! So honoured to be included in this stellar 11th edition of Wordstock! Here is the article by Heidi Ulrichsen for Sudbury.com, and the Sudbury Star’s coverage.
In the area of the business of writing, the League of Canadian Poets (LCP) town hall was on the 18th and their AGM was on the 25th.
In between, on the 23rd was the an SF Canada Board meeting.
And the Canadian Authors Association AGM was on the 29th.
I am definitely AGM’d out!
Filling the well
The new Hawthorn moon in Gemini was on the 6th. It was not only overcast but raining as well.
The summer solstice was on the 20th this year. The heatwave we’d been suffering through all week finally broke. It was still hot, but overcast (surprise, surprise!). I lit my altar and followed a guided meditation.
And the full Strawberry moon in Capricorn was on the 21st. Another overcast day.
My intention was to keep my learning light this month and I think I managed it, despite myself.
I registered for the virtual Nebula conference and awards weekend from June 6 to 8, but then (and this is just one of the many symptoms of my ongoing dysregulation) I signed up for Lauren Carter’s Stillwater Retreat from June 7 to 9. Fortunately, I was able to catch the virtual sessions in replay.
The second session of Ariel Gordon’s Dispatches from the World workshop was on the 11th and the third and final session was on the 25th. I wrote 2 poems for the 11th, which I revised into 1, and then I wrote and revised a creative non-fiction piece for the 25th.
The next Free Expressions webinar I signed up for was Fate vs. Destiny with Donald Maass on the 13th. Interesting and thought-provoking, as usual.
And on the 17th, I virtually attended Imagining the Future We Want to Live In at the Sudbury Indie Cinema. I had intended to go in person but, at the last minute, I noticed that the event would be livecast on Facebook, and I attended that way. Minding my spoons 🙂
The Locus Awards weekend started on the 19th and went through until the 22nd. I caught several readings and the awards ceremony on zoom or Youtube and hope to catch the rest on replay.
Finally, I registered for a webinar on “Writing and Pitching your Hybrid Memoir” with Courtney Maum (!) through Jane Friedman on the 26th. I wasn’t back from walking Torvi in time, so I watched the replay when it was released. As I continue to toy with the idea of a hybrid memoir, this course was invaluable.
In personal care, I had a support group meeting on the 12th. The topic was emotional regulation, and it was a good session, though the last until September.
I took Torvi for a Furminator groom on the 21st. This was her second with the happy hoodie. She’s still stressed but I like to think the happy hoodie helped.
On the 27th, my mom’s sister and her daughter came to visit. Phil made a lovely bruschetta and salad, and Mom cooked a frittata. We hadn’t seen each other is years, and it was nice.
What I’m watching and reading
I watched the first season of Hazbin Hotel (Amazon). Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, has opened the titular hotel in hell with an eye to rehabilitating sinners and getting them into heaven. At the same time Adam (yes, that Adam) and his inquisitors (essentially Valkyries) are increasing the frequency of their culls (read massacres) of hell’s denizens from annually to every six months. Every episode features several musical numbers, so be aware of that, or skip if that’s not your jam, but the performances are quite good. Intended for adults.
Then, I finished watching The Second-Best Hospital in the Galaxy (Amazon), about two alien doctors, Klak and Sleech, who incite all kinds of medical and relationship hijinks while trying to protect the secret of a parasitic lifeform that eats its host’s anxiety…until it departs explosively, killing the host. Very fun, very adult.
Next, I watched Chevalier (Disney +). The movie focuses on Joseph de Boulogne’s attempt to run the Paris Opera House, a position that was chosen by a royal counsel. Though he was an accomplished composer, because he was the son of a slave woman, Boulogne was prevented from taking the position. The end of the movie predicts the next phase of his life in which he fought on the side of the Revolution. Very good.
Phil and I watched the most recent season/series of Doctor Who (Disney +) with Ncuti Gatwa. Phil wasn’t that enamoured, but I enjoyed it overall. There was a little unevenness in the season, but it came together in the end.
And I finished watching the final season of The Crown (Netflix). It focused on the events leading up to Diana’s death through to the marriage of Charles and Camilla. Overall, I think the series was an interesting interpretation of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, though they declined to carry the story through to her death, which may have been a more complete rendering of events. I’m sure they wondered how to address the later scandals of the Royal Family and how to make the last years of Elizabeth’s reign dynamic as health concerns kept both her and Phillip more and more secluded until their respective deaths.
I watched the second season of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV). Yes, this is a kids’ show, but it’s rich with nostalgia for me. This season focused on the gardening crisis of the gorgs obsession with strawberries and use of chemicals to increase the size of their yield, leading to the disappearance of the radishes and the depletion of the soil. Meanwhile the human doctoral student is trying to perfect her floating wind turbine design. And yes, the series is a little heavy-handed on the moral lesson side, and events can seem either contrived or completely random, but everything comes together at the end. This won’t be everyone’s cuppa, but I love me some Muppets.
I also watched Iwájú (Disney +). It was a lovely fable set in a future Lagos. Tole is a child whose father is a busy inventor. He cannot spend time with her because of work pressures, though his primary goal is to create a robot lizard to protect Tole because children have been disappearing in nearby Lagos. Sadly, the robot isn’t working properly.
Tole and her friend Cole decide to take a trip to Lagos, Tole with the goal of proving to her father that she is a big girl, and Cole with the goal of turning Tole over to the man who’s been abducting children in order to secure care for his sick mother. Because this is a kids’ show, all works out in the end. It was an enjoyable, if short, series.
Finally, I watched Interview with the Vampire, Part II (AMC). Sadly, I missed the first season and since AMC wants viewers to subscribe to AMC + to see it, I missed out. But I now understand why everyone is raving about this series. It’s really good.
A note on the month in reading before I get to the books. Had intended to make time to continue reading my print and ebooks during my leave but ultimately did not. My recovery took precedence. So, all of these books are audiobooks.
My first read of the month was Tomorrow’s Kin, the first novel in Nancy Kress’s Yesterday’s Kin series. I read this series out of order and my head didn’t explode 🙂 In this novel, we’re introduced to Maryanne Jenner, her three children, and the complicated series of events around the Worlders first visit to Earth. But that’s all over by the midpoint of the book, when Noah departs with the World ship. The rest of the novel addresses the fallout of the spore cloud and its effects on the ecosystem (it kills almost all mice and so disrupts prey and predator populations as well as agriculture and the economy, also, Russian and east Asian populations prove not to be immune, also, also, it alters the genome of fetuses making a generation of super-hearer kids, of whom Colin, one of Maryanne’s grandchildren, is one). This novel focuses on the science and the billionaires competing to build the first starship based on the plans the Worlders left behind. Like I said last month, an interesting series.
Then, I read The Men of the Otherworld, by Kelley Armstrong. This collection of linked short stories focuses on Clay and Jeremy. It was nice to get some backstory and context for the werewolf men.
Next, I read Oathbreakers, the second in the Vows and Honor series by Mercedes Lackey. Tarma and Kethry, still intent on earning enough money to open their own schools of battle and wizardry, respectively, join a mercenary company. When their leader disappears, they depart to investigate and enter a world of regal intrigue. There’s still one more book in the series, so I anticipate there will be more adventures in store.
I read Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff. It’s the third in her Keeper series (another disordered read—what’s going on?). Diana has graduated high school and finally come into her power as a Keeper. Her first summons? A mall in Kingston in the process of succumbing to the other side. And hell is trying to get a foothold in the real world. Her older sister, Clair, is away on a summoning of her own and Diana dived in, eager to prove herself. Entertaining.
Then, I took a brief break from fiction with The History and Enduring Popularity of Astrology by Katherine Walker. It’s a The Great Courses course converted into an Audible Original. Interesting insight into an art I’ve always dabbled in.
Next, I read Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer. Dr. Sarah Halifax, a preeminent SETI researcher, is in her eighties when the response to a message she sent to an alien civilization arrives. A billionaire benefactor steps in, offering Sarah the titular procedure, which will reset her body to its biological age when she was 25 and enable her to remain alive long enough to continue the conversation with the aliens, the one-way transmission of which takes 18 years. She agrees, her only condition that her husband Don receives the treatment as well. In a cruel twist, the procedure works on Don but not on Sarah. She must duplicate the decoding miracle that she accomplished nearly forty years ago, while Don comes to terms with his restored youth and the inevitability of losing the love of his life.
I listened to Habits for Good Sleep by Timothy J. Sharp, an Audible Original. Nothing new or startling, but a lot of good advice that I could stand to hear again.
My last read/listen of the month was another classic, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This novel seemed to be a response to Melville’s Moby Dick, starting with the narrator, a French naturalist, his servant, and a Canadian harpooner boarding The Lincoln in search of a mysterious sea monster, responsible for the sinking of several ships.
The sea monster comes for The Lincoln, and the narrator and his two companions are thrown overboard, only to be brought on board The Nautilus (AKA the sea monster) by Captain Nemo. From there, Nemo declares that they may never leave his ship, and they embark on the titular adventure. The novel shares many of the conceits with Melville’s, including long digressions into the nature and function of The Nautilus, the various sea life the narrator documents in his travels, the occasional people they meet (Nemo is a misanthrope), and the details of their navigational journey. It was okay.
And that was the month in this writer’s life.
Until next month, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!
While I attended the Writing Excuses Retreat (WXR) in 2017, that was on a cruise ship and involved a lot of people.
The Stillwater Writing Retreat, on the other hand, organized by Lauren Carter and Anita Allen-Rudzitis of Wild Ground Writing was the first “traditional” writers retreat I’ve attended. The focus of the weekend was to learn strategies to address writerly anxiety and self regulate while still being productive.
I went with Kim Fahner and Laura Young and we had a lovely, writerly road trip on the way down and back from the Loretto Maryholme Retreat Centre in Roches Point, Ontario, on Lake Simcoe. Lots of good conversation, or crack, as Kim would say 🙂
We arrived just after 3 pm, were seen to our rooms (Kim and I shared “The Green Room”), settled in, and I took the opportunity to tour the grounds before supper.
Among the features: a sensory garden, an insect garden, maintained trails, a labyrinth, a memorial cairn for missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women, a medicine wheel garden, a cosmic walking tour, and a “stations of the light” walking tour. Note: I did not take pictures of everything.
Aside from Edgar House and the nearby Fensom Cottage, there are three other cottages to rent, and all look like wonderful places to stay. The Green Room was huge and had an ensuite with clawfoot tub and a sunroom overlooking the lake. The fresh cut peonies smelled divine.
The sessions were well-balanced with independent writing time, and it was great to be in the company of creative women and to walk together on our creative paths for a while.
Friday night, after a group session, we all retired early (travel days are tough!). I was up before six on Saturday and, though it was overcast, donned my swimsuit and made my way to one of the centre’s two docks. The wind made the water choppy, and I wasn’t able to swim (I tried, but no dice), but I took a (refreshing!) dip and sat to dry off before heading back up to Edgar House for breakfast.
While I was there, I explored most of the gardens and trails. I walked the labyrinth. They have three bee boxes and a visiting beekeeper (!). I saw the resident foxes a couple of times, as well as cardinals, red-wing black birds, blue jays, red, grey, and black squirrels, and chipmunks. I had to watch where I stepped because there were tonnes of garden snails.
Calming and peaceful, the Stillwater Retreat was a needed reset during my time off.
If they do it again next year (there was talk) I’m going again.
Colm Tóibín on writing. Sentences as rhythm. Sentences as brush strokes. Yummy. Louisiana Channel.
Jeanette Winterson examines Shakespeare’s take on love: bed tricks and broken women. A friend took exception to the dim view of Anne the piece presents, but y’all know not to believe everything you read, right? The Guardian.
Why authors can’t afford to dupe their readers. Kind of goes without saying, but Katie makes her point by expressing some extreme displeasure with Avengers: Age of Ulton for its use of misdirection.
Kind of related: Found this link on an agent’s #MSWL. Kick-ass women in history: Khutulun on Smart Bitches/Trashy Books. She wants a book based on the life of a Mongol Queen!
“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”
Lauren Carter, whom I’ve featured here on the blog for a workshop she delivered in Sudbury, won the 2014 Room Poetry Contest. Here’s their interview with her.
I spent the afternoon with Lauren Carter, her mother, Laura (a visual artist with a good feel for story), and five other wonderful writers talking, and writing, about character.
Lauren is on a tour to promote her literary dystopian novel,Swarm, which was released in September by Brindle & Glass publishing. She’s been to Orillia and Blind River (both places she used to live), and has made a stop in Sudbury for a couple of days before she heads south to continue her journey.
As part of her Sudbury leg, Lauren agreed to offer a writing workshop for the Canadian Authors Association Roving Writers program. Tomorrow night, she will be giving a reading at the south end branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library as part of the Luminaries reading series.
Lauren indicated that nothing she had to teach was proprietary and so I’m going to offer a bit of a run down of her workshop.
Lauren is a firm believer that there are no rules in writing.
People come to writing as artists – organically.
Character is important in prose, even in plot-based fiction, someone has to be at the heart of the action.
The reader (and therefore the writer) must know those characters intimately.
Each writer will have her or his approach.
All great art begins at a point of absolute confusion.
Writers make decisions about their characters.
Eric Maisel – characters are not people, they are in the novel to serve the writer.
We then reviewed two writing samples: Matadora, by Elizabeth Ruth and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. We looked at the clues the writers offered about their characters, their backgrounds, the techniques used to engage the reader in the character, how descriptions were used, and so forth.
Lauren passed out a character development questionnaire put together by Kathy Page. We didn’t use it, however. Not yet.
Then followed the first of several writing assignments. This first focused on character description.
Next, we wrote specifically about a possession or place specific to the character, like a purse, car, or room.
Then we focused in on a specific object within the last writing assignment and worked with that.
Finally, after having gotten to know our characters a bit better, Lauren guided us back to the questionnaire and focused the next writing assignment on that. Having written through a few iterations of describing our characters through physicality, place, and possessions, it was not easier to enter into the details of the list and discover even more.
The last writing assignment took all that we’d learned about our characters and focused on plot. This was set up by another reading from Eric Maisel about “The writer as Experimental Psychologist” taken from his book, What Would your Character Do?
Essentially, plot is a matter of answering three questions:
What does the character want?
Why does the character want it?
How will the character achieve his or her goal (or not)?
After that, it’s a matter of the author rigorously testing the hypothesis she or he has developed until all three questions are answered satisfactorily.
So first, we explored our characters’ psychological make-up; then, we answered the first of the three questions.
Each writing assignment was a free-write and delivered with the instruction to follow the writing wherever it led. In several cases the characters did, as they are notoriously known to do, their own things 😉
It was a good workshop, and I was happy to have been part of it.
The committee is responsible for the annual conference, the Literary Awards, professional development of the membership, and something called the Roving Writers program.
I volunteered to be on the sub-committee for the Roving Writers and our first event will be in a scant week!
Author Lauren Carter will be coming to Sudbury as part of her book tour. So on Sunday, Oct 6, from 1-4 pm at the Parkside Older Adult Centre in the YMCA building, she will be delivering a workshop on Deep Character.
Here’s the poster with the deets (including how to sign up):
The CAA office will be sending me a copy of the participant list and I will be taking payment (cash or cheque only, please) at the door. The discounted fee of $25 applies to members of the CAA only.
Light refreshments (fruit, muffins, water, and juice) will be provided.
I can’t thank the Sudbury Writers’ Guild enough for their assistance in getting this event off the ground.
Following that, on Monday, Oct 7, Lauren will be at the south end branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library as part of the first LUminaries reading series. This has nothing to do with the CAA or the Roving Writers, but I thought I’d spread the word.
She will, of course, have copies of her dystopian literary novel, Swarm, available for sale and signing.
Always Looking Up 