Tomorrow I head for Dead Man’s Flats for a 4-day writers’ retreat with six other friends. Simple enough: about a year ago we found this condo set in the spectacular mountains–has a hot tub in case we need to take a break from all that typing, and it’s only 5 minutes from Canmore where there are lots of restaurants for dinner and to get out of the condo. Really looking forward to it: dedicated, focussed writing time. And I have tons to do!
Great rejection
I think I’ve said before, but I’ll say again–my family laugh at me when I tell them about great rejections I get, but I got another good one this week: Sure, Tor is not buying the manuscript I sent in, but I did get some compliments from their editor. But the best part is, I asked if I could send in a future project, and was told yes, and that I can use the current email address I have, rather than try to meet a Tor editor to speak face-to-face at a conference. To me, that’s a great rejection.
I sold a story!!
Just got home from the Calgary Public Library’s writers’ conference (which was, as always, fabulous) and learned that I sold a story to The Urban Green Man anthology coming out this summer from Edge Press! I’m pumped! My first sale for 2013!
Ever get super excited about your volunteer work?
Yeah, it’s not writing. But working for my writers’ group (we run a short story contest every year that is very cool), a writers’ festival (WWC encourages cross-fertilization among a zillion different writers’ organizations) and teaching adults how to write novels (through the Alexandra Writers’ Society) can also be very satisfying. So–okay–no fiction this week. But next week, for sure!
Love working with students!
I had a super time working with four classes of grade 3/4 students this week. The first two days I was able to have extended sessions with each class to go into depth on story planning, using the try/fail cycle, and the third day I was able to help the students deepen and add detail their own story plans–along with trouble-shooting story ideas that missed the mark or didn’t have enough conflict. The kids worked hard and created really detailed plans and seemed to enjoy the process. The best part, for me, though, was when one of the teachers told me that after I left her class, the kids dove into their planning and “you could hear a pin drop.” One of her students who sometimes has difficulty staying on task asked at a later point to go back an add more ideas to his!