Welcome to Creative Writing course, Tuesday afternoons, April 22 – June 10, in Burlington

“Welcome to Creative Writing”

~ Eight weeks of exploring your creative side ~

Tuesday afternoons, 12:45 – 2:45 p.m.

April 22 – June 10, 2014

Appleby United Church

4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

This is your chance to take up writing in a warm, supportive environment. This course will open the door to all kinds of creative writing. We’ll visit short story writing and children’s writing, writing in first person and in third person, and writing just for fun. 

You’ll get a shot of inspiration every week and an assignment to keep you going till the next class. Best of all, this class will provide a zero-pressure, totally safe setting, where your words will grow and flower.

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led writing workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he's helped many of his students get published.

Fee: $123.01 plus 13% hst = 139

Number of attendees strictly limited.

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

The Sudbury Writers’ Guild

The goal of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild is to assist writers in all stages of their careers. We offer networking, critiques of each other’s work, and enlist guest speakers to share their expertise and experience. Our most recent guest, Mark Leslie Lefebvre — author and Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations at Kobo — gave a seminar on e-publishing in November 2013. 

We support members and newcomers alike, promote northern Ontario writers, and host writing workshops, such as Brian Henry’s “Secrets of Writing a Page-turner” workshop on April 8, 2017. (See details of most recent Sudbury Writers' workshops with Brian here.) 

Our monthly newsletter, Sharpen Your Quill, delivers information on contests and useful links as well as contributions about writing by our members and the newsletter editor.

The Guild meets the last Thursday of every month from September to May, with social evenings in both December and June. Meetings are held from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm at the Parkside Centre at the YMCA, 140 Durham Street, Sudbury, Ontario. Doors open at 6:00 to allow for socializing and networking. Modest membership fees pay for the room rental and the Guild website at www.sudburywritersguild.com  

In 2002 the Guild partnered with the Canadian Authors Association (CAA) to bring Northern Ink, the CAA National Writing Conference, to Sudbury. In recent years members have been active in numerous other events, including:

·         The 10th Annual Manitoulin Writers' Retreat where members both hosted and participated in writing workshops.

·         The Northern Lights Festival Boreal where we talked to the public about writing events around the region and what the Guild has to offer.

·         The Arts, Berries and Jazz Festival in Espanola where seven Guild members partnered with seven members of the La Cloche Artists group for a FUSION project.

·         Various literary readings, including the monthly Fiction and Poetry Readings and Open Mic at the Greater Sudbury Public Library, Main Branch.

·         The inaugural Wordstock Literary Festival in Sudbury in 2013, where word artists of all kinds gathered to workshop and perform.

See Brian Henry’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Writing Your Memoirs & Other Personal Stories course, Tuesday mornings, April 22 – June 10, in Burlington

“Writing Your Life & Other Personal Stories”

~ An eight-week adventure in writing ~

Tuesday mornings, 9:45 – 11:45 a.m.

April 22 – June 10, 2014

Appleby United Church

4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

If you've ever considered writing your memoirs, your family history or just getting your thoughts down on paper, this weekly course will get you going. We'll reveal the tricks and conventions of telling true stories, and we’ll show you how to use the techniques of the novel to recount actual events.

Weekly writing exercises and friendly feedback from the instructor will help you move forward on this writing adventure. Whether you want to write for your family or for a wider public, don't miss this course.

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led writing workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he's helped many of his students get published.

Fee: $123.01 plus 13% hst = 139

Number of attendees strictly limited.

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

The Rights Factory has six (Canadian) literary agents seeking authors, including one brand new agent

The Rights Factory Inc. 

PO Box 499, Station C
Toronto ON M6J 3P6
http://www.therightsfactory.com/index.html

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

The Rights Factory is a boutique agency that deals in intellectual property rights for entertainment products, including books, comics & graphic novels, film, television, and video games. As an international agency, TRF licenses rights in every territory. TRF works directly with publishers, producers, studios, game developers and other rights-buyers in all territories, occasionally in conjunction with local representatives.  

The Rights Factory has an esteemed roster of both fiction and non-fiction writers including Jennifer Close, debut author of the must-read short story collection, Girls In White Dresses; Margot Berwin, author of Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire (optioned by Julia Roberts in conjunction with Columbia Pictures for film rights), and the forthcoming paranormal romance, Aromata.

As of January 2014, The Rights Factory has promoted Devon LaBerge to associate agent from agency assistant. Devon previously interned at HarperCollins Canada and Dundurn Press. She holds a publishing certificate from Ryerson University and an honours bachelor of arts in English Literature and Canadian Studies from University of Toronto. Like all new agents, Devon is in need of new authors.

“I'm primarily interested in literary fiction, women's fiction, genre fiction (most notably crime and mystery), and memoir,” says Devon. “And I’lll be venturing out to acquire YA as well.” 

Query Devon at: Devon@therightsfactory.com

Or she can be queried through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Include the first three chapters of the manuscript.

The Rights Factory also has several other agents who are looking for clients:

Sam Hiyate is the president The Rights Factory.  Among others, Sam represents Andrew Kaufman, author of such literary works as All My Friends Are Superheroes and The Waterproof Bible; Rupinder Gill, This Hour Has 22 Minutes staff writer and author of the humorous memoir On the Outside Looking Indian; and David Gilmour, multi-award winning author of The Film Club and upcoming The Perfect Order of Things. 

Sam is seeking great mysteries, crime novels and thrillers, he’s partial to funny and moving stories, and he’s always on the lookout for that perfect commercial-literary hybrid.

Note: Sam will be the guest speaker at the "How to Get Published" workshop, Saturday, April 12, in Guelph. Details here.

Query Sam through TRF’s submissions page here.

Olga Filina is fairly new to the agenting business. A graduate of Humber’s Creative Book Publishing Program, Olga spent over a decade as a sales manager and book buyer for both national and independent book store chains and two years as a literary assistant at The Cooke Agency.

While Olga will read anything that may set her book clubs on fire, she gravitates towards commercial and historical fiction, great genre fiction in the area of romance and mystery, nonfiction in the field of business, wellness, lifestyle and memoir and young adult and middle grade novels with memorable characters. In her spare time, Olga sits on library boards, organizes literary festivals and runs more book clubs than she can count.

Note: Olga will be the guest speaker at the "How to Get Published" workshop, Saturday, April 19, in London. Details here.

Query Olga at: Olga@therightsfactory.com

Or through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Eftyhia Lucas is another relatively new associate agent at The Rights Factory, but she’s currently on leave

Ali McDonald specializes in children's literature of all kinds, ranging from novelty board books, picture books, early readers, and chapter books, to middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys working primarily with debut authors, but also has the distinguished pleasure of co-representing big stars of Canadian literature, including Mariko Tamaki and David Glimour, in their kidlit works. 

Ali is open to anything, building her list on strong voices with original stories. Many Quick Brown Fox readers will be familiar with Ali from when she`s been a guest speaker at Brian Henry's workshops.

Query Ali at: alison@therightsfactory.com

Haskell Nussbaum is a lawyer turned writer turned literary agent. He is the author of Beat That Parking Ticket and has contributed articles and stories to the National Post (Canada), Jerusalem Post, Pacific News Service and others, and he has appeared on, or been featured in, national and local news, radio and TV, including Fox and Friends, NPR, NY Post, New York Magazine, USA Today, NY1, CBS, Today in New York, and many others. His list is diverse, ranging from clients on the New York Times Bestseller list to debut authors.

Query Haskell at Haskell@therightsfactory.com

Drea Cohane joined The Rights Factory in 2011. With a publishing degree, and several years of writing behind her, Drea is a voracious reader of all genres. She is currently looking to add to her list of authors in memoir, crime, creative non-fiction and literary fiction. Drea blogs occasionally here.

Query Drea at: Drea@therightsfactory.com

See The Rights Factory contact page here. Submissions page here. 

Brian Henry will lead a “How to Get Published" workshop in Burlington on Feb 22 with literary agent Martha Magor Webb (see here). 

He’ll also lead “How to Get Published” workshops in Thessalon in Algoma on March 23 (see here), in Guelph on April 12 with literary agent Sam Hiyate (see here), in London on April 19 with literary agent Olga Filina (see here), and in Stouffville on May 24 with literary agent Carly Watters (see here).

Also, Brian will lead a “Writing for Children & for Young Adults” workshop in Burlington on May 31 (see here).

To register or for more details of any course or workshop, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Love Letters ~ Where your fellow writers are getting published

Hello, Brian!

Thanks to your contributions and suggestions to improving my short memoir, “The Backyard Car,” the Globe & Mail published on January 22nd.

So excited!!!!

Sally Wylie

Read Sally’s story here. For information on submitting a “Facts and Arguments” essay to the Globe and Mail, see here.

Hey, Brian!
I have some exciting news. I've been published in a newspaper serving Golden, Revelstoke and Invermere, BC, The Local Townie. I'm the only one writing fiction for it, and it is a five part short story series that started in November.

Here is the link to the first issue, my story is on page 23.
Glad to say your workshops have helped me keep writing, and its turned out great!
Susan Leenhouts

Dear Brian,

I've experienced great success with my writing these last few months.

Three of my stories found their way into anthologies. My paranormal flash fiction, Soldier's Last Wish, appeared in Commuterlit Selections.

The anthology A River Runs by it, released in October, features two of my nonfiction stories: Twilight Imagery and The Legend of Hallowed Ground.

A humorous short story, Delusional Date, won the Eden Mills Writers' Festival Fringe contest in September – a thrilling once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But it was a September posting on Quick Brown Fox about a crime fiction contest sponsored by Your McMurray Magazine and Northword that resulted in the most recent excitement.

My crime story entry Whiskey Nights was awarded second prize and $1,500.

This win encouraged me to focus my writing on the genre I love. I have since joined Crime Writers of Canada and look forward to a long association.

Finally, I'd like to thank you for your support in posting some of my work on Quick Brown Fox, including several of my book reviews.

Quick Brown Fox is the best blog for writers to follow. It has all the information an aspiring writer needs to succeed.

Cheers,
Phyllis Humby
The Write Break

You can read Phyllis’s award-winning short story Whiskey Nights on Quick Brown Fox here.

Brian,

Yay! I published a couple of memoirs in True North Perspective, and now my first short story has been published on CommuterLit (here).

Norm Rosolen

Hi, Brian.

Just wanted to let you know that Commuterlit.com published my short story “Ditch Lily.” They also published “Ballin' in the Limo with Lesbo Shoes” a few months back.  I heard about Commuterlit.com through your blog, so I wanted to say thank you – you always have such good information for writers.  

Thanks again for all your help,
Sandra Ziemniak
On Facebook here

Read “Ballin’ in the Limo with Lesbo Shoes” here, and read “Ditch Lilly,” here.

For information about submitting to CommuterLit, see here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.