Gone Fishing

Sorry if my posts have been sporadic for a few days.
I'll get back on schedule before the summer's over.

How to Make Yourself Write workshop, Saturda, Sept 13, in Brampton

The Brampton Writers' Guild presents...
“How to Make Yourself Write”

~ A creativity workout ~

Saturday, September 13, 2014
10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Four Corners Library, 65 Queen Street East, Brampton, Ontario (Map here.)

Let's get motivated! This workshop is designed to help you find the time and the inspiration to write. No more staring at a blank screen. Come to this workshop and learn the five keys to beating procrastination. Then give yourself a kick-start and discover how to keep going. This creativity workout will get your words flowing and help you make the breakthrough into the next level of writing. Don’t procrastinate. Sign up today!

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

Fee: 40.71+ 13% hst = 46 paid in advance by mail or Interac
or 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 if you wait to pay at the door

Don’t put this off. Reserve a spot now. Email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

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

Literary agents Susan Golomb and Soumeya Bendimerad seek authors

Susan Golomb and author Jonathan Franzen

Susan Golomb Literary Agency

540 President Street, 3rd Floor 
Brooklyn, NY 11215

http://www.sgolombagency.com/

Susan Golomb founded her literary agency in 1990 and for over twenty years has been known for finding bestselling and award-winning fiction and nonfiction.

Among her numerous New York Times Bestellers are Freedom and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio and Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia by Greg Child.

You can read an excellent extended interview with Susan here.

Susan is accepting new clients. She represents Literary Fiction, Chick Lit, Commercial Fiction, Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Short Stories. In nonfiction, she represents Parenting, Adventure/True Story, Spirituality, and Pets books. 

Query Susan at: queries@sgolombagency.com

There is also a new agent at the Golomb agency, Soumeya Bendimerad, and like any new agent, she needs authors. Soumeya joined the agency in 2012, where she is the director of foreign rights in addition to being an agent. 

Prior to that, she was a literary scout at Sanford Greenburger Associates and an associate editor at MacAdam/Cage Publishing. She is from the San Francisco Bay Area

Soumeya is actively seeking new authors. She represents literary fiction, upmarket/book club fiction, and select young-adult and middle grade.

She is drawn to intelligent literary fiction with a fresh voice, coming of age stories, novels with elements of travel or stories set in other countries, family sagas, experiments with form, and complex but sympathetic characters. In nonfiction, she is seeking topics in popular culture, music and art history, unconventional business, politics, narrative nonfiction, sociology, cooking, travel, and memoir.

Query Soumeya at: soumeya@sgolombagency.com

Include a synopsis, and the first three chapters or fifty pages. Only electronic submissions accepted. Please include the word “Query” in the subject of your email.

Olga Filina

Brian Henry will lead “How to Get Published” workshops in Oakville on Saturday, Sept 27, with literary agent Carolyn Forde (see here) and in Niagara on the Lake on Sunday, March 1, with literary agent Olga Filina (see here).

He has a “Writing for Children & for Young Adults”workshop Saturday, Nov 8, in Guelph (see here).

Other upcoming workshops, include: “How to Make Yourself Write,” Saturday, Sept 13 in Brampton (see here),  “Writing & Revising,” Saturday, Sept 20, in Toronto (see here), and “How to Write s Bestseller," with New York Times #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, Nov 22, in Burlington (see here) and Saturday, Dec 6, in London (see here). See Brian's full schedule here.

But the best way to get your manuscript ready for publication is with a weekly course. This fall, Brian will be offering weekly classes for writers from beginning to advanced. Check out details of all six upcoming classes here. 

Specifically, Brian is offering “Welcome to Creative Writing” Tuesday mornings in Burlington (see here), “Writing Your Life & Other Personal Stories” Tuesday afternoons in Burlington (here), “The Next Step in Creative Writing” Wednesday evenings in Burlington (here), Thursday afternoons in Mississauga (here) and Thursday evenings in Georgetown (here). He’s offering “Intensive Creative Writing” Wednesday afternoons in Burlington (here).

To register or for more details of any course or workshop, 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, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

  

Love letters ~ Where your fellow writers are finding agents & getting published. Also, writers group wanted!

Congratulations, Denise!

Brian,

So, my friends, the ink is barely dry on the publishing contract for A Keeper’s Truth, but I couldn’t wait to share the news with you! The launch isn’t scheduled yet, but I’ll be sure to fill you in when it is, hoping you all join me to celebrate.

Yippee! 

My agent is the amazing Catherine Luttinger of Darhansoff and Verrill and the publisher for A Keeper’s Truth is BDP, Bottom Drawer Publishing.  We are thrilled!

Denise Wilson

For information about submitting to Catherine Luttinger of Darhansoff and Verrill, see here.

I have two “How to Get Published” workshops coming up with literary agents as my guest speakers: Sept 27 in Oakville (see here) and March 7 in Niagara on the Lake (see here).

Rick Revelle reads from I am Algonquin

Brian,

Just thought I’d drop you a line and tell you that I signed a contract with Dundurn Press for my second book of the Algonquin Quest Series. The title is Algonquin Spring and it takes place six years after the first book of the series, I Am Algonquin.

Both novels take place in the 1300s. Algonquin Spring is set in Northern New York State, the Gaspe region of Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the Ottawa Valley. This book introduces the reader to some new magical characters from the Native world. Readers will also learn about the Mi´kmaq and Mohawk communities and their languages.

New heroes, old heroes and dangerous enemies – they are all there to follow as they try to survive in this harsh environment.

Questions will be answered from the first book; however new mysteries will evolve in Algonquin Spring.

Release date to be determined in the next few months.

Currently I am doing research on the third book of the Series, Algonquin Pursuit.

Rick Revelle

For information about submitting to Dundurn Books, see here.

Congratulations, Melanie!

Brian,

I was informed that I made the top 10 in the In Places Between contest for the When Words Collide literary festival back in June. Well, last Sunday at the festival, I learned I won second place!

Publication in the chapbook came with my inclusion in the short list, but a modest monetary prize ($100) was my reward for making second place. Even better, I received the written comments of all four judges (one of whom was Robert Runte of Five Rivers Publishing) on my story. As I retain copyright, I have the means to get "On the Ferry" published elsewhere.

It was a win-win-win-win :)

Melanie Marttila

http://www.melaniemarttila.ca

"Sorry, Mom. Not Hallmark"

Hi, Brian.

Near to the Knuckle in the UK has posted my story, “The Perfect Home.”  On their home page, it’s the story with a picture of a man’s hands holding a knife behind his back. Sorry, Mom, not Hallmark!

Let me know what you think!

Michelle Boomer (Whitehead)

Read Michelle’s story here. Read her bio here.

For information on submitting to Near to the Knuckle, see here.

Writer to Writer

Sometimes it helps to have a buddy

Hi, Brian.

I am an inspired and aspiring writer looking to connect with other writers for inspiration and critiquing. If you have a writing group in the London area or you’re looking for a writing buddy, please contact me!

I find that in good company my writing muse is inspired and comes to life with new ideas and plots. Also in down times, it’s nice to know I’m not alone as a romantic, temperamental writing fool. I hope I am able to connect with others like me who are still dreamers and hope for future success.

A.S.King

masking11@hotmail.com

Note: If you're looking for a writers' group or a ghost writer or want to get the word out to your fellow writers for anything else, just send me an email I can post in Writer to Writer. You'll get responses. – Brian (brianhenry@sympatico.ca) 

See my schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Loving Your Life by Elke Scholz, reviewed by Maria Duncalf-Barber

The multi-talented Bracebridge, Muskoka, expressive artist, writer and therapist Elke Scholz has updated and re-published her 2004 book Loving Your Life.

Her previous published edition sold out, and this new edition is more up to date, contemporary in its look and content. Also, she’s added 40 new pages of exercises on life and emotions, illustrations, poetry, and art therapy.

Many books have been written about happiness and self-realization, but Loving Your Life is up there with the best of them. The book invites you to embrace happiness and know yourself.

The key to getting the most out of this book are the exercises. These lead you to an understanding of who you are and who you are becoming, which are the quintessential questions to answer for a life well lived.

Scholz has been on a lifetime journey of education and exploration. She graduated from the Expressive Arts program at Sir Sanford Fleming College, from a three-year intensive program at a private college, ISIS Canada, in Toronto, and she proudly and successfully completed the Masters Honours level for Expressive Arts Therapy at a European Graduate School, Sass Fee Campus in Switzerland.

 “The original book was self-published and sold many copies,” Scholz says. “I was honoured when three years later General Store Publishing House contacted me and said, ‘we want to republish your book.’

“At that time I wasn’t sure. I was busy and I was writing my Masters, but after great thought I said, ‘yes, okay, I’ll do it.’ So I wrote more about the creative passionate living I was learning about and I am extremely happy with the outcome.”

Scholz says that through the arts we can access our true potential. She writes about everything from breathing to journal writing, to developing personal vision, from embracing life and death and mapping your journey on a daily basis to finding happiness.

Scholz encourages us to “slow down this fast paced world” by recreating harmony within and by feeding the soul and savoring the moment, and by using positive thinking and mindfulness to create our own peaceful inner landscape.

Listen to that inner voice, she proclaims. Follow your heart by using all of our five senses with music, drumming, painting art, and writing, poetry as all creative endeavors bring us closer to harmony and peace within.

This book is a well written well illustrated tool, which offers resources to stimulate body, mind and spirit. It enhances education and enables the reader to express emotions and to work through personal issues in a safe, responsible, healing way.

From the beginning of the Breath of Life to Mapping your Life, this book is superb; it tells us that the arts will stimulate the neural pathways in the brain with new perspectives – a wonderful way to learn.

Loving Your Life is available through General Store Publishing here.

*

Maria Duncalf-Barber has written everything from short stories to poetry, from book reviews to columns on personal growth. You can read an earlier review of hers here.

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

“Jupiter’s Thunder” flash fiction by Joel McCarthy

Rain, but not really. I’ve been having trouble with screw-lids lately. There isn’t enough wine in Niagara County for your mother. The neighbour’s cat keeps shitting in your old sandbox, and there’s nothing to be done about any of it.

            The first thing I wanted to say was how your mother and I smoked pot on Christmas Eve. I never told you that. It was what we did, our little tradition for a while. We kept it up for few years after you came along, up until you spoke your first word maybe. What we’d do is put you to bed, smoke a joint, and then lay your presents under the tree. I’d bring the gifts down from the attic while your mother rolled a J in the living room. She was better at rolling, and she liked to do it on the coffee table, the one that you broke your toe on when you were three.

            We’d share the cookies and milk after. They were the cookies and milk you thought were for Santa. We made sure to leave a few crumbs, because that seemed like something Santa would do. We made love, usually. I’m not telling you that to be inappropriate or anything. You’re old enough to talk on the level now, and I’m just telling truths here.

            It was usually your mother’s idea. She really wanted to give you a brother, you know. This was especially true around the holidays. That time of year always made her think of how you were growing up alone. A little brother is what she wanted for you. Sometimes I wish we gave you that. Sometimes I think maybe that would’ve altered the course. I think about that sometimes, but then I have to stop.

             I keep thinking about Jupiter. It’s got me up nights. A lot of things keep me up, but lately it’s Jupiter. It drives a wedge between everyday conversations, ones where I’m supposed to be listening to what other people say. A lot of people have a lot to say this time of year. It’s difficult. People are talking to me like I’m some war vet, and I’m off thinking about Jupiter, the things you told me, how much you loved space.  

            You explained the origin of its red dot one night. I came into your room to tell you to shut off your light. You were standing on your bed in your pajamas, pointing to something on the space poster that your Aunt Vera gave you for your birthday. It was very detailed. I could tell you liked it more than the sweater your mother made.

            You asked me what planet was my favourite other than Earth. It took me a while to answer. I looked at the planets on the poster, their size, their colour. I picked Jupiter because of the red spot.

            Your eyes lit up. You told me how the spot was actually a storm, a gigantic hurricane. It was however many diameters across, however many times larger than an Earth hurricane. Its wind turned over six hundred fifty kilometers an hour. It rotated counter-clockwise. You drew a circle in the air with your finger. You said it had been alive for three hundred years. You were grinning, a loose tooth dangling from your top lip, barely clinging to the gum. That’s what I remember.

            Your mother is moving to Sherbrook with her old roommate. She hasn’t had a lot to say lately other than that. There hasn’t been a lot to say between us for a while now. Mostly, it’s because of you. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Nothing is your fault, but I’d be lying if I said you weren’t at the core of why things don’t work anymore.

            You were the only thing that ever defined us. We weren’t much without you, before or after. Your mother always said that you were an extension of the love we were working on, and without that extension, there’s not much to work with. She’s right. And so now we’ll sell the house and she’ll go to Quebec.

            I’m letting her take whatever she wants, which won’t be much. She doesn’t care for possessions anymore, you know. She sold her Depression glassware. Remember what she used to keep locked up in the family room? All that glass behind glass. I wasn’t even allowed to touch it.

            Two summers ago she sold it to an antique dealer. He paid much less than it was worth. He came to the house, loaded it into a Windstar and drove off. Your mother said she sold it because she was afraid of losing it. “I don’t wanna fret about it anymore,” is what she told me after it was hauled away. I didn’t question her. If she thought that was some kind of a solution, then that was that. She’ll use the money to help her get set up.

            I’m leaving, too. That’s what I came to say. I want to say that this has all been a selfish act for me. I’ve been coming out here for longer than you were even alive, thinking I was accomplishing something, making good on the situation, forging a progression. In reality, I have been nothing more than curator of my own guilt.

            Ten seasons I’ve knelt down here and traced your name with my fingertip, your name in stone. Each visit has been a vaccination, something to protect me from another frost, another invasion of phone calls, well wishes, annual condolences.

            Ten seasons and it’s starting to wear off. It feels like it’s robbing me of something, the life that’s left. It’s a storm that’s been banging on for too long. I need to see the ocean, the desert, somewhere that isn’t here.  You don’t mind because you can’t hear me. You’ve never been able to; no matter how hard I wanted it. I’ve accepted that now.

            I heard a lyric somewhere. I don’t know who wrote it. She sang something about everybody being out on loan. And that’s just it, I think. Sooner or later the dirt’s going to want you back. It’s better to get things settled before that happens. I know it now. That’s where I’m at now, kid. That’s what’s left. That’s at least something.      

Joel McCarthy has had stories published in The Feathertale Review, Macabre Cadaver Magazine, and PRISM International. He lives in Mississauga with his wife and two cats. 

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

Linda Spencer makes the cover of Sibyl, Mark Young self-publishes, and Gloria Hansen publishes all over the place

Hi, Brian.

I'm so thrilled and honoured to be featured on the cover of the Aug/Sept 2014 issue of Sibyl Magazine, with my poem "Sun-Sets and Sun-Rises” featured on page 6. Check out my blog and links to the magazine! 

Special thanks to Change Your Life Photography for the amazing photo that Sibyl chose to feature.

Linda Spencer

lindajspencer.blogspot.ca

Hi, Brian.

Just wanted to update you on some of my writing news. I have been sharing my novel Risk on Wattpad at the rate of a few chapters a week and they have made it one of their "featured stories". It has been getting lots of votes and great comments since the beginning, but has really started generating a ton of reads since they featured it.

At the same time, I'm in the process of self-publishing my novel Once Were Friends, which is now available on Amazon, Google Play and Smashwords, with other platforms pending.

You may remember giving me a full manuscript critique on an earlier version of this book and your comments and advice were instrumental in getting it to its current form. Much appreciated! I have thanked you on the Acknowledgements page of the book.

Thanks also for putting on all those workshops of yours I've been to over the years. They are always helpful and a great inspiration to better writing.

Cheers,

Mark Victor Young

Hi, Brian:

First of all, can’t wait to get the newest newsletter. It is Sooo jam-packed with articles and info, it is a three-cupsa-coffee read. Much appreciated by myself and the Elliot Lake writing circle.

I am not sure if I already told you that I have a story in Commuterlit’s anthology. Titled “Honor Thy Root,” it’s about what can happen to a young lady who has one too many on an airplane. I also placed the same story in Near to the Knuckle, a writing journal in the UK.

I also recently have been accepted for yet another article titled “Angel in Waiting” in Chicken Soup for the Soul, the 2014 Christmas in Canada series. That makes five acceptances and what a thrill to be published amid writers from all over the world. Living proof that Northern Ontario puts out more than snow drifts and highway construction! It will be released mid-October.

Thank you again for this colorful and readable blog — and for the newsletter summary. We devour every word!

Gloria Hansen

Elliot Lake

Read Gloria's bio and see the links to all the stories she's published on CommuterLit here. For information about submitting to CommuterLit, see here, and to read about their new contest, see here.

For information on submitting to Near to the Knuckle, see here.

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