Last call for Writing Personal Stories and Writing Kid Lit courses

Note: for information on creative writing courses starting this winter, see here.

Writing Personal Stories

8 weeks of sharing and writing

Thursday evenings, 7 – 9 p.m.

October 4 – November 29, 2018

Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

If you've ever considered writing your personal stories, this course is for you. We’ll look at memoirs, travel writing, personal essays, family history ~ personal stories of all kinds. Plus, of course, we’ll work on creativity and writing technique and have fun doing it. 

Whether you want to write a book or just get 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 and friends or for a wider public, don't miss this course.

Fee:  $167.26 plus 13% hst = $189      

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

Author Jennifer Mook-Sang, signing bookmarks

Writing Kid Lit

 ~ Picture Books to Young Adult

Friday afternoons, October 5 – December 7, 2018 (No class Nov 2)

1:15 – 3:15 p.m.

Glenview Church, Bethlehem Room, 1 Glenview Ave, Toronto, Ontario (Map here.)

Note: This weekly Writing Kid Lit course is also offered in Oakville on Thursday evenings, starting in January (see here), and a one-day Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop is offered Saturday, Oct 13, in Sudbury (see here).

From picture books to young adult novels, this weekly course is accessible for beginners and meaty enough for advanced writers. Through lectures, in-class assignments, homework, and feedback on your writing, we’ll give you ins and outs of writing for younger readers and set you on course toward writing your own books.
We’ll have two published children’s authors as guest speakers:

Jennifer Mook-Sang grew up in Guyana and moved to Canada when she was fourteen. While reading bedtime stories to her two sons, she fell in love with picture books and decided to write one of her own. In one of Brian Henry's classes she found the beginnings of a story. That story grew into the humorous middle-grade novel Speechless, published by Scholastic in 2015. 

Speechless won the Surrey Schools Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for many others, and was recommended by the Ontario Library Association, the Canadian Childrens’ Book Centre, the CBC, and the TD Summer Reading Club. 

Then in October 2017, Jennifer published her first picture book Captain Monty Takes the Plunge with Kids Can Press. Captain Monty is the boldest, stinkiest pirate to sail the six or seven seas; in fact, he’s never had a bath. Naturally, the Junior Library Guild immediately selected him for its fall list of recommended books. Captain Monty has also been nominated for the Rainforest of Reading Award and Jennifer will be travelling to St. Lucia for that Festival in March.

Jennifer lives in Burlington, Ontario. You can find out more about her here. 

Speechless is available online here. And Captain Monty Takes the Plunge is available here.

Author Kira Vermond

Kira Vermond is an award-winning writer with over 1,500 articles to her name. She has been a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, CBC and Today's Parent.

Kira is the author of four nonfiction books for young readers: Half-Truths and Brazen Lies, (read more about Half-Truths here); Why We Live Where We Live (more here);   Growing Up: Inside and Out, (nominated for on Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Award) and The Secret Life of Money: A Kid's Guide to Cash (which was my son’s and daughter’s favourite book  the year it came out, although my kids are four years apart).

Kira lives in Guelph, Ontario. 

Course fee:  $176.11 plus 13% hst = 199

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

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. Brian is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read a review of Brian's various courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.