R.J. Anderson | Janet Sketchley

Write Canada is online this year, happening on October 21, 2017, with tracks for fiction and marketing.

This means you can attend from anywhere — no travel costs, no accommodations, and you can be there in your pajamas if that makes you happy. Members of The Word Guild get a discount, but anyone who wants to learn is welcome. And you don’t have to be Canadian.

Participate in real time, and you can interact with the presenters in the “virtual classroom.” If the time zones don’t work for you, attend what you can in real time, and catch the rest in replays.

There are four wokshops this year, and you can attend one or all. One advantage of having the option to access the replays later is that if you miss something, or want to hear it again, you can.

Real-time technical assistance will be available during the event, too, so if tech is a bit scary for you, no worries. Someone can help with anything that comes up.

Workshops:

“Six Months to a Full-time Income,” with Marcy Kennedy
“Using Character Emotion to Wow Readers,” with Becca Puglisi
“Writing Christian Fantasy in a Secular World,” with R.J. Anderson
“From Blog to Book Deal,” with Sarah Ball

Here’s the link for more information and to register: Write Canada Online 2017.

I love going to Write Canada because it’s like three events in one: professional development, a getaway with friends, and a spiritual renewal.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Word Awards Gala: Heaven’s Prey was a finalist in the suspense category, and while it didn’t win, being chosen as a finalist is good affirmation. And I got to cheer for a number of my friends when their work won. (Winners’ list here)

Writing: R.J. Anderson gave me a broader understanding of the ways my individual roots and experiences give a unique flavour to what I write. I’m looking forward to more intentionally discovering my “singular storytelling voice.”

Marketing: Sherry Stahl and a round-table discussion led by Lisa Hall-Wilson gave me some specific tips to help more readers of Christian suspense discover Heaven’s Prey and the rest of the Redemption’s Edge series as those novels are released. Definite homework here.

Friends: It was so good to reunite with old friends and to meet new ones. Some faces were conspicuously absent, since life does interrupt us, and they were missed.

Spiritual: Or is it writing? Or life? Mark Buchanan and Ted Dekker are widely different individuals whose messages overlapped in some key areas. I feel liberated to more fully embrace the gift and calling of writing, to write from a deeper sense of who I am (and Whose), and yet to not tie my identity to writing or to any other aspect of my life.

This and that: I also came home with Aimee Reid‘s new picture book, Mama’s Day with Little Gray (autographed “To Janet’s grandchildren” – not that I’m rushing that event!), a knitting pattern for the little sleeves you put around cups of take-out tea, a little teapot with knitted cozy, and two jars of rhubarb chutney from a friend of a friend.

I am blessed, indeed. For more snippets from the conference, check out my friends’ blogs below. And, in case you’re wondering, a sheep did make an appearance on the final day. Eowyn joined me for a photo-op.