Happy Fifteenth Anniversary of the Insecure Writer's Support Group!

 Yes! It is another meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Hello fellow Insecure Writers and those who love us!

September marks the fifteenth year that many of us have gathered and shared our lives as writers, as creatives in a sometimes cold and cruel world. We give each other courage to go forth, reminding those among us who may falter - hey! no one made you be a writer, you silly! Time to sally forth into the fray and give it your best. 

I can't help but remember the numpty (Scottish slang for clueless) I was when I first started posting here. And now I'm a Cailleach, an old wise woman, dispensing wisdom from my comfortable rocking chair by the peat fire. Wait a minute - I am not. I'm still a numpty - just older, not wiser. I do have a wood stove but not a peat one, so there's that. And I just found a comfortable rocking chair on my street (the things people put in the trash!) but it is in our basement, awaiting a magic transformation, or a slow decline. 

Today the optional question is "Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?"

I do! I like the archetype of the huntress in classical archetypes - Diana, Artemis, and so forth. Maybe me being a Sagittarius might have something to do with it. She is independent and lives in the world on her own terms. In fiction Jo from Little Women, who does not look to a man to complete her, Anne of Green Gables, who's quirky spunky nature will not be quelled. The protagonist Nell Munro in my mysteries The Crooked Knife and Little Birds is fiercely independent and a bit of a maverick. In movies Katherine Hepburn in Woman of the Year (1942) and Lisbeth Salander - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Musicians like Lady GaGa and Pink. What I like about this archetype is she does not stand in relation to others as she does in archetypes like Mother, Lover, Demon etc... In the novel I'm writing there are eight women aged 15 to 82 and they will run the gamut of archetypes I'm sure. It will be interesting to put that lens on for a look as I do my second draft.

But before leaving you today I want to express my profound gratitude to those who have kept this fire burning - the one that we insecure types gather around and have kept it going all these years. Thank you dear Ninja Alex and your league of helpers! 

And here are my two books - both available on Amazon: (not sure the links work as I have a new computer that is determined to fight me every step of the way!

Link to Amazon books

And I will include a couple of my early posts  - the one that follows in spring of 2012 and the following one was October of 2011 (so maybe my first though maybe I did do one that first run)'

Dear Ms. Morrison,

It has come to the attention of the Bureau of Risk Avoidance Maintenance that you have been feeling and expressing some measure of confidence. Agents of BRAM have heard reports that you told your writing group that you felt 'pretty good' about your writing life and that 'this was going to be your year'. We understand (through a careful analysis of your postings and visits to the mail box) that you are actively pursuing publishment of your ...ahem...writings.

We at BRAM wish to express the dangers inherent in such activity. Why if every writer took it into their heads to feel 'confident' and 'pretty good' what do you suppose might happen? It is for your own good, nay your safety, that you curb your desire to bring your writing out into the open air instead of keeping it safely locked down in a drawer or computer file where it belongs.

Counselling people to continue the healthy and SAFE practices of avoiding risk in all its forms is the mandate of BRAM. Here are the risks you will be exposed to if you continue on in this dangerous fashion:

1. You will receive rejections. This is a known fact. Very few writers put their material out to the public without suffering from some rejection.
2. That rejection may lead you to becoming despondent and you may miss important 'real' work because of it.
3. You may receive acceptances. This has been known to happen.
4. If you receive offers of publication or an agent desires to 'take you on' you may get giddy and drink foreign produced drinks such as tequila or Lagavullan.
5. Your possible acceptance may lead the public to expect more writing from you.
6. This will lead to possibly more rejection.
7. And most importantly - should you get published - people will see what you've been up to. Are you sure you want to risk that?

We here at BRAM hope you will take this warning to heart. Please go back to your hovel or attic or wherever you write and contemplate that a little insecurity now will lead to a much SAFER life. Bravado is ruinous.

Your Servant,

Ms. Edna Squelch,
BRAM secretary of warnings

 And here is the first one that I can find that I wrote.

Dear Journal,
Hi, my name is Jan and I'm an insecure writer. Oh, I know you don't believe me. You think I'm just trying to fit in with the new in-crowd, but you're wrong. I am insecure at writing and perhaps even more with revising. You see, I believe that revising separates the sheep from the goats (hi Elspeth's sheep!!!). I don't know if a writer is a sheep or a goat but today, of all days, insecure writers' day, I'm saying that a writer is a goat and not a sheep. Why? Well because goats eat anything and live off of it. Same as writers. Exactly. Why today, just today, dear journal, I ate an old tire, some sh*t (don't ask, won't tell), and my bank statement. Why? You may well ask. The tire is obvious for you alert journals, the second item I've already said I won't comment on, and the bank statement - that was dessert. If I wasn't a writer and a reviser I might have said that it was desert, but that would be wrong. Why would a bank statement be a big sandy hot area with a cartoon guy crawling across it, saying in balloon speak "water...water...just a bit of water..."?  Some other reasons that writers are goats and not sheep. We smell. It's true. I know we don't like to admit it but when we are deep in revisions, showers are just another pesky thought. Plus we eat popcorn with garlicky oil on it (no - not butter, we're on a diet!) and parmesan with that nice old sock odour. And the third reason we're like goats and not like sheep is that we can't sleep. We're always jumping around on mountains trying to find something, anything, to write about. If we were sheep we'd count ourselves and sleep. I can't sleep - that's why I'm writing this in my journal pretending it is Wednesday - oh - it is almost Wednesday - just 13 more minutes and it will be - then I can put the compost out and maybe go to sleep. I might have a cigarette. On the deck, in the driving cold rain. That would make me feel like a writer and I would definitely smell like a goat. Then I couldn't go to sleep and I could work on fleshing out my main character in the revision I'm doing. Good idea. By the way, Mari and Tartlette, I'm not blunking or drogging or any one of those elvish words. I'm just really really really tired. Because I'm a goat, an insecure writing, revising goat and baaaaaah (oh come on - I heard four goats today and that is just how they sound - the sheep copied them - they ARE sheep ya know).
Sometimes when people ask me what I'm "up to" (very suspiciously I might add) I will tell them I'm a writer and go blah blah blahing about 'what I'm working on' and how hard it is to find 'real publishers' these days. But don't kid yourself, journal, I'm still being insecure when I do that. Yes, I am. I'm blowing a lot of hot air. The thing is that when I'm finally a 'published writer' I won't ever say that. I'll slip it in real cool. "Yes, I'm working on my twelfth book. Uh...well only one's been published, but I AM working on my twelfth book. I'll be so secure. Then every first Wednesday of every month I'll write a Secure Writers' Post. Ha! OK, I'm going out on the deck to smoke now. See you tomorrow, I mean today.

IWSG and 2nd novel released

 Welcome to another meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group - sign up here to join this lovely group - IWSG !

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

The awesome co-hosts for the May 6 posting of the IWSG are Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, and Kim Lajevardi!

This month's question is "What was the most inspiring feedback you received including agents, editors and beta readers?"

Hmm... that is hard to answer in some ways. It is so topical for me right now as my new novel Little Birds was released a couple of weeks ago and I'm starting to hear from those who have been reading it. I have to say though that the response that has really stuck for me came after my first book The Crooked Knife was released. It came from one of my closest friends and it was really her look of surprise when she contacted me and said how good it was. I laughed and said she must have been worried that it would be bad and she'd have to make shit up. Exactly! she replied. She never was any good at lying. The other feedback that really encouraged me was from the book-clubs that I attended and finding out how deeply they read and what they were curious about. Very thrilling. 

I had the same editor for both books and her feedback was positive without being remotely gushing. From the publisher of my first book - nothing. He probably didn't read it. I remember talking to him early on and getting off the phone and saying to my husband that I didn't know why he'd decided to take it on he was so bored with the whole thing. Ha. This is one of the fabulous things about being a rather aged author - I really don't care - as long as my copyeditor (my husband) likes it and I like it - well the rest is up to the gods. 

While we're on the topic of releases - do any of you experience a sort of post-partum depression when a book comes out? I'm feeling very blah and not sure if it is the world in general, finishing a big project, or you know - hating publicizing said book. What do you think?

the paradox of the solstice

 Welcome to all participants of the Insecure Writer's Support Group and wanderers!

Go here to sign up to this group 

The IWSG meets monthly to support each other in our writing - both to offer cheers and to encourage the writers to keep on keepin' on. It has been going for ages and ages and it simply the best thing of its kind. 

This month the question is - As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

Hmm. . . I don't think I ever received a gift as a writer. Or I receive all gifts as a writer. I'm wrestling with the question and while I think I know the intention I still find it awkward. Have I received gifts as a woman? Or as a feminist? Or as a secretary? Or as a Buddhist? You see the problem.

I'll just go with what I think the intention is. The best gift I ever received that helped me with my writing was my copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It was my dad who gave it to me and it meant that he believed in my ability to write and get better with it. When you are perceived as an artist you get all sorts of gifts with that theme in mind, some of which are grand and some which are not so great, because how should someone know what tools are helpful if they aren't themselves an artist, or even if they are - they are a different artist. But when you are a writer people don't know what to get you. A pen? Maybe a great gift (a huge gift) to a writer might be a retreat in a cabin somewhere or a course that they've been dying to go on. Or a standing desk might be good but again - so personal. Probably it is just that my closest people gently ask me how it is going with my writing. That's good.

my fella getting our tree when we lived in Labrador.

I entitled this piece The paradox of the solstice. My birthday is on or near the winter solstice (and the summer one if you live down under) and people say either 'ugh - the shortest day of the year' or 'ah, the return of the light'. Both are perfectly true but like when people mark something we must know it such a slight thing, this turning of the seasons, the days, the planet. It is the shortest day by minutes. It is the return of the light ever so slightly. Yes, we've reached the top of the slog but does it feel like winter is over? No it does not. It feels like it is just beginning for most of us. You'd think as a person who has really only experienced a four season climate and has no desire to live in one that only has two seasons, I'd be okay with this time of year, but that isn't true. I definitely have to fight the dark. What I'd like to do, and this has been true since I was in my thirties, is go to bed in November and wake up in March. I don't see why we humans can't hibernate. Oh well. 

Writing News : My newest book Butter and Snow will be published in February of 2026. It is part of the Nell Munro mystery series (the first was The Crooked Knife). Constable Nell Munro, an RCMP officer, works on a First Nation's reserve in Labrador. Nell is getting fed-up with the slowness of the RCMP to deal with missing and murdered Indigenous women. Her boss puts her on a short leave with the orders that she is to make up her mind if she is in or out. While retreating to her cabin in the tiny isolated community of Butter and Snow she comes upon a murdered Inuit woman. As she begins to dig further it seems the crime is connected to a possible human trafficking ring. Her sergeant is reluctant to let Nell in on the case but she is determined to make sure there is justice for the victim.

Stay tuned for more publishing news!

Fall Colours

 It's another meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the October 1 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

 

Remember, the question is optional!

October 1 question - What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

Hmmm...

I'm not sure. I think it is usually the most recent thing I've written. But that sounds kind of lame. Though honestly if you don't feel passionate about what you are writing then it is hard to go through all the hard work of getting it published. So there's that. 

I'm loving writing my weekly essays on substack  - Dispatches. I'm just working on my 88th one so that is 88 weeks of them. I like that format - much like this only not just about writing but about everything that skitters across my brain pan. I find it quite satisfying and I do believe it keeps my writing for any project sharpened up. 

I like my published novel The Crooked Knife. And I am quite fond of the novel that I'll be publishing early next year Butter and Snow. I love a play I wrote this year called Oh Well,  but it needs some work. I think it is quite special and quirky and I hope it finds a stage. I love all my poems, especially the quite mad ones born of rage and sorrow over the world's weird turning.

This is a photo from my nephew's wedding that happened four months after I got a new hip. That's me - the wild woman in black. I honestly don't know who my dance partner was but he was lots of fun and totally willing to dance with an older broad. 

I sound quite besotted with myself. I really don't know why anyone would write if they didn't like what they wrote. It is such a hard slog. A friend of mine was at a book fair recently where a local and very proficient novelist was reading from her newest. After, at the signing, my friend asked her how long it took her to write a novel. She said 'three months'. Gasp!

It's hard not to feel like a slacker when you hear something like that. But then I think about books like The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird from writers who didn't have great output but who wrote amazing books that I can't imagine living without having read.

Next week I'll be in Paris and I'll haunt the places my heroes have been - Colette and Hemmingway and Proust and Wilde. Oh my giddy aunt!

This has been one of the toughest years of my life so ten days in Paris just seems like a balm for my soul. It is with a pal who's weathered the same storms and we are so looking forward to not having to put down our conversation to go home or go to work, but to just let it weave through our days. Going on a trip is a bit like putting a piece of writing out in the world - you do everything you can to make it the best  possible thing, but you don't know. A friend of mine just went on a walking tour in Ireland. Four days in she was laughing in a pub and aspirated a pea into her lung. Put her in a hospital for four days. You just don't know! I love Butter and Snow,  but will others? Will they even find it? 

me and my second grade class in Sheshatshiu a few years back.

Happy October everyone. Hope you take whatever leaps you need to take in order to feel happy with your work.

Back to School

 I love back-to-school time. I'm going to buy a plaid skirt and a new white blouse and knee-highs. Um...no I'm not. I'm not going back to school, or back to the future, or back in time. I'm going forward.

But first of all - it's another meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group.

Sign-up here to become a group member or just to see who all is rocking the neurotic writing world!

IWSG  

The awesome co-hosts for the September 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight!

Dear Insecure Writers of all Sorts,

Did you get lost in the warmth of summer and forget to do all the things you promised yourself you would do, or is that just me?

Well come on in, we're starting the recalcitrant school for very naughty writers. Here's what you'll need. 

School Supplies:

A clean notebook and pen/ or a laptop/ or a desktop computer

One of those kitchen timers - you know - the ones that look like a tomato

Either a very calm, quiet sort of space or a cluttery, kitchen table where folks keep coming by and asking you to find stuff

An idea 

And most importantly - an intention

So you can see this is way easier than say being a recalcitrant artist - you'd need way more supplies. 

One of the things I did during this summer that did help me get going and actually finish my revision of Butter and Snow was to create a funny little imaginary creative retreat. I did that with a pal who lives on the same street I do. We'd decide on a starting date, which was always a Monday and set our intentions. i.e.: I will revise for two hours daily, do my strength exercises and paint in the afternoons. (or like that)  Each evening we'd send each other an update. On either Thursday or Friday we'd meet up, drink a glass of white and talk about our process while looking at the bay. Worked a treat. I'm still supposed to be on one but I finished my revision. Did I tell you that I finished my revision? Why, yes I did. A week ago as you read this. Now I've handed it over to my copyeditor, a fabulous picky man who happens to also be my partner in life and love. By the time you're reading this he will have finished and I will have incorporated the changes. While he's picking away at the manuscript I will be forming a small publishing company, getting an IBSN number and planning with my graphic designer what the book will look like and so on.  Then I'll be meeting with the friend who is helping me choose a printing company and figuring out all of that. Fun wha?!

The optional question this week   - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats?

My thoughts on using AI are quite simple. I will not use it. I couldn't be less interested and I'm quite tired of the internet trying to change my opinion. That's all I have to say and I have no opinion on others using it. Not my business. 

The other thing that I think I'll get up to in the next few days is starting another novel. One that isn't a mystery, isn't set in Labrador, and probably is going to be a richly nuanced satire about aging in place. Or maybe a witty look at the end of the world. You know. Like that.

How about you? If you are starting a new piece of writing will it be like your other works or is it time to break out?

May, mayhem and the IWSG

 Here it is! The first Wednesday in May! 

Callooh callay oh frabjous day!

It is the monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group  

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!

May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

I've experienced rejection, failure, and success. I don't really believe in talent and my ability increases the more I exercise it. I've survived the first three so I know I can again. Rejection is an important hurdle. It makes me stronger and I have (mostly) overcome believing it is personal. Failure means that I tried. Success is something I do not take anyone else's measure of it. In Buddhist teachings they talk of the Eight Worldly Concerns. They are a group of things we get preoccupied by that lead to suffering. They are: gain, loss, fame, disgrace, praise, blame, pleasure and pain. So hankering after success is a preoccupation I try (not always with great facility unfortunately) to avoid.

No, my greatest fear is being irrelevant with my writing.  If I start pandering to imaginary readers or playing it safe I will feel terrible.  It's too hard to write to waste my time. And I'm not talking about genres or literary fiction or so-called important writing. If I help someone escape for a few hours or amuse them, that's fine. But to write things I don't care about. Ugh. I think it is as hard work to write material that is of no meaning to the writer as to write the most complex and well-crafted piece precisely because your passion cannot carry you through the difficult time that absolutely will happen at some point in the writing. 

What are your greatest fears fellow writers?

IWSG and the falsity of safe places

 It is the first Wednesday of the month and so that means another meeting of the IWSG or for anyone new (is there really ever anybody new?) the Insecure Writers Support Group, where those of us who use pen and keyboard gather to laugh and cry about the whole thing. If you are interested here is a link to the signup page - IWSG

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is 

What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

This question is a tough one. I think most of the characters in fiction are fantasy characters but I'm willing to play the game. So . . . I'd like to hang out with Robin Hood and his merry band. I'd like to help him figure out ways to outwit the greedy men led by Prince John and the Sherriff of Nottingham, who have taken advantage of King Richard being away on a pilgrimage to plunder the land. I'd like to live in the forest with people who understand that it is better to fight for what is right than submit to tyranny. And let us not forget his band is merry! Why are they merry? Because they are not pretending that nothing is happening - they are taking action. And they balance out their righteous quest with eating and drinking and playing music in a beautiful sylvan place. Also, I've also wanted to learn how to use a bow and arrow. I'm a Sagittarius after all.

painting by Newel Convers Wyeth

WARNING! - the following is an opinion on so-called safe places and is not under the banner of the IWSG

 I was conflicted writing this piece. Why? Because the IWSG has cautioned us to make sure our writing under their banner is about writing and not about the world burning down etc. . . Why is writing about fantasy characters okay then? What has that to do with the practice of writing? Reading yes, writing no. Don't get me wrong please. I love the IWSG - been a part of it from the beginning, but I'm most recently allergic to the notion that talking about what is happening in the world, even in a non-partisan way is unsafe. As a psychotherapist who has dealt with many people who suffer from PTSD I can tell you what feels unsafe to me - people pretending nothing is happening when something clearly is. Also, I write about what is affecting me - whether it is in my poetry, my essays or my fiction. My fiction is about issues like the environment, indigenous oppression, human trafficking and so on. These are directly related to what I'm sensing and reacting to in my environment. So, I may be cautioned to stick to some lane or another, but I'm afraid that, like Robin Hood, the Doctor, Bilbo Baggins, Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I will not.

 

A room of her own

 It's December 1st as I write this - to be posted on December 4th for 

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the December 4 posting of the IWSG are Ronel, Deniz, Pat Garcia, Olga Godim, and Cathrina Constantine!

Warning : I will be writing about the responsibility of a writer during trying times. And by trying I mean when every woman, refugee, LGBTQIA2S, BIPOC, thinker, reader, and child's freedoms and rights are in peril. If this is not your cup of tea - then head to one of the other bloggers. No hard feelings. 

I have been dealing with an accelerated level of stress of late. My best friend since 1976 is in the hospital. She is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's and will not be coming home again. This is not a new thing in my life but no matter that they call it the long goodbye - every part of it is torturous. I have another very close friend who is in physical peril (not my story to share). I have been spending time with each of them and trying to work with my grief around it all. Under that pain is the fear and grief that arose after the election down south. The casual regard people seem to hold for freedom, for democracy, is truly horrendous. Do not think this is a Canadian academically regarding another country's folly. It is the folly gaining ascendency in the world right now. Canada is poised to elect our own mobster soon. 

So what is my role as a writer in any of this? First of all - I think it is to not be flattened, to continue to be a witness to what is really occurring and not give up in hopelessness. The journalists will be and are being shut up now. If the regime follows the usual procedure, which was laid out for all by the sock puppet himself, then after the press will come the quashing of the intelligentsia. Education will suffer. Books are and will continue to be burned. Populations will be fed what the mobsters think if good for us (ie - good for them) to consume. And so I think as someone who uses words it is important to keep writing what I witness and what I think and feel about it.  

Secondly - writing is how I find out what I'm thinking and feeling. It is how I make sense of the world the best I can. I write to heal as well. I write to show others how they might consider what is happening. Yes, I write fiction, plays and poetry - but that is what they are made of. And more and more I'm turning to other forms of writing - this kind right here - the small personal essay. I write weekly on Substack - my newsletter is called Dispatches and in it I write about the personal and political - which are one taste to me. 

I've heard some 'content providers' - bloggers, substackers, youtube channel folk - say that they don't write about what is happening because they want their space (which might be about making miniature houses, crocheting tea cosies, writing poetry, learning how to salsa and so on) to be a safe place, free from contention. That's a choice people have to make for themselves, but if I go to my regular places - food writers or artists or makers - and they have failed to make even one statement about what has happened - even if it is just "I'm worried" or "I'm gutted" or whatever, then I'm quietly closing down my subscription or stopping my status as 'follower' because I do not feel 'safe' with people who fiddle while Rome burns. I feel like that is madness. 

My published novel The Crooked Knife was born of rage and frustration with our government and its implication in the environmental disaster in Labrador, and the continued discounting of our First Nation's peoples. My second one in the same series is about the rise of human trafficking, and the co-opting of the police force to support corporate interests over citizens. I use the medium of the mystery novel because it is an effective one to showcase the sort of issues that consume my interest. They aren't heavily didactic but they do involve real current ethics or lack of. I think I write with a good measure of equanimity and humour but they aren't books for people who want to cocoon in their own safe nests. 

Elie Wiesel

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented"

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people"

Benjamin Franklin

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are".

Cross-training and the IWSG

November! Who could have thought it would show up. I write this on the first so don't know how I'll be feeling on the morning of the sixth. I hope all is well and good in the world. It is another meeting of the IWSG - my favourite day of the month! So pour a cup of coffee, tea or scotch and let's have our meeting. 

Insecure Writer's Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the November 6 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Lisa Buie Collard , Kim Lajevardi, and JQ Rose!

The optional question for this month: - What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?

Wowza! What a great question. I think of all the creative activities I get up to as a form of cross-training. I think I wrote a post on that many many years ago - I'll see if I can find it. My card says Writer & Artist on it. So I guess that means my main other outlet is my oil painting. I've just dived into to it big time in the last two years (although I've played with it forever) and am now starting to actually sell the odd painting. A friend of mine is an established painter who wants to be an author and as I'm an author who wants to be an established painter we have been working with each other. It is wonderful and one of the best things about it is seeing how we can find translatable practices in each. For instance if you are working on a novel and spend an inordinate amount of time on one section (usually the opening) your novel as a whole will be unbalanced. Likewise when painting you must move around the canvas, not just focusing on one aspect. In all artistic endeavors we try to find our voice or style, and must trust that it will emerge, like our signature it cannot be imposed. Something we can see clearly in one discipline will help us with another - we develop different muscles and all add up to being as authentic and free as possible. I'm quite excited as I will be taking a three-day painting workshop this month in a town a few hours away. I will stay there (in a motel probably) and be able to immerse myself fully in the world of painting. I'm hoping as well to get into a two week residence for playwrights in the spring. Nurturing the artist within is essential for my well being.

Besides the writing and painting I quilt, make dolls, direct plays, cook elaborate dishes, garden, and knit. In this time of intense social media I want to be a creator not a consumer. All of them speak to a part of me that adds up to the whole of me.

I think that I do not consider creativity as separate from my life as a whole. I think we were made to be makers all of us - whether it is the art of parenting, negotiating a truce, drawing a flower, or singing a song - we were born to express ourselves - to see beauty and delight and bring it to the attention of others.

October Light, a writer expressing doubts (IWSG), and ghosts

There is something about the long low light in the autumn that completely seduces me. It makes me feel like cozying up under my plaid with the wood stove going and a good book to read. The crisper mornings lead me to grand ideas of what I might accomplish in a day. These two ideas may seem at odds but truly if I can keep them in balance life is perfection.

It is the first today and I have a 'good luck with that' to do list full of hopes and dreams. There are the garden and produce things - more tomato sauce to make and freeze and I went apple picking yesterday so we probably have about seven bushels to process somehow. The fella is in the kitchen now juicing up a bunch with our new juicer. I need to clean up a few garden beds and the fridge and two freezers need sorting as well.

October first means the first day of one of my favourite challenges - Inktober. Every day I will make a sketch, drawing, wee painting or something in that line. This will be my fifth or sixth year of doing it and so far I've been faithful. I have a big idea this year which may be my undoing - I want to do versions of retro travel posters as the prompts seem to be wandering themed. I like to have one month where I know I'll be making art every day although lately I've been painting quite a bit.

And of course, as you read this, it is another meeting of the 

Insecure Writer's Support Group! 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

I haven't a whole lot positive to say about my writing practice but I'll jump in anyway. I write a piece for my Substack newsletter called Dispatches every week and I'm up to 32 I think. It is a good practice and I like the short essay format. I'm working away on my play Oh Well and truly trying not to think too much about my three finished novel manuscripts as I'm a bit depressed about them. I can share that with you because you are mostly all writers and you know what I mean. The submission process is such a frustrating one of hurry up and wait and I'm not sure I've got the cojones to keep on with it. I'm sure I'll rally someday, but right now I'm satisfied with my essays and play. I want to write not wait. I'm a writer not a waiter. 

As to my favourite ghostly tale ... hmm... well the one that springs to mind isn't scary. It's kind of nice. My fella and I lived in Labrador for five years in his mother's house. She died the year after we moved there and every so often I'd be in bed before the fella when I'd feel someone get into bed beside me. I knew right away it was Ruby. Our bed was right where hers had been and besides I just knew. I'd just say softly to her, "It's okay Ruby. You can rest now." and that'd be that. 

Here's my first Inktober post - the prompt was 'backpack'.

Oh Canada and Wilderness and the Insecure Writers Support Group meeting

As I write this it is July 1st or Canada Day as we call it here in uh...Canada. So I'm going to post early this week. Because I secretly love Canada Day. I am not sure why - it really wasn't a big deal when we were kids. Probably because we had just gotten free from school and it just blended into that general bliss. I don't want to be too jingoistic but I do love our country. And mostly I love it for the countryness of it. The thing is we aren't so populated as our neighbours to the south and certainly not as populated as European countries or well anywhere I don't think. We have a lot of big vistas, rolling hills, mountains - for yes we too have the Rockies only our part of that range is quite a bit more rugged. I can say that with complete conviction having lived in the mountains on both sides of the border. The Canadian Rockies really rock. And the prairies are truly waves of gold and the north is awesome in the original meaning. I have lived in these provinces - Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Labrador (now called Newfoundland & Labrador but that is just silly - I didn't live in Newfoundland).  So coast to coast to coast (Labrador being on the Labrador Sea). I have been to many National Parks and many Provincial Parks. If you ask me a favourite wild place in Canada I will not answer you - it depends on what I'm looking for. I love all of Nova Scotia - it's variety and beauty from stunning Peggy's Cove (near where I live) to the highlands of Cape Breton. Being the daughter of Manitobans I completely think the prairies are fantastic - the big sky, the space! I feel so at home in the countryside of the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, the stone farmhouses and jumbly fields. The foothills in Alberta (where I was born) bring out my inner cowgirl and British Columbia is so wildly beautiful with its towering trees, mountains and the Pacific Ocean lapping at its edges. Labrador is a different beast altogether - tundra, rivers, it's crazy beauty in winter, its quiet powerful presence at all times.

I love the art inspired by this wildness, Emily Carr, the Group of Seven, Maude Lewis, Tom Thompson. As a budding landscape painter I am thrilled in just the attempt to bring the beauty I see to others. The land of Labrador inspired my first novel The Crooked Knife which focused on some of the ecocide that is happening in that part of the world.

                                    Into the forest by Emily Carr

                          mine - coming into Canmore, Alberta

Today, had it not been pouring with rain, the fella and I were going to take out the canoe he's been rebuilding all winter for its maiden voyage. We were just going to cross the road and go in from our lovely neighbours beach. We wanted to do it today because it is the anniversary of our second date when we went canoeing in Prospect Bay, 22 years ago. We don't mind a rainy day though. Last year we had terrible forest fires and we are happy to see the small brooks rise up again in our part of paradise. 

So happy birthday to this land - which of course was already here in 1867 when Confederation occurred. If we can remember why this is a countryside worth preserving, that held peoples both First Nation and Inuit that are worth honouring, well then that would be truly wonderful. 

And now for something not completely different...

The monthly meeting of the Insecure Writers Support Group is now in session.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG are JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue, and Natalie Aguirre!

In keeping with my theme of landscape I am happy to post an article I wrote for Kate Juniper's  site  Juniper Editing & Creative in which I wrote a piece on writing and place.

Place as Character

Whether I’m writing a novel, a memoir, a poem, or a play, the very first thing I do is situate the story in a time and place, metaphorically giving the reader some ground to stand on. To me place is so much more than a location’s physical features: it holds a unique and particular culture, right down to the mannerisms of its inhabitants. Place is in the way an Inuk lifts his eyebrows for yes and scrunches them down for no. It is the slump in the shoulders of a group of old men looking out as they watch the ice on the bay breaking up in March when it shouldn’t break up until May. It is how one neighbourhood has persnickety front gardens and another is strewn with the corpses of trucks and piles of garbage next to front doors.

In most of what I’ve written, the place is a character in its own right, and so it needs the full treatment I would give to any other person inhabiting my story. What is the place’s history? How do its people treat it? What challenges does it face, and how does it respond? What story does it want, or even need, told?

The latest works I’ve been writing—mystery novels, poems, and essays—are all located in Labrador: a place my partner’s family came from and that he knows very well. We lived there for five years, during which time I grew to love and despair of the place in equal measure. It can be a very challenging environment—long cold winters, isolated communities, and a history of being misunderstood and pillaged for its natural resources. It is wild and beautiful and frightening. It intrigued me and infuriated me. Writing it into my work was a way that I could begin to come to understand it, or at the very least understand its impact on me.

Because I treat my location as yet another character, I look at what I imagine the place wants, just as I do my protagonists, my villains, and anyone else inhabiting the world I’m creating. Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, where I set an early mystery, seemed to want to be respected for its wild and dangerous side, instead of always being reduced to the single note of its view. Annapolis Royal, also in Nova Scotia, has an old and curious history that demanded I allow for a certain atmospheric quality given to it by its long history as a habitat. Where both Labrador and Peggy’s Cove are primarily their physical environment – the land and ocean itself, Annapolis Royal must include the buildings, the imprint of the humans who lived on that spot over the centuries.

Labrador struggles with being dismissed as the land God gave to Cain, a description of Labrador by explorer Jacques Cartier. He was alluding to Genesis 4, in which Cain, having killed his brother, is condemned to till land that is barren. Labrador is at once dismissed by outsiders as being an inhospitable place, unfriendly, and plundered by the same for its natural resources. Meanwhile, the people who live there—the Innu, Inuit and settler communities—try their best to protect it from large-scale exploitation.

Place, in my mind, is the very best way to evoke atmosphere, and is also so effective as a means to evoke emotion. Within a place are many locations: frightening (a dark wood on a moonless night); transcendent (a wild beach below the Northern Lights); comforting (a roaring fire, a chair, a lamp within a home the protagonist loves). It can help the reader understand a character by what they can ‘see’ of their surroundings (do they live like an ascetic monk, or a bohemian collector of oddities?) and how they respond to their surroundings.

Most importantly, setting the story in a tangible place that evokes the senses embodies the reading experience: it transports your reader to that different world, where they can sink into the story entirely, feeling safe enough to get lost. And I believe most readers would tell you being lost in a story is the very best place to be.

February Blues

Hello all dear Insecure Writers and those who love us. The IWSG meets the first Wednesday of the month so here we are. I'm not really blue despite the title, just a wee bit flat of spirit perhaps but it'll come back. It always has. 

 I don't wish to discuss authoring today, only writing. I've been swapping teaching with a pal on our street. She's a talented oil painter who is working on a novel. At least once a week we get together and paint and talk writing. She's a generous teacher and I think I am too. Obviously we talk about the crossovers in our disciplines. I'm doing an edit on her novel this week and it strikes me that figuring out the mechanics of the plot and structure are a lot like composing a painting. And the diction, the actual word choices, the metaphors, similies, and so on are a lot like the brushstrokes a painter uses. We both seem to have a good handle on composition or plot, we know what we want to say and even when we want to say it, in order to lead the viewer (or reader) to the focal point (crisis) but we both need help loosening up our brushstrokes, being more confident and even daring in that department. I want her to stretch and try to say things freshly, cut out hackneyed phrases for surprising ones, and I think she'd like me to be bolder with my mark-making. I know once she starts she'll get what fun figuring out just the right word or phrase is. And I sometimes get a fleeting moment of grace and joy when I let loose with my brush. And isn't that it? Isn't that the real reason we do this crazy highwire act?

Hope you are all well and using these winter days to go deep into your work with verve and joy!

2024

Happy New Year dear Insecure Writers! It is our first meeting of the year of the Insecure Writers Support Group,* and I hope everyone has a nice clean notebook because it is time to set our intentions for the year ahead. No, I did not say the word 'resolutions'. Intentions. I like to think of it as a trip I might want to take in 2024. Where am I now? Where do I want to go?  How will I get there? What will I do when I'm there?  For the purposes of this meeting I will focus on my writerly intentions. Before I know where I want to go, I must ascertain where I am. 

Step 1 - where am I?

Let's see - I have one novel traditionally published. I have a second book finished but for the copy editing in the same series, and one finished in a different series. I have one YA book finished and about three books started but not nearly done. 

Step 2 - where do I want to go?

I want to see my three unpublished novels published.. I want to continue writing as the three finished ones look for a home and would like to have two more ready to send out by year's end, if not sooner. So, to synthesize, I'd like to find a publisher, either on my own or with the help of an agent, who wants to represent most if not all of the books I can churn out. While of course realizing they'd have to accept each one on its own merits.

Step 3 - how will I get there? 

I have the second in the Nell series being read by beta readers. When I get feedback on them I will revise accordingly. My fella is a primo copyeditor and has agreed to do that. I will be sending The Rock Walker out next week to beta readers and will by the end of January have both of those books ready to shop. When I have my query package made I will send to the agents and publishers I'm most interested in working with. While I await word on them I will have fun with my brand new work in progress - a hard-boiled detective story set in 1946 in Halifax!

Step 4 - what will I do when I get there?

When I have some possible deals to make I will carefully insure that the agent or publisher is the right fit for me and my novels by being as straight-forward as possible about what I want. This will never be about money for me, but about enthusiasm and understanding of what my books are about. As well, I will continue to have fun writing which is, in fact, what is deeply important to me. 

*Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

Thanks for coming by everyone and hope you are having as much fun as I am navigating in this strange land of writing.