Hello Writer!
Happy Thanksgiving, and if you are Canadian, like I am, I hope you are enjoying the long weekend.
This might be the longest class yet, but I think it’s worth doing. And you have the whole weekend to do it.
For the first time ever, we do more than a writing exercise or two. You will compose a whole piece of writing.
Or, at least a first draft of one.
I will introduce you to a new form of writing you may never have heard of, and then I will walk you through writing a PROEM of your own in just 3 steps. I think you will delighted.
3 Bits of Housekeeping
I’ll explain more in class, but in case you miss it, here is a summary:
No class next week.
October 19: Join me for a Writing and Art Social Night in East Van!
Register now for the inaugural Write with Danica live event Dec. 28!
Links Etc. from Today’s Class
Ben McNally Books: This is a wonderful bookstore in Toronto, but the webpage I linked here is to a program they have called Book-A-Month. (I used to have a program like this at my bookstore, ahhhhhhh!) So, you can sign up and they’ll mail you a book every month. Makes a great gift. Christmas is coming! Support small indie booksellers! :-)
One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle is my favourite book, and it’s the book we learn from in today’s class.
“A best friend isn't a person, it's a tier”
-Mindy Kaling
(same with books - me)
Kristen H McLeod is my writer-friend who recommended the above book while we stood in the above bookstore one day. She will soon be a guest here on WWD (our first guest!!!) and you can find over at Cultivated where she writes about growing up in a cult. (You’re going to love her, so keep your eyes open for that upcoming class!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are getting ready for a big turkey dinner at our home this weekend (my partner is cooking but I’m making two desserts… pumpkin pie and an apple-pear crisp) and although I’ve met his family and he has met mine, Thanksgiving dinner is when we will start mixing our worlds of family love together: my kids will meet his parents. As I approach that day, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and the things I feel most thankful for in life this year are definitely my loving relationships. My long-time family, my new family, and the friendships that have remained steadfast after the communities they were formed in— my church and my bookstore— both dissolved a year and a half ago.
I feel thankful that writing and writers and creatives and books and art all still figure so prominently in my professional world…
…even though my professional world is still in flux as I write this new chapter of my working life. I’m thankful for you, Writer. That you exist, and that you are making your writing work and your writing self a priority, and that my writing life is connected to your writing life in some beautiful way, big or small. We do our work alone, but we are living our writing lives side by side, and that fills my heart with gratitude.
It’s a good life. My heart spills over.
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