Month: March 2018

KADO AT VERSEFEST OTTAWA 2018

Our star performer poets of the afternoon presentation were Hans Jongman of Welland, Ontario, and Luce Pelletier of St-Bruno de Montarville, Quebec.  I asked them to come because I enjoy their poetry and because it would be an honour to have poets of such sterling reputation on the podium at Versefest. We had encouraged KaDo members to bring anything Japanese to the presentation, and what generous and imaginative poets we have! Special kudos to Betty Warrington Kearsley who picked up platters of sushi, and also mochi which is an Asian treat made of rice flour. Another hero of the afternoon was Bryan Cook, who brought four gorgeous painted scrolls and hung them on upright bulletin boards.  Betty also brought a vase containing branches, which the audience was invited to decorate with haiku tags previously made by Lesley Strutt for Japan Day at Landsdowne Park a few months ago. Members also brought various kimono and lay them on the stage. Guy Simser sent two, though he was not able to attend.

The audience was invited to try them on and have their photos taken if they wished.    Here are Maureen in  a blue-and--white kimono, and my apologies for the image not being clearer, and Forrest in a short black one, which I think he considered was a ninja outfit, and in which  he did a super job of decorating the branches. He is with his mom Sharelle. Forrest also helped with taking the covers off the treats, and making sure the napkins matched the plates. As you can see, thesushi, mochi and sake were a hit.

    

I haven’t said  much yet about our presenters.  Hans spoke with a great and wonderful confidence, reading a wide variety of haiku on all subjects, several on war. He read haibun from both Swooning and Shift Change. Had it not been so late in the afternoon, and had we not been preceded by four packed and terrific hours of lyric poetry by local and American poets, more lyric poets might have been blown away by his poems, and those of M. Pelletier, who gave a presentation which was brilliant in content and in performance. Her bilingual poems, given in her calm clear voice were from Papier rose  pink paper, and, as luck would have it, her video presentation would not work, no matter what Jennifer Pederson (Bestest Hero of the whole festival) tried. However, she breezed through, and I hope people look her videos up on YouTube, where she has reached 7700 views.  Afterwords we hammed it up, Luce peeking out from the side of the bulletin board, and then the three of us doing the same thing.

KaDo would like to thank all its members, and the Versefest organizers for making a place for Japanese-form poems among all the other forms at the festival. We especially thank the intrepid audience members (you know who you are!) who stayed late on Sunday afternoon to participate in our Haiku Pop-Up.

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The Most Dangerous Writing App- literally.

I’ve known writers who use this and it works for them!

The Write Nook

I am always looking for new writing exercises to pass onto you fabulous writers. Writing can become very tedious, which in turn can force us to become stagnant. How many times can we sit down at the same computer, at the same coffee shop, and work on the same few pages? It will make anyone go a little crazy and will eventually bring on a nasty case of writer’s block. To make sure we keep our creative juices flowing, we need to switch up our routine a bit every once in a while. Maybe we take up a bench in the park for a few hours instead of writing under the dim light of our favorite coffee spot. Or maybe we try writing at night, versus during the wee hours of the morning. Or just maybe, we take a break from our current project and focus on some freestyle writing-…

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not your usual evening at the library

Carleton Place (and environs) is bursting with writers!  It is also bursting with amazing librarians who listen to the members of their library, and so, when local writers wanted to know more about publishing, a plan was hatched to get that information for them. An evening was planned. Here, after the librarians, is the second cast of characters. From the left, me, then Joelle Hubner-McClean, David Mulholland, Sandra Nikolai, and Linda Seccaspina, who moderated the panel.

We were all treated better than the Queen, we four panelists being directed to ridiculously comfortable red leather sofas, and Linda to her matching chair.  This is the way writers like to be treated.

Linda asked questions about our backgrounds and publishing experiences, which we answered as best we could. The audience was interesting and intent, their attention and conversations before, during the break and afterwards insightful and delightful.

What did we write, and how did we get that published, and what were the various choices on the road to getting published. What were the time frames involved. What about rejections.

I learned so much, and brought a lot of reality to the conversation concerning sending manuscripts to big publishers. We covered wait times and probabilities. David, Sandra, Linda and Joelle have had wonderful successes and know so much about e-books, self publishing, and Amazon as well as where to go on the internet to find the information needed.

I was so impressed by all the others. They write history, fiction, mysteries, children’s books. They’ve done their homework and publish in ways they are quite happy with. They actually make money writing!  They are happy with their results but that has everything to do the quality of their writing as well as with the time and effort they spend publicizing their books, doing readings, networking. They are good at selling their books, and great at explaining content, motivation, how a story or a book starts, all the way to how their books get edited, how to work with editors, how they arrive at the cover designs and who their audiences are. 

We were asked whether we preferred e-books or ‘paper’ books, and the answers were surprising. All preferred the paper versions, but they all have more money in the bank from the internet ventures. One benefit from being on internet sellers’ forums is that their books are being sold all over the world.  Given that, I admitted that I love the physical form of books that my publishers created, but working with publishers is difficult. Arctic Twilight, for example, does well on Amazon, but the publishers benefit for the most part, as they are still the sellers. These writers have done the wiser thing; they have remained the sellers, which makes for a much better deal.

Our examples of publications ranged from chapbooks and hand-made books to hard cover books with dust covers and paperbacks. Tables were set up for our books and for signing those books, and a delectable array of treats book-ended the coffee machine. I don’t think any writer could have had a more agreeable venue, audience, company or organizers.

I did not expect to go home with gifts. One was meeting Jennifer Fenwick Irwin. She brought me a gift from her father, Roly Fenwick, who had enjoyed Arctic Twilight so much that he gave me a copy of the catalogue for his latest exhibition. The paintings are glorious. Thank you Mr. Fenwick.  Thank you so much!  

Then more topping on the cake, with parting gifts from the library. I’ve been using this lap desk since that evening; it’s something I may have been looking for all my life.  Thank you.

I don’t know who was responsible for choosing that gift, or for writing our names so elegantly on the card envelopes. I keep that envelope propped up on my mantel. It makes me feel great every time I see it, reminding me of those hours enriched with so many people interested in words, and interested in getting those words out where they should be.

Thank you Meriah Caswell and Heidi Sinnett. That evening was a gift to everyone who was there, the writers, as well as the readers who love words.  And thank you Linda Seccaspina, for captaining our ship last Friday evening.

 

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