Road Trip to OWC 2014

I love road trips... especially, if I'm heading to a writing event. 

Last weekend was my annual weekend trip to Ajax to participate in the Ontario Writers' Conference. Have you ever been to a writers' conference? If you are a writer and you're serious about perfecting your craft, you MUST schedule it into your calendar for next April 24th and 25th. 

Let me tell you about how my weekend shaped up.

On Friday afternoon, I spent three full hours with the amazing Wayson Choy. Okay, so there were a few other people in the room with us too, so I did share him a little bit. Wayson spoke to us about how to live dangerously: write what matters and he explained the difference between what you know to be true and telling the truth. Sounds complicated, doesn't it? 

Well, Wayson has a way with words, and he explained it perfectly to us. "You need to talk about the truth and you, as writers, need to write it. The highest forms of truth are often secrets." He had us thinking, laughing and writing. We did an exercise on facing a secret truth, that we probably didn't want to share with the class, but it was a wonderful exercise. Some of our new creations were read aloud and I couldn't believe how incredible they were, considering we only had five minutes to write them. People can surprise themselves; I know, I did.

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"Truth will set you free, and you as a writer, can decide to tell the truth or not." ~ Wayson Choy

"Truth is multi-dimensional. It is the angle of the view that makes it different." ~ Wayson Choy

Wayson Choy and his Master Class ~ May 2014

I was very excited to see many of my writer friends in Wayson's class, trying to learn the secrets of writing the next best seller. I knew almost everybody in the class, so that was comforting...my anxieties took a backseat for once. I hooked up with friends from the Durham Region, Orillia, Ottawa, the GTA and even some of my Owen Sound friends were there too. Following the Master Class, we found ourselves with three hours of down time before the Festival of Authors started, so we headed to the local Kelsey's in Whitby and shared a meal together. There's nothing like catching up with friends over alcohol and pasta. We made some great memories... and of course, I made the handsome, young waiter take a picture for us and I tweeted about it.

Festival of Authors took place Friday night at the Deer Creek Golf & Banquet Facility, as well. Ingrid Ruthig acted as Master of Ceremonies by interviewing the authors, Catherine Bush, Karen Connelly and Katheryn Kuitenbrouwer, who also read from their current novels for about ten minutes each. Fascinating interviews and intriguing readings...loved the story of "All The Broken Things", which I called the bear story. 

My favourite part of the evening was not the wine tasting, but meeting up with several other local authors, who I haven't seen for months. Talking on Twitter and Facebook, just isn't the same as seeing them in person, so I can get big hugs and hear all about their kids and their current writing projects. This is hard to do in 140 characters throughout the rest of the year.

Late Friday night was spent at the hotel with my fellow Owen Sound writing buddies, freaking out about the pitches we were supposed to have memorized for the next day. Yes, ALL four of us, had a 15-minute meeting with a Literary Agent the next day. This was a huge highlight of the weekend for us. We were giggling in the hotel about who was ready and who wasn't (I'm sure you can guess which one of us wasn't ready...my lips are sealed). We laughed at one of the girls who brought a suitcase as big as a horse trailer, full of seven pairs of shoes and various outfits, for one over-night stay (Who does this? Besides Paris Hilton. Ha!) Obviously, it wasn't me. I'm a very easy going girl with one outfit and if I spill, too bad, because Miss Literary Agent was going to get the real me...the messy, jittery-like-a-squirrel, me. Unfortunately, we were laughing so much, I forgot to take a picture in our jammies and messy hair reciting our pitches. 

Here's one taken at the Festival of Authors. Lots of smiles... you can hardly tell any of us were nervous, right?

Owen Sound's A-Scribe Writing Girls ~ Diane, Lori, Seana & Donna

Saturday was full of workshops, speakers, lectures, eating food, buying books and meeting another literary agent.

I attended these workshops, and wish I had some time to fit in a few more (never enough time):

• Making the Scene: Settings for Stories, Big or Small (Advanced Class) with Andrew Borkowski.
  
• Overcoming Writer's Insecurities with Allison Baggio
• In The Details with Erin Bow

I forgot to mention a little contest the Ontario Writers' Conference was running, called the Story Starter Contest. First, I was longlisted... then, I was shortlisted and I was a happy writer, believe me. I had entered two, so I wasn't sure which one had got me this far. Turns out, it was not the one I had thought it was. I had an awesome piece about a young boy dirt biking the afternoon away...apparently, it sucked. My humour piece on the circus made it to the final three pieces and I LOST! Yep, you heard it right here, I lost. Hang head in shame... BUT, the good news, is that my writing friend from Ottawa, Caroline Wissing, won! Yay! If it can't be me winning the prize, I most definitely want it to be my friend. She's awesome... I'm still working on my awesome techniques. Ha!

Anyway, there were some Literary Agents attending the conference, as they do every year. Look at what they were doing... exactly what I was doing, and my friends were hitting me in the back, telling me to put my phone away. I just wanted to be  hanging with the cool kids, tweeting the day away. ;P

There were five agents at the Conference this year, and you could pitch to four of them: Sam Hiyate (did a workshop instead of being a pitch mentor this year), Ali McDonald, Lien DeNil, Stacey Donaghy and Carly Watters. There were also four Blue Pencil Mentors, who gave constructive feedback on your works-in-progress: Kevin Craig, Johanna Raisanen, Ruth Walker and Erin Thomas.

As for the Literary Agent that I was meeting, I feel it would be bad luck to mention her at the moment (yep, I'm superstitious too)... I have to hit the big SEND button on an email I'm sending her tonight, and I want the vibes to be good, no wait, I want them to be EXCELLENT. So, if all goes well, I'll reveal her name later. Overall though, if you have never actually sat down with an agent or a blue pencil mentor before, the Ontario Writers' Conference is the BEST place to do that. You can practice your pitch with them and they give you their opinion on your writing style and maybe they might help you with your pitch, your first page of the manuscript, etc. It just depends on what you want to talk to them about. They are happy to answer questions, but keep in mind, 15 minutes goes by very fast...especially if you are nervous and tend to ramble on and on (not like I know anybody who did that).

As for speakers, there were so many amazing people talking to us, I was just overwhelmed with admiration of these people. Dorothea Helms "The Writing Fairy" was the Master of Ceremonies. Wayson Choy, the Honorary Patron of OWC said a few inspiring words to the crowd. Brett Savory and Carrie Cutforth-Young talked about new ventures in Distribution; Andrew  Pyper was the lunch speaker I bought his book The Guardians) and my all-time favourite Canadian author, who made me love his book, even though I despise politics, Terry Fallis... he had us in stitches in the closing ceremonies. Damn, he's funny! I was able to get both Andrew & Terry's autograph in some books I purchased, PLUS Terry took the time to chat with me after almost everyone left the building AND he took a few pictures with me. He's actually talking in most of them, but this one looks cool. We are chatting about his first book, The Best Laid Plan. Have you read it? You should. I loved it. :)

Overall, I can't wait to attend the next Ontario Writers' Conference...book it now, April 24th & 25th, 2015! See you there.

Terry Fallis and I, chatting it up on the couch at OWC2014.

Let's not forget about my favourite picture of the weekend...one of my writing mentors, Mr. Inspiration & I, sharing conversation over drinks. Love him to pieces, Mr. Kevin T. Craig. You should read his books. They're AWESOME! :)