Upcoming Poetry Workshop
Year in Review Post FIVE
Image by vikayatskina on Freepik
This year on the professional side of my writing career, I also attended several workshops offered through TWUC (The Writer’s Union of Canada) and recently applied to become a member of The League of Canadian Poets. I am also a member of the Federation of BC Writers and CWILL. These important groups support writers in so many ways.
Another support for writers is to be part of the writing community. To this end, I have immersed myself in this community: through connections via Twitter and Facebook, through participation in Open Mics via Zoom, in writing groups, and participating in TEEN BOOK TALKS, with host, Lyndi Allison. These connections enrich my writing knowledge, my inspiration and I now have new, budding friendships. Thank you to everyone who enriched my writing life this past year! I am looking forward to what 2023 will bring and where this inspiration will take me!
Year in Review Post FOUR
Image by vikayatskina on Freepik
Another project I engaged in this summer was presenting a writing workshop on ‘Getting Started with Writing’ to Parkinson Society British Columbia. The attendees sometimes had scribes who joined them on the Zoom to help with writing down their ideas, some used a stylus to aid in getting their words recorded and others spoke into iPads, or other devices. Many shared their writing orally on the call or wrote their responses into the chat box. One participant wrote to me after the workshops were completed to say that she wrote a poem (which surprised her) and recorded it for the Parkinson BC website. This was also a highlight of my year as an author!
One popular prompt I shared during the workshops was on writing about FIRSTS: first car, first home, first date… Attendees brainstormed as many ‘firsts’ as they could come up with… this open prompt allowed for the exploration of ideas, themes, and emotions. I will use this prompt again in future workshops.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today! If you found things you liked, I hope you will also check out my social media sites for more posts on writing and creating:
Year in Review Post THREE
Image by vikayatskina on Freepik
During this past summer I had the privilege of editing the Poetry Marathon Anthology – though only working on the half-marathon for my portion, while Ofuma Agali edited the full-marathon section. Each year in June, participants from around the world gather for twelve or twenty-four hours to write poetry to picture and word prompts. During the contest, the prompts are posted at the top of the hour and poets have sixty minutes to create a poem and post it. I have participated for several years now, and always enter the half-marathon, finding it tough enough to write for twelve hours straight. I have great respect for the twenty-four hour marathoners! Editing the half-marathon was a highlight of my year. I just learned a few days ago that the anthology is almost formatted and ready for print! Here is the poem I wrote for hour twelve, which is featured on page 169. The prompt was to write about a gathering:
a gathering of poets…
around a drum,
the room filled with inspiration,
we gather to share our words. the long haul of
covid slowly behind us, some still donning masks,
we hear the rustle of paper, the shuffle of feet,
and a chorus of snapping fingers when the
lines are done. nodding heads and contemplative
murmurs at the turn of a phrase, the twist of a
rhyme, and the toe-tapping beat of the metre. how
we missed this sustenance over the past two years,
the heartbeat of metaphors, the pop-off-the page
imagery that brings us right into the poet’s mind,
and how a simple word, can pull a broken world
back together.
Copyright Cristy Watson 2022
(Here is a picture of the 2021 Anthology available for purchase on Amazon)
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today! If you found things you liked, I hope you will also check out my social media sites for more posts on writing and creating:
Year in Review Post TWO
Image by vikayatskina on Freepik
In the spring of this past year, I also had the privilege of visiting a class in North Vancouver via Zoom for an author visit after answering amazing letters from the students on LIVING ROUGH, my second published novel that is now in its fifth reprint. Mr. Fong has had me visit his students for many years, after learning of my book through a class at UBC. Interestingly, I finished 2022 with answering letters on LIVING ROUGH for a class of students in Burnaby. The teacher wrote to let me know how much her students enjoyed receiving my responses to their letters and that one young person said when they become a famous author it will be because of my influence. I can only hope I offered half as much inspiration to these young readers and writers as they offered to me!
(Picture from Mr. Fong, 2022)
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today! If you found things you liked, I hope you will also check out my social media sites for more posts on writing and creating:
Year in Review Post ONE
Image by vikayatskina on Freepik
In December 2021, I offered a workshop series called, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. It was comprised of twelve relaxed writing sessions that began with a writing prompt for introducing ourselves, then a writing tip followed by picture/word prompts; attendees had five minutes to free write (to the prompt or to their own ideas) and share. We finished each session with an editing tip. The series ended up flowing into January of 2022, so I began this past year by engaging with keen writers in these one-hour sessions. I hope to offer something similar in the coming months as it also inspires my own creativity.
Here is one of the prompts I offered during the workshop: To begin today’s session, I want you to take a blank piece of paper and fill it with one heart, or several hearts. Then write in those hearts the things that ‘get you through’ tough times, like the one we find ourselves in currently. Fill the heart with whatever things/people/places/practices/new adventures that have filled your hearts recently and helped you get through these challenging pandemic times!
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today! If you found things you liked, I hope you will also check out my social media sites for more posts on writing and creating:
Finally!
After waiting through Covid shut-downs and then cautious numbers allowed at the venue, my good friend Lysa Collins is finally able to launch her wonderful book of haiku about her travels through Africa! A review by David McMurray captures the essence of her poetry and what she will share during this event:
Collins has paddled down the Okavango delta, traveled the Kalahari, trekked the Serengeti, and witnessed time begin in Ngorogoro. Many of her poems have been previously published in the Asahi Haikuist Network and other discerning publications. The magnitude of her undertaking to observe and poetically record wildlife is astounding. This is your opportunity to read a carefully selected and arranged collection, fresh “out of Africa”. Highly recommended reading for the armchair traveler, unless you can go see the amazing fauna and flora for yourself before it is gone.
We hope to see you there on September 16th, and Lysa will be on hand to sign your copy!
Loving the View
I am currently house-sitting and this is my amazing view. Early retirement allows me to travel within my province to new places that I can explore. Early retirement also gives me the opportunity to build more of my second career – writing! And with a view like this, I am inspired!
On Wednesday, I offered an introductory session of GETTING STARTED WITH WRITING through Parkinsons Society of BC and will be spending time with participants of the session over the next three weeks. I am looking forward to the exchange of learning that happens during writing workshops!
Today I am editing book two of my fantasy trilogy while also spending time editing a prequel for an author of MG/YA science fiction. Then tomorrow I will spend twelve hours with folks from around the globe as we write poetry to prompts every hour, during the half-marathon of the Poetry Marathon 2022. I am extremely honoured this year to not only be participating, but to also be selected as the editor of the half-marathon poems that will be included in the anthology. I will be supporting poets alongside the full marathon editor, Ofuma Agali.
National Poetry Month
The following poem is a NONET I wrote during the Poetry Marathon last year and it appears in The Poetry Marathon Anthology, edited by Cynthia Hernandez. A nonet’s first line is NINE syllables long, the next line is eight syllables long, with each subsequent line having one less syllable.
ODE TO SIGNS
Cancer caused me to take stock of my
soul: discover what was missing –
gave myself permission to
dream in poetry. See
my life in stanzas –
rhyming couplets.
Lyrical
love of
words.
(Cristy Watson, 2021)
Locked Up
Thank you for this thoughtful review, Isaiah! I am coming up on three years since this book was first released and I am feeling rather nostalgic for the story and main character, Kevin. So, I thought I would repost your blog. Thank you again for all you did to help get these books into the hands of the young people for whom they are written. Happy 2022!
“When he was fifteen, Kevin took a car for a joyride and got in an accident that seriously injured a pedestrian. Known inside juvenile detention as Strider, he has spent more than two years incarcerated, and has learned the hard way how to survive inside. Strider keeps his head down and continues his schoolwork, and another inmate called Wired gives Strider protection from the gangs in exchange for ?loans? of money and helping Wired cheat on tests. When his parole officer suggests that he apply for early parole, Strider realizes that it would be hard for him to survive on the outside. All the kids he knew have moved on without him, and he has nothing to return to but life with his father since his mother left them.
When Strider sees Wired’s sister Larkyn come to visit her brother, he is very attracted to her. Maybe with someone like…
View original post 591 more words
Cristy Watson Books and Such 