The workshop took place at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior, an aesthetically more pleasing venue than the Marguerite Centre in Pembroke, which is larger, more institution-like, less cosy, less suitable for thinking beautiful thoughts. It's less than an hour's drive from Ottawa, which is an added attraction. The drive to Arnprior on a lovely sunny autumn day with the brilliant seasonal colours beginning to inflame the trees, was delightful, and I arrived in time to stroll through the little park on a rise above the confluence of the Ottawa and Madawaska Rivers, where the Ottawa River is about a kilometre wide, and - although there are wild rapids nearby - flat calm and on a windless day, surface like a mirror reflecting the brilliant fall colours that are beginning to appear on both the Ontario and Quebec sides of the river.
The company was excellent. All but one of us (who left early, also with a respiratory infection) are in the photo above. Most are associated with health care, probably a coincidence, and the majority, like me, are writing or have written memoirs rather than creative fiction. When I was about 12-13 years old I wanted to be a writer, and decided on a medical career partly because several of my role models from that time had escaped from medical careers into writing. I made the sad discovery by the time I was about 16 that I couldn't invent plots or create believable three-dimensional characters, and had a tin ear for dialogue. So creative writing was not a realistic career path. Fortunately by then I had discovered that a medical career held many other fascinations. My colleagues at this weekend's writers' workshop are not hampered by my shortcomings. Listening to their readings of excerpts of their imaginative work I felt humbled by their manifest superiority at creative writing. Several have written stories that are based on fact thinly disguised as fiction. I admire enormously their ability and imagination that is enough to write believable dialogue into their compositions. I've tried to do this but failed miserably so far. Now, inspired by my colleagues at the workshop, I will try again.
As readers of this blog know, over the past year or so I've been posting abridged excerpts of my memoirs and also some of my traveller's tales, often illustrated with photos. I feel inspired now to focus more on licking the memoirs into final shape and aiming to publish them as an e-book, as early as I can manage in 2013. I most warmly welcome comments from any of the several hundred readers of this blog: if you feel impelled to comment, whether to encourage me or to tell me to forget it and take up stamp collecting instead, I will be most happy to hear from you, whether in a public comment or - as most are - a private and personal email direct to me.
Sounds like the Galilee Centre will be a good candidate for the next OIW writers' retreat.
ReplyDeleteI figure that if someone has had an interesting enough life or survived life changing events, he or she has a story to tell and maybe can gather enough words to write an interesting memoir. You may want to consult with family, friends and colleagues who may have shared certain eras to determine if the effort is worthwhile.
With the conveniences of e-publishing these days, it's much easier for budding authors to share their stories. It's also easier on the trees.
Yes, a memoir with relevant photographs and illustrations would be interesting to many people.
Blog entries with pictures are interesting too. When things get slow, slip in the occasional cat picture. Works for me.
Best of luck,
T