We’ve raised $600.00 to date for CARE International’s work in the refugee camps in the Horn of Africa. Thanks to all the generous published authors who have donated their time and talent to do critiques to raise money.

No matter how often I read Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet,” they always reverberate:

“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this…..I beg you to stop that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should avoid right now. No one can advise or help you–no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would die if you were forbidden to write. then most of all: ask yourself in the silent hour of the night: must I write? and if this answer rings out an assent, if you meet this simply question with a strong, simple, “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.”

Have you always dreamed of becoming a published author? Do you have a half-finished manuscript hidden under the bed? Writers who CARE are a group of published authors working to raise money for Somalian refugees through CARE International. If you donate $50 to The 50/50 Project, a published author will critique 50 pages of your work-in-progress.  This is a steal folks! 

East Africa is facing its worst drought in more than 60 years, creating the most severe food crisis in the world today.

CARE has launched an emergency appeal for $48 million to provide food, water, and emergency relief.  They hope to reach almost 2 million people affected by the emergency.

Check out Writers who CARE: the 50/50 Project today and see how you can help. Thank you for your support!

Answering the Call VIII: Releasing the Writer Within

A WORKING WRITERS’ RETREAT

WHERE: The Villa Madonna in Renforth, New Brunswick (just outside of Saint
John)

WHEN: October 14, 15 and 16, 2011 

FORMAT:

October 14, 2011: 5 p.m. Registration in foyer. 

6 p.m. Opening Address: Answering the Call by Kathy-Diane Leveille 

6 to 9 p.m. Meet and Greet Social

October 15, 2011: Full writing day.

7 to 9 p.m. Optional critique group

October 16, 2011: 11:00 a.m. Closing and wrap up. 

1:00 p.m. Heading home after lunch and out by mid-afternoon.

FEE: $168.00 which includes single room and board.

All writers dream of getting a block of time for themselves to write. The Villa provides the perfect opportunity. Over the years, we’ve created touchstones within the weekend’s framework that provide optional opportunities to connect with other writers to share work-in-progress and experience.  Rooms are single and private, so there is not excuse not to write.

E-mail
shadowsfall@kathy-dianeleveille.com for more information.

“All of us can see ourselves in Leveille’s characters. These are stories that speak to the complicated bonds we have with siblings and parents, who they were and who they are now and how we learn the truth of what we took for granted before.” - The Daily Gleaner

I’m reading Carolyn See’s book  ”Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers.”  She talks about the importance of protecting your desire to write by not indiscriminately pouring your heart out about your creative yearnings to anyone who happens along. Hemingway believed that  ‘to talk about your work is to give it away, weaken it, to take away it’s magic and strength.’ Gertrude Stein– upset when her work wasn’t received as expected– stated: “Very well. I will write for myself, and for strangers.” And Jane Austen, who scribbled stories in the drawing room, kept a piece of needlepoint handy to cover it up if someone blundered into the room.

Writers need privacy and a room of their own: a safe place to dream and let ideas unspool in their full glory, unhindered by narrowed eyes or raised brows.  Recently BACHELORS DEGREE ONLINE posted THE 20 MOST AWE-INSPIRING WRITERS’ ROOMS complete with pictures of each hide-away.  George Bernard Shaw created in a writing hut, Virginia Woolf wrote in the rural cottage Monks’ House, Mark Twain in a gazebo, and Edith Wharton a bedroom at The Mount.  One of my favourite spots is the corner room on the second floor of the Villa Madonna, a retreat center run by the Sisters of Charity. There is a foot-high statue of the Virgin outside the door, nicked and faded; yet comforting when I recall stories of ghosts haunting the former nunnery. A breeze hinting coolly of the distant river gusts through the open window that overlooks an ancient pine with branches raised in supplication. Writers need enough space to let the wild child within (as author, Natalie Goldberg, labels it)  do cartwheels and make an awesome rip-roaring mess.

“Roads Unravelling is a winding highway of quiet, still surfaces and yawning depths. Patrolling the flow are gape-jawed monsters and small glimmering pearls of real beauty.” The New Brunswick Reader

I sat out on the deck and did my Morning Pages (Julia Cameron’s Artist Way) and then, after admiring the geraniums blooming  creamy pink amongst the catmint, began reading “Beautiful by Design” a book on gardening by Tara Dillard. It occurred to me that the points she was making about learning plant design applied to the art of fiction writing:

 “What I learned from my Garden (fiction writing):

1. Gardens (fiction writing) require patience. A garden (novel) doesn’t happen overnight.

2. Striving for beauty in the garden (writing) is part of garden (novel) design.

3. Less can be more. Sometimes what is not there makes what is there more important.

4. My garden (fiction) continually teaches me new ideas.

5. I have to unlearn old ideas that no longer serve my garden (novel). Gardens (novels) are ever-changing–so should be my knowledge about my garden (writing).

6. An important rule of garden (novel) design: Simplify. The placement of focal points…is one of the most important points of garden (novel) design. I had to learn what is the right style of ornamentation for my garden (writing). Simplicity is a virtue.”

“Kathy-Diane Leveille observes the ties and binds of working class lives in lucidly evoked rural settings….her settings and especially her characters–their hopes and fears, verbal and behavioral tics, even their smells–are keenly observed and full of sensual presence.” The Globe and Mail

It’s been raining all week and what better way to spend it, but inventorying all the books I’ve collected over the years. There are lots of surprises found, rooting through the shelves, reconnecting with old friends, apologetically unearthing discarded half-read tomes. There’s a calling between the covers. 

THE LIBRARY IN THE GARRETT

Books, books, books!

I found the secret of the garret room

Piled high with cases in my father’s name;

Piled high, packed large–where, creeping in and out

Among the great fossils of my past

Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs

Of a mastadon, I nibbled here and there

At this or that box, pulling through the gap

In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy

The first book First. And how I felt it beat

Under my pillow in the morning’s dark

An hour before the sun would let me read

My books!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Congratulations to Maureen St. Clair, who is part of my Artist Circle doing Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water” by e-mail this winter. She won a copy of ROADS UNRAVELLING in my Spring newsletter draw.  Maureen is a writer, painter and activist. The picture featured here is one of her prints. I asked her to send a few word along about her work. She writes:

“Recently a friend of mine described my Art Work as Heart Work and it made me think more seriously of why I do what I do: paint people celebrating their lives, their selves. My Grenada family, friends, and community are the foundation of my Heart work. They have taught me hope, strength, resilience, courage and resourcefulness in the face of life’s difficult moments. I have learned and continue to learn the fine balance between hope and despair and the power of music, dance, storytelling, poetry, and laughter in healing, transforming and revolutionizing.

I left Canada in 1993 and since then have made Grenada my home. I met my life partner Theo soon after arriving in Grenada and in 2001 we planted our own roots with the birth of our daughter Maya.

I freelance part time as a community facilitator and work full time as an artist and peace educator. I am also passionate about writing and would like to use this passion to further my work as a peace activist.  You can experience my work as writer, artist and community peace worker at http://maureenstclair.blogspot.com/.”

Congrats Maureen. Hope you enjoy the copy of “Roads Unravelling” and it inspires you to finish your short story collection.

“Dive into these stories, let their current take you. New Brunswick’s Kennebecasis is to Kathy-Diane Leveille what the Miramichi is to David Adams Richards—a harsh and lovely riverscape of the soul. Leveille’s writing sings of heartbreak and redemption, and the wicked dancing moments in-between.  A wise and stirring debut.”  Carol Bruneau author of Purple for Sky

I usually hold an Artist Circle group in my home over the winter to discuss one of Julia Cameron’s books (The Artist Way: A Spiritual Path to Creativity). However, this year, I posted on-line to a few professional groups to see if anyone was interested in trying it by e-mail. 

Sixteen people quickly signed up and we now have writers, weavers, painters, jewellery artisans, soap makers, photographers  corresponding  weekly on-line from  as far away as India, Barbados  and Guatemala.  I love connecting this way.  Technology IS changing everything.   You’d be amazed at the statistics.  Check out the SHIFT HAPPENS, Did You Know video.

Congratulations to Darcy, a fan on GoodReads, who won a copy of “LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU” in the draw for the winter newsletter.  All the fans on GoodReads are entered into the quarterly prize draws.  Hope you enjoy the read, Darcy.  If you missed my newsletter, you may have missed the announcement about this Postcard Story Competion from The Writers’ Union of Canada.  It’s an excellent opportunity. I won one year and it was subsequently published in the literary journal “Grain.”  Good luck!

 12^th ANNUAL POSTCARD STORY COMPETITION

$500 PRIZE

 The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that submissions are being accepted until February 14, 2011, for the 2011 POSTCARD STORY COMPETITION. The winning entry will be the best Canadian work of 250 words or less in the English language, fiction or nonfiction. Are you up for the challenge? Can you create a dynamic, lean, and efficient piece in only 250 words? You can use humour, poetry, dialogue… anything goes!

PRIZE

$500 for the winning entry. The winning entry will be published in Write, the magazine of The Writers’ Union of Canada. The winner agrees that The Writers’ Union of Canada will have non-exclusive publication rights to publish the winning entry in Write for publicity purposes. Any publication of the author’s story by The Writers’ Union of Canada will include an authorship credit and a copyright notice in the name of the author. Copyright of the winning postcard story remains with the writer.

JURY

Ray Hsu, Samuel Thomas Martin, and Edeet Ravel will serve as the jury.

ELIGIBILITY

This competition is open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants. Original and unpublished

(English language) fiction or nonfiction, no more than 250 words.

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES:

·         Entries should be typed, double-spaced, in a clear twelve-point font, and the pages numbered on 8.5 x 11 paper, not stapled.

·         Submissions will be accepted in hardcopy only.

·         Include a separate cover letter with title of story, full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and number of pages of entry.

·         The author’s name should not appear on the actual entry.

·         Make cheque or money order, $5 per submission, payable to The Writers’ Union of Canada. Multiple entries can be submitted together and fees can be added and paid with one cheque or money order.

·         Entries must be postmarked by February 14, 2011 to be eligible.

·         Mail entries to: PCS Competition, The Writers’ Union of Canada, 90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1.

Results will be posted at www.writersunion.ca in May 2011. Manuscripts will not be returned.

“LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU is kind of a “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” for grownups. Four friends who bond together in childhood, each coming from a troubled past, they create a group for themselves–only does one of the women go above and beyond to take care of the others–even murder? …this book kept me coming back for more.” -Night Owl Romance