Time for a Mentor
June 15, 2017
Once I have a first draft, I know I need help in moving forward. I have now completed seventeen chapters with approximately 60,000 words. Are these too many or too few?
I benefitted greatly from the generosity of other writers. Whenever I reached out, the
response was immediate. The advice was candid and thoughtful, with a sincere desire to help. In Views,
I will continue this tradition. I would like to facilitate a conversation among emerging writers.
Views
Personal Records
June 1, 2017
I discover Ancestry.ca. I join for three months and spend a couple of hours a day searching its database. I find my grandparents’ birth, marriage and death certificates. Each new document leads me down another path.
Research Success
May 15, 2017
I visit Sardis and Chilliwack each week to further my research. I am getting to know Shannon Bettles, the archivist at the Chilliwack Archives, well by now. Many leads go nowhere.
Research
May 1, 2017
I start my research in Chilliwack. On the Chilliwack Archives site, I find that the Chilliwack Progress Newspaper has articles since the early 1900s. I set aside a day every few weeks to go to the Archives in Chilliwack and the Sto:lo Resource and Management Centre in Sardis.
Getting Down to Writing
April 15, 2017
Getting pen to paper, or more accurately, fingers to keyboard, is hard. I force myself to sit at my desk. I try to resist the endless diversions. I take to heart the advice of my mentors at Sage Hill Writing Experience, Merilyn Simonds and Wayne Grady.
Motivation
April 1, 2017
In July of 2014, I find myself at the Sage Hill Writing Experience in Lumsden, Saskatchewan with eleven other “emerging writers” and our mentors, Canadian authors, Merilyn Simonds and Wayne Grady.
Path Forward
March 15, 2017
I hear about Sage Hill Writing Experience, a ten-day writers’ retreat in Saskatchewan from Betsy Warland, my instructor at a creative writing class at Simon Fraser University. This sounds like a perfect next stage for me.
Inspiration
March 1, 2017
I knew what I wanted to do when I retired. I had been working in environmental law for nearly thirty years. But the place closest to my heart has always been our summer cabin at Chilliwack Lake.