Fun Events

One of the great off-shoots of being a writer is that you are invited to all sorts of intriguing events. Apart from the usual store book signings and library readings, which I do very much enjoy, I've been invited to speak about writing at local high schools, most recently to the grade XI class at the Merivale H.S. in Ottawa. Last November, I spent a morning talking about writing as a career. While one or two students did nod off, I was glad to see a few keeners who seemed very intent on becoming writers. One had even written a children's book and was asking me how to approach a publisher. It made me wonder if I wouldn't be reading their Giller or GG Awards winning novel in the years to come. This is a picture of me with some of these students.

A week later I was very honoured to attend as a guest author the Ottawa Public Library Foundation's Gala Literary Evening, featuring internationally acclaimed Canadian author Jane Urquart as the guest speaker. It was quite the glittering event in the main ballroom of the Chateau Laurier with several hundred supporters of the library. I and my husband spent a fascinating evening as guests at one of the sponsored tables. I'm always interested in hearing other writers talk about their writing experiences and needless to say Ms. Urquart's talk - I feel I can't really call her Jane - was no less intriguing. And I even had the honour to sit beside her in the group author photo. That's me, seated first on the left.

And most recently I spoke at the Arts Night at the First Unitarian Congregation in Ottawa. The other two speakers were Ruth Secunda, a visual artist, and Angela Casagrande, an oboe player. We were asked to talk about our passion for our art. I must say it was a delight to hear about the experiences of artists from other venues and to discover we have a few things in common.

It was obvious that money was not our driving force, since none of us make much from our art, rather it was the tremendous satisfaction we felt on accomplishing something in our art, be it writing a novel, creating a weaving or playing an intricate piece of music. That's really what keeps us going. And the other aspect was perseverance. The three of us had at various times experienced ups and downs in our artistic endeavours, but we kept plugging at it until we succeeded. And we continue to do so, for being an artist isn't a straight narrow road to nirvana. It's a lot of work with many hurdles and set backs. But I tell you once you achieve what you set out to do, it's a tremendous feeling of accomplishment until you set out on your next artistic endeavour.

And I tell you I've reached one of those hurdles right now. I'm in the middle of the fourth Meg Harris. And for me middles are scary. After the initial rush of getting the new story underway, I begin to run out of steam. I know where I want the story to go, but I suddenly realize I've got to fill up a lot of space before I get there and I don't quite know what to fill that space up with. But invariably after many walks with the dog, many games of computer solitaire, a glimmer of a path starts to unfold and so one chapter at a time, I get Meg moving through the action until presto the murder's solved. And I'm amazed as my eventual readers will be as to who the killer turns out to be.