Tag Archives: fun things

Forest of Reading Trip, first stop London!

Wow, what a week I’ve had! From my quiet country life to the raucous, celebratory hullabaloo that is the Forest of Reading Festival! And now that I’m back home, on my sunny deck listening to the wee birdies twitter (actual birds, not the 140-character ones), I’m ready to share my adventures.

First stop was the mighty city of London, Ontario, and their first-ever Festival of Trees event.

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Kevin Sylvester (author of the Neil Flambe series) and I arrive at the Progress Building fully caffeinated and ready to go. (photo by Kevin)

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Summer Camps 2014!

Hi everyone! I’ve got some information to share about the Summer Camps I will be teaching this year. Both camps will be held at my home on Salt Spring Island, just a five-minute drive south of Ganges.

Summer Writing Camp

ages 11-14
July 7 – 11
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
$175
(Early bird deal: $165 before June 20)

This was a big hit with participants last year. Story ideas, character development, plot structure, dialogue, setting, genre, theme, style, and much more! Discussions about favourite books and movies, vocabulary builders, technical tips, games, exercises and prompts. Whether you are working on a project and need a little advice or are looking for inspiration to get started, this camp is for you.

Bring your own lunch, notebook and pen. (Computers ok too.)

“It was so much fun – I learned so much and I’m actually writing the book I’ve been planning to write for a long time.” – Holly

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Junior Writers Camp

ages 8-10
July 14-18
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
$175
(Early bird deal: $165 before June 30)

For younger writers, this is a very active version of the older kids’ camp, focussing on games, exercises, and storytelling, with a bit of acting, art and puppetry thrown in for good measure.  We’ll make up crazy group stories and talk about our favourite books and movies. With a little less emphasis on actual words-on-paper than the older camp, this week is designed to get kids thinking about story, characters and plot in fun ways.

Bring your own lunch, notebook and pen. (Computers ok too.)

To register or find out more info, please drop me a line!

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Another Fill-in-the-Blanks Story

IMG_5995 - Version 2Here’s another story for some Writing Group fun – another Fill-in-the-Blanks story. (See previous post for our first example.) Basically you just write words on slips of paper and drop them into the appropriate bowls: NOUN (character), NOUN (object), NOUN (location), ADJECTIVE, VERB, or ADVERB. Then proceed with the story and draw a word every time you need to fill in a blank.

Here’s one our Friday group came up with:

Fantastic Man and Fedora Dude

Go To School

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Filed under Get Writing!, Miscellaneous Weirdness, Writing Club

Group Writing Fun: Fill-in-the-Blanks Story

IMG_5988 - Version 2The game that has taken my writing club by storm recently is what I call the Fill-in-the-Blanks Story. We start by writing words on slips of paper and dropping them into the appropriate bowls: NOUN (character), NOUN (object), NOUN (location), ADJECTIVE, VERB, or ADVERB. Then we proceed with the story and draw a word every time we need to fill in a blank. The results can be… weird. Continue reading

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Weekly Eldritch: Miscellaneous Eyeballs

– your weekly creepy thing –

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What is it about eyeballs that makes them so freaky? Continue reading

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Writing Club: Writing Games for the Holidays

IMG_3984Snow day! Here on Salt Spring our first significant snowfall has occurred, on the first day of vacation! I decided to give the old car a break and not drive down the mountain into town for our last Writing Club meeting (awwww!). Here are the fun exercises we were going to do…

banana-peel5-minute prompt: FUNNY

(5-minute, stream-of-consciousness exercise, write whatever pops into your brain on the topic. Don’t bother with sentences, paragraphs, or punctuation. Just write.)

What’s funny? What makes you laugh? Who makes you laugh?  How many different words for ‘laugh’ can you think of?


 Who Am I? Game

A little character-invention fun. For each of these faces answer the following: Continue reading

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Big News! It’s a Contest!

clipart-contestHuzzah! I’ve been meaning to have a contest on this site for a while now, so here it finally is. A contest for all school-age Writers and Artists: write a short story (any length) about a Senior Citizen with a secret identity/amazing past OR illustrate any scene from Eldritch Manor. Or do both, if you’re super ambitious.

For all the details on prizes and where to send entries go here.

I can’t wait to see what you can do… just be sure to enter before March 15, 2014!

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School Talks in Toronto, Day 1

I hit the ground running on this trip – on our first full day here I did 3 talks at our old school, Runnymede P.S.

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I spoke to three massive groups in the school’s wonderful library, first the Grade 7/8s…

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Then the 5/6s…

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And finally the 3/4s…

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Holy Mackinaw! Coming straight from small-town life to this was quite a shock. On Salt Spring when you get ten people in one place it’s considered an unruly mob…

It was a whole lot of fun to talk to them about being a writer, making up stories, and the importance of reading, though it turns out the last topic was entirely unnecessary because they already seem to be rabid readers. It’s fantastic to meet kids who are so excited about books!

And at the end of the day I was so exhausted I could have slept for a week. But, as they say, it was a good kind of tired…

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Weekly Eldritch: Trees with Eyes

Was on a hike last week in the lovely, serene woods when I spotted this:

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Eyes watching me! Suspicious character. At least he wasn’t throwing apples. Continue reading

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Camp Details finally worked out…

Okay, so I’m finally committing to dates and details for my Summer Writing Camp. The full scoop can be found here.

I think it will be quite fun! I’d like to allow for all kinds of writing: if participants want more info on fantasy writing, or scriptwriting, or whatever, I’ll do my best to provide specific help in those areas. All while polishing basic writing skills and sharing our work with each other in a friendly and supportive manner.

If you’re on the island this summer and want to get your writing in gear, sign up today!

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