Mandy Eve-Barnett's Official Blog

Inkling – definition: a vague notion : hint.

 Conference Review.

Yesterday was the culmination of six months of organization and hard work. From an inkling of an idea, we changed the format of our writers conference entirely this year. Holding a two hour session in the morning, followed by a Q&A panel and then two separate presentations in the afternoon.

With a change in venue, we were able to set up a classroom style presentation room, which was conducive not only to the attendees but the presenters as well.

We were once again fortunate in our presenters. Each one not only gave excellent orations but were insightful in the Q&A panel utilizing registrants work as the basis of discussion, after critiquing the submissions. Yes we work them hard! But we are extremely grateful.

IPPY award winning Toronto author, Lisa de Nikolits flew in especially for our conference – quite a coo wouldn’t you say? Lisa is an absolute delight and a good friend of mine. Her presentation was 8 Components of Story Writing and it was incredibly helpful to established and novice writers. With only a short coffee break at midway, Lisa managed to enthuse her audience for the whole two hours.

The session after lunch was held by Judy Schultz, who is a nationally renowned travel and food writer, the author of ten books, and the winner of numerous awards including the Robert Kroetsch Book Prize for her fiction novel, Freddy’s War. She is also a very charming, generous woman and has graced our conference before. Judy’s presentation was Non-Fiction – 8 Guidelines, which was not only helpful for non-fiction but also fiction writers. Techniques of writing are interchangeable through any genre or style.

Our third and last session was held by Natasha Deen, who is currently our Writer in Residence. Natasha is hilariously funny and had the room in fits of laughter while giving great information on 8 Steps to Utilize Your WIR. I know that many of the attendees will be submitting work to Natasha, me included.

The Q&A panel included the presenters above as well as Karen Probert, who is a founding member of the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County and the author of Fragments of Lives. Karen continues to be a vital member of the Foundation as the Past President and the Library Liaison. Her insight into the writing craft is splendid.

Registrants and volunteers also enjoyed a wonderful lunch, browsed trade tables and bid on Silent Auction items. There were also displays celebrating the Writers Foundation’s timeline and another highlighting the members past and present. These exhibits were part of the Strathcona County 120 year anniversary celebrations.

With another successful conference under our belts we can breath a sigh of relief…for a short while anyway!

Thank you to everyone that attended and made it such an inspiring and enjoyable day.