Category: Guest Posts

Writing: A Healing Art

Ed GriffinGuest Post
by Ed Griffin

Aristotle said, “Art releases unconscious tensions and purges the soul.”

I volunteered to teach creative writing first in a maximum security prison in Wisconsin where I lived. When we moved to Canada in 1988 I volunteered again, but the prison administrator told me I wasn’t needed because Simon Fraser ran a university program at Matsqui prison. A year later the program was cancelled and I started to teach creative writing.

That was twenty years ago and I made Aristotle’s quote my motto. Writing was an art, and it helped people understand themselves. I remember giving an assignment, “Write about a safe place you knew as a child.” Nothing was more productive than this. “Me and my brother, we had a fort behind the house where we went when ma was looking for us.” “My safe place was under the steps. I hid there when my old man came home drunk.”

If a guy stayed with the class, he got beyond “F…. the system,” though I was glad to see him write that, rather than act it out. Only a few guys in all those years turned into ‘real writers,’ but that didn’t make any difference to me. Continue reading “Writing: A Healing Art”

Ramifications of Writing a Tell-All

Brenda PerlinGuest Post
by Brenda Perlin

Writing fiction is hard. Writing fiction that is not really fiction is even more difficult. In my case, I wrote a story that is 100% from real life and hoped I could avoid being sued by changing the names. Possibly getting sued felt to be my biggest hurdle, but what I learned was that was the least of my concern.

After my book Shattered Reality (formerly known as Home Wrecker) was released, I had to confront the issue that many people were not going to be pleased with me or my story. What did I expect with such a title? There was judgment, criticism, and plenty of hatred spewed my way. Part of that disdain was from friends and family members. When you write a story about your life and go as far as to have it published for all to read, there are going to be some pretty unhappy people. Continue reading “Ramifications of Writing a Tell-All”

Getting It Right: Fire

Photo courtesy Ross Beckley
Photo courtesy Ross Beckley

Smoke Signals
Guest Post
by John Kenny

The theatre manager told us we would have to leave if we couldn’t be quiet. A group of fellow firefighters and I were howling with laughter as we watched “Backdraft”. Kurt Russell was dashing through a blazing inferno, coat open, boots rolled down and with no breathing apparatus.

Even the rawest recruit knew that in real life Russell would be dead two steps in. What was missing was the single deadliest thing in a fire – smoke. Hollywood leaves out the smoke, or at best shows a light mist, because if they showed what it was really like all you would see would be a black screen. At best you’d see an orange glow as the camera got close to the fire.

Smoke is the product of incomplete combustion due an inadequate supply of fresh air (oxygen). This is exactly what happens inside a tightly closed home or other structure. Furthermore the smoke has nowhere to go. Sitting around a campfire the smoke simply rises and blows away. Anyone who’s had the smoke blow in their direction knows how uncomfortable that is – the coughing and stinging eyes. You can imagine what it’s like inside a building: even if you could keep your eyes open in that stinging murk, the smoke rapidly builds up until you literally can’t see the hand in front of your face. Continue reading “Getting It Right: Fire”

Do You Review?

Simon GoodsonGuest Post
by Simon Goodson

I’m going to make a few assumptions here, but I think they are all reasonable. First assumption – if you are reading this then you are an author or involved in publishing books. That won’t be true for everyone, but I’m pretty sure it covers most of you. That means you know how hard it is to get each and every review. You know how important reviews are. You know the excitement when you realise there’s a new review for one of your books.

Next assumption – you read a lot of books. If you’re an author you read far more books each year than you write. If you’re a publisher I bet you still read a lot of books outside of work. There was a time, before I started writing seriously, when I would read four or five books a week. I read a lot less now but it is still thirty to fifty books a year. Maybe more. Continue reading “Do You Review?”