Writers' Circle Member's Novel Wins Award!

Vicky Earle, member, Uxbridge Writers' Circle, is the author of the Meg Sheppard Mystery Series. 'Pointed Attacks' is the third in the series.

This is the information included on canadabookaward.com:

"The Canada Book Awards program recognizes and promotes Canadian author outstanding accomplishment. The Canada Book Awards is an ongoing book assessment program that honours Canadian authors regardless of when their books and/or eBooks were published."

The front cover and description of 'Pointed Attacks' is included in the list of winners published on the Canada Book Awards website. (If you wish to find it, winners are listed in random order, so please scroll down the list).

All three books are available as e-books at major e-book retailers.
Here are the links:
"What Happened to Frank?" Book 1
"Over Frank's Dead Body" Book 2
"Pointed Attacks" Book 3

Soft-cover versions of all three books are available at blueheronbooks.com

Vicky is grateful for the advice, support and encouragement that she receives from her colleagues, the members of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle. Thank you!

Bev Hanna is Guest Speaker at November Meeting

Bev Hanna is our guest speaker at the Uxbridge Writers' Meeting on Tuesday, November 5.
She will engage us in an interactive exercise called 'Mapping Our Memoirs' that will help us to understand how to use mapmaking to discover our past and to plan an autobiography.
Bev trained as a classical artist in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was a working portrait artist for many years. She was employed in the computer graphics industry in Toronto during the early 1980s.
For several years, Bev exhibited her work, primarily animal portraiture all over Canada and parts of the US.
Until recently, Bev ran a highly successful writers' circle focusing on the craft and techniques of good writing: dialogue, character development, sentence construction, structure and so on. Bev now teaches memoir writing at several local venues and has taken this knowledge online to share with a larger audience.
Bev launched scribblersguild.com aimed at 'more mature' writers who are thinking about writing an autobiography or memoir. The site is full of helpful and motivational gems, but it's also a place to ask questions and to interact with others.
We're looking forward to welcoming Bev to our meeting.

Word on the Street Toronto!

This event promises to be packed with fun, as well as lots of words.
The Word on the Street Toronto Book and Magazine Festival thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/festival/ will be held at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto on Sunday, September 22. Admission is free. 

Sisters in Crime, Toronto TorontoSistersInCrime.ca will be participating in this huge and fascinating event.
If you're a writer, a reader, or both, it will be worth checking out the SinC booth.
Member authors will have signed books available at great prices. And who doesn't like a great mystery!
And writers can learn about the numerous benefits of being a member of SinC.
And more!

I am a member of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle and also a member of SinC. I will be at the booth, signing my own books "What Happened to Frank?" and "Over Frank's Dead Body" on Sunday, September 22, between 10am and 11am. I will be helping as a volunteer from 11.30am until 1.30pm.

Please join in the fun. Hope to see you there.

Rich Helms: Guest Speaker on September 3!

Uxbridge Writers' Circle Members are excited to welcome Rich Helms to our meeting on September 3 at 1pm at the Uxbridge Arena.

Rich will talk on various ways "to get your words out". For example: self-publishing; paper versus e-books; blogs; Facebook; Instagram; Twitter, podcasts, youtube and more.

Rich has experience in these media and we know that we're in for an interesting and informative meeting.

He has an eclectic bio: Rich Helms spent a career in computer research and development. he attacks his baking from the angle of a researcher, creating structure in the recipes. "It is how I think and work." Rich is a commercially trained coffee roaster and baker. he documents his bread-baking work at OnBreadAlone.com "It's never been done" is a call to action for Rich. He built a career breaking new ground in the computer field including five hardware and software patents. In 1986 he developed CARES (Computer Assisted Recovery Enhancement System), the first computer system in the world for aging missing children.

Lisha Van Nieuwenhove is our speaker on May 7

We are looking forward to Lisha Van Nieuwenhove, Publisher/Editor of the The Uxbridge Cosmos, joining us on May 7!

Lisha grew up in Uxbridge, pursued a degree in journalism at university in Ottawa, lived abroad in Switzerland for seven years, and finally moved back to Uxbridge.

Lisha worked for many years as a freelance writer and editor (among lots of other things) and is now the owner/publisher/editor of our great, community-based newspaper, The Uxbridge Cosmos thecosmos.ca.

Lisha calls Uxbridge home and says she enjoys raising her family here, and being involved in many facets of community life.

Lisha's love for the written word and her love for Uxbridge made a perfect combination when the opportunity presented itself to take on The Uxbridge Cosmos. The newspaper first appeared in September 2005, and began as a "locally owned, locally created, locally written publication" that is "best able to tell the story of our community"  (excerpt from: "Our Two Cents" editorial on September 1, 2005). That statement still resonates with Lisha's team each week as they assemble the publication for readers' enjoyment.

Lisha says that Uxbridge is a picturesque and diverse township that offers many different opportunities and experiences to those who live and visit here. "As a newspaper which shares the news, stories, and events that are unfolding within our township, we hope to not only inform our readers, but also to reflect upon, encourage and strengthen our sense of community".

We members of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle are fortunate that Lisha is willing to share some of her knowledge and experience with us on May 7!

Coming on March 5: Author, Editor and Writing Coach, Ruth E. Walker

Members of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle are excited that Ruth E. Walker will be the guest speaker at our meeting in March.
The first work Ruth E. Walker ever submitted won Canadian Living magazine's 1996 story contest.
Since then, her fiction, nonfiction and poetry have won prizes and appeared in magazines and journals in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. including Prairie Fire, Geist, Contemporary Verse 2, Utne Reader Online, Rain Dog, Chapman and River King Poetry. 
Her plays have been produced in regional theatres (Whitby Court House Theatre, Stone Circle Theatre, Rural Rogues), and she has read her poetry at festivals, on radio and on a floating dock in Haliburton County. Ruth has travelled as far north as Moose River to offer workshops and as far south as Virginia for book club appearances.
Ruth's novel, LIVING UNDERGROUND, was published by Seraphim Editions and is in second printing. She is an editor, writing coach and partner in Writescape writescape.ca, offering workshops and retreats for writers at all levels.
We are looking forward to welcoming Ruth!

Ted Barris Coming on February 5!

We are thrilled that Ted Barris, tedbarris.com, author of Dam Busters (and many other award-winning non-fiction books) is joining the Uxbridge Writers' Circle on February 5. We are fortunate that Ted is willing to share some of  his experience and secrets to his success with a few of his fellow-writers in Uxbridge. His enthusiasm, professionalism and commitment to excellence in both his research and his writing are an inspiration to us!
Ted has been working hard to promote Dam Busters across Canada. We're looking forward to hearing all about it. Promotion is one of the biggest challenges for writers.
It will be a great meeting!