The third book co-edited by creative collaborators Eric Maisel and Lynda Monk is now out: Affirmations for Self-Love: A Motivational Journal with Prompts for Self-Worth, Self Acceptance & Positive Self-Talk (Mango Publishing, 2024). Eric Maisel has inspired many with his 50 + books in the world. I believe the first book I read of Eric’s was Fearless Creating and I’ve appreciated many more since. Eric is a retired family therapist and active creativity coach who is a member of the Journal Council of the IAJW (International Association for Journal Writing). Lynda Monk is the Director of the ..read more

I’m not sure if there is a particular genre name for light-hearted crime fiction. Until I find out, I’ll call the likes of books by Richard Osman, Susan Juby, Ron Base, Prudence Emery, Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti: crime fiction (with a chuckle). Novels by these authors with their amateur sleuths, remind me somewhat of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Usually, the Christie novels, as well as those of P.D. James, were set in a particular setting such as a small village, a school, a theatre, and we got to meet all the characters among whom is the murderer. That way we readers could be sleuth ..read more

Spring Pop-Up Writing Life women’s writing circles on Zoom Nourish Yourself. Honour Your Voice. Write Your Stories. You are invited to join me for a spring pop-up writing circle (or more than one!) to honour signs of spring and your own writing practice. For those who find these circle themes familiar, you’ll have an opportunity to reconnect to your writing. For others new to the circle and perhaps even new to writing, you’ll have an introduction to the gifts of writing with companions nearby. In the two and a half hours we spend together on Zoom, we’ll have a mini retreat of connecting to our ..read more

It’s that time of year when the writing circles begin again. I always look forward to seeing old friends and welcoming new ones. Writing has been my spiritual practice for a long time and I can’t help but encourage it in others. There are a couple of opportunities coming up. If you are in Nanaimo or not too far away, I invite you to join me either for a four-week Writing Life women’s writing circle, in my home, or for a seven-week writing circle called Writing Home: A Whole Life Practice that will take place at Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo. The Writing Life Circle‘s theme this time is “Stitchin ..read more

In the photograph taken by my friend Wendy Morisseau, I’m sitting in my living room in Nanaimo where I usually lead women’s writing circles called Writing Life. After many years, I’ll be offering some writing circles again, open to everyone, at Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo. The setting is a tranquil one on Westwood Lake where we will write together, for the love of it. The “Writing for the Love of It” circle, is on Monday, November 13, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You’ll find a link below for more information and for registering through the Bethlehem website. It will be a New Moon that day so a s ..read more

bookmaker first I fold the mountain then the valley The haiku above opens poet and paper artist Terry Ann Carter’s eighth book of poetry, First I Fold The Mountain: A Love Letter to Books (Black Moss Press, 2022). Terry Ann is also a bookmaker and very possibly “a paper queen wearing stars in my hair.” The quoted line is from “Tearing Down the Papers Just Before Summer,” a poem “after American poet Malachi Black. Part l of this beautiful collection, Tearing Down the Papers, gets its title, as does the poem, from “an expression that bookmakers use when preparing large sheets of paper for book i ..read more

I started to get excited by maps in my first grade classroom when Mrs. Lett pulled down the world map in front of the blackboard and used her pointer to show us where we lived: Eganville, Ontario, Canada. Having seen the many possibilities of personal mapmaking since then, I created a memory map of my childhood backyard. I’m remembering maps sketched on serviettes and discovering ways to explore emotions by mapping them. And I’ve mapped my spiritual journey to Turkey, specifically Catal Hoyuk, an ancient site in central Anatolia, Turkey, which has one of world’s oldest authenticated map. You A ..read more

A Curious Happiness in Small Things (Raven Chapbooks, 2020) – such a perfect title for a book of poetry, especially this book of praise poems by David Haggart. The poem from which the book takes its title is about the narrator’s ride in the back of a pick-up driven by a woman “near eighty” down the hill on Mt Maxwell Road. Mount Maxwell is on Salt Spring Island, B.C. where David has lived since 2000. Happiness in small things appears in other poems in the collection too such as “The Truce” about a boy and his Nanny which ends: I have learned to be grateful for the least bit of light. “Moments ..read more

Nourish Yourself Honour Your Voice Write Your Stories. Summer, a time of year with little or no structure . . . a free-floating time of musing, pondering and shifting. It’s also a perfect chance to take a “time out” to connect to oneself while being in the nurturing company of other writers. This summer I am offering some unique ONE-AT-A-TIME POP-UP circles to keep you connected to a sustainable writing practice and a nourishing writing community. And this is an opportunity to see what a Writing Life circle is like before signing up for a four-week or six week circle. Some writing circles are ..read more

April is National Poetry Month in Canada. with the theme of Joy this year. We’re all definitely in need of and ready for joy.  Nanaimo, happily, is a poetry city. We have a poet laureate, Kamal Pamar, and there are always poetry events taking place at the libraries; accompanied by a symphony orchestra in a theatre; in cafes; at salons; and often on the street. And hopefully in classrooms too.                             Last Fall, two women in the Writing Life women’s writing circle I lead, and I, decided we would put ..read more