A long time ago (not quite the Precambrian era, but it sure feels like it sometimes), everyone knew me as a writer. It was as much a part of who I was as my own name. And after winning a national creative writing award from the Canadian Author's Association twice in three years, I had a tongue-in-cheek nickname in the English Department at Acadia: "The Future of Canadian Literature." At one point, to perpetuate the joke, I had a purple ballcap emblazoned with gold thread lettering: "TFoCL." Those were the days, my friend. :)
It's been twenty years since then, and when I made up my Day Zero list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, I put quite a few writing-related goals on it. But I haven't exactly been focusing on them -- or the list in general, for that matter.
So today I decided I would kill two birds with one stone. I would cross an item off the list and I would pick up my "WRITER" label once more. I rejoined the Writers Federation of New Brunswick -- after nearly fifteen years of being MIA. Within ten minutes, I had sent in my application, paid my dues, heard back from the Executive Director, and received the Spring 2011 issue of the newsletter. Gotta love the Internet!
I don't think the purple hat would fit any more. After all, being 41 years old sort of goes against being "the future" of anything. But being back amongst like-minded individuals who identify themselves as writers is already going a long way towards waking up that long-dormant part of my Self. I'm looking up markets, and jotting down ideas, and fiddling with plot outlines, and mulling over lines of poetry...
... and it's only been an hour.
* * *
Update: About that craft show... I didn't do as well as I'd hoped to do. Actually, I only sold three items and didn't manage to break even after the table fee. After pouring everything I had into it for several days -- including sleeping on my studio floor -- I was pretty disappointed. But I met a lot of great people and I won the raffle basket, so not all was lost.
2 comments:
Wonderful news, and yes ... gotta love the Internet. Looking forward to reading something.
Imagine little kids, when they see machines like that Underwood!
You won the raffle basket? I think I have been doing craft sales and shows for 20 years and only once won the basket...
Don't fret. Come see me; got wool for you. Wool heals all wounds.
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