Today, I travelled to Peterborough for the purpose of picking out a journal to start Bullet Journalling; however, when I began checking out the writing magazines, I met a fellow writer. The writer that I met is self published and writes non-fiction. One of her books is about having a son with Autism. We spoke about writing and about Autism while standing in front of the magazine rack for approximately 20 minutes. It was such a nice chat. I have found that since November 2015, when I decided to start writing and pursuing a new career, that the people within the writing community are friendly, encouraging and welcoming.
If you are interested in becoming a writer, I would highly recommend joining your local community of writers, or a Circle of Writers. We are fortunate to have two Circles of Writers, one for teens and one for adults. I have assisted with the teen Circle and regularly participate in the adult Circle.
It is because of a friend that I decided to make the leap, she had asked me to read one of her manuscripts; afterwards, she asked me if I was a writer. At the time, I had a couple of short stories and an idea for a novel. I shared my short story with her and she was very encouraging. I decided to take the next step and joined the Kawartha Lakes Library Circle of Writers. It has been well worth it to belong to that group. The next step was to write a letter to Sylvia McNicoll. Sylvia is an author who came to my school when I was around 11 years old, she facilitated a workshop which I found inspiring. I wrote her a letter to thank her and to let her know that I was still writing. I asked her a couple of questions about how she does her writing and eventually we made arrangements to work together on a mentorship through CSARN.
My mentorship with Sylvia has been going since March of this year, though we met beforehand at her house to discuss our plan. I have been working on rewriting my novel and I revised my short story, which had started things. The short story has now been submitted to the CANSCAIP children’s story contest. Crossing my fingers that it does well. I would really like to see it become a picture book.
Speaking of books, my friend Sara Walker, published an Anthology which includes stories from several Kawartha Lakes authors. The book is called Kawartha Lakes Stories and it seems to be doing pretty well. My contribution to the Anthology is a story called “Rough Justice”. Sara also has two other books available for sale, Catching a Sorcerer and Adrenaline Rush. I helped with the editing of Adrenaline Rush. Both are fun reads.
The contacts and friends made through this process are awesome. It is with their help that I have developed stronger skills (public speaking, networking, editing, writing, etc.). I am lucky to be a part of such a community.
Tiffany Creates 