This week Carrie Snyder wrote a blog post based on an article about creativity. The gist of it is that truly creative people say no to things so they have time for their creativity.

Carrie said she was annoyed by this article and I was too. I was going to write a response in Carrie’s comments but I realized I had far too much to say so here goes.

There seems to be a myth these days that creativity is a delicate creature. It requires constant nurturing. We must be quiet and tiptoe around it.

Creative people ditto. There are blogs I can’t even look at because they throw around words like “nurture” and “support” and “gather” with a liberal sprinkling of “energy” and, I’m sorry, but that’s just not for me. If it works for you – great. Fantastic. Seriously, go for it. But I’m of the “just do it” school of thought.

Maybe it’s about getting a journalism degree instead of an MFA. Maybe I don’t know what it is. But I don’t think I – or my “art” – is a fragile thing. I don’t think we can be snuffed out that easily.

I think it’s essential to get out and do things. Collect creativity fodder. Living life is a bellows for being creative. You need to see, do, hear, think, experience things to have something worth saying. This I do believe.

That’s why, this morning, I stopped writing, left my laptop and rode my bike up to my sons’ school. Because Spartacat was visiting! Holy heck, this was one cool assembly.

* as an aside - for all those parents who think they are too busy, or important or just above the rules to sign into the school – SPARTY signed in. That’s right; I scrawled my name on the visitor sign-in sheet right under Sparty’s. Fantastic! *

I didn’t stay long. I didn’t see the whole thing. But I saw all the kids run up and press their faces to the glass in the gym doors. I saw them file in with their classes. I saw the teachers all wearing red and black and even rigging up some pretty passable maternity Sens wear (seriously, there is some pregnancy going on in our school – I’m afraid to drink the water).

I saw Spartacat run in and pump up those kids and I listened to them yell “GO, SENS, GO!” and it was great.

And if I don’t use that – or a little piece of it – in something I write in the future, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.

So I say YES to creativity and to doing stuff and to living life. YES.

(although there are some, specific, things to be said no to and maybe I’ll address that in another post)

I was surrounded by it today. It was amazing to behold.

I was lucky to be able to spend the day at the MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference, as a parent volunteer, and it was inspiring.

The kids were jazzed, hyped, eager and excited. My son declared it a “50 out of 10″. It was a good day for the students.

The authors were approachable, engaged and, clearly, talented. Browsing their books was a great experience. So much care and effort and attention to detail in one spot.

Everyone around was uplifted. It’s this thing books do for people. The people selling the books were smiling. The volunteers were happy. The organizers looked remarkably content for people running such a big undertaking.

It was book love, and it was in the air at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum today, and it was an honour to be there.

Can’t wait for next year when both my boys will be eligible to go!

I now understand how Pinterest can become an addiction.

As regular readers will know, in the fall I attended the How to Be Your Own Publicist workshop put on by The Writers’ Union of Canada in Gatineau, QC. Roughly half the content focused on traditional ways to publicize your work, while the other half dealt with – duh, duh, duh – SOCIAL MEDIA.

Yes, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many more obscurish platforms were discussed. I knew I should try some of them; became most convinced Twitter would be useful, went home, signed up and felt incredibly uncomfortable with the whole Twitterverse. I am clearly meant to be an inhabitant of an entirely non-tweeting universe.

Pinterest looked cool but I had no clear vision for using it and I thought it would all be a bit forced, and I kind of forgot about it.

Until my generous friend and reader, Heather, read my manuscript for a great teaching guide she developed for me, and pointed out it would be good to have a glossary of horsey terms for non-horsey readers and – hey – wouldn’t Pinterest be a cool vehicle to create a visual glossary?

Talk about a lightbulb moment. Of course! That’s how I could use Pinterest and it wouldn’t be forced or awkward – it would be logical and constructive, and riding is such a visually rich sport. Perfect!

So, I’ve been pinning and it’s been fun and I’ve found other great Pinterest boards to follow too and, hey, why not check out my Objects in Mirror board? I’ll be adding to it over time but it’s got a fair few pins on it already.

Now, a few of you already knew I was on Pinterest, and might have noticed some rapid re-creation of certain pins I had already created. That’s because a week after I opened my Pinterest account I read this post on Legal and Effective Pinning on Pinterest. The legal part got my attention. I don’t ever want anyone to take my work illegally or unethically and I don’t want to do that to anyone else either.

After reading this, I decided as good, as some of the images I’d found were, it just wasn’t worth it to keep them if I wasn’t sure I could use them legally / ethically. So, I’ve been following the strategy laid out in this post and I’ve also decided to avoid temptation by doing all my image searches using Google’s Advanced Image Search which allows me to filter to show only images that are free to use or share.

At first I was worried I’d only find pretty poor images that way but, actually, I’ve found some of my absolute favourites and some that took me by surprise – for example, this one. Love it!

So I’m using Pinterest and I’m trying to do it ethically and I’m really, really enjoying it.

What are your Pinterest experiences?

Yes, that’s right, we’ve done a “half cut-over” to the way the new site will look once the book is launched.

Since this is still a blog-based site, this isn’t it – there’s still more “new and improved” to come – but I just love the new header Lynn created to help move us into the feel of the dreamy-horsey-summery-hope-filled story I believe OIM is, and I hope you’ll think it is too.

Lynn has worked so hard on this – THANK YOU!

I spent today re-reading my book again – one more time before it goes to the printer – making sure all is as right as it can be. This is the closest I’ll see it to being finished before I actually see it finished.

It was great. It was gratifying. It was beautiful. And, don’t get me wrong. I’m happy with the whole thing. I worked hard on it. Many other people worked hard on it too. It’s great.

But the words that stuck out the most from today’s read, just because they were new and I’ve never seen them before (on my book), were “Printed and bound in Canada”.

God, that made me happy.

I had a moment of thinking, yes, this was what I wanted. This was the dream. This is what I set out for all those years ago. Other people thought I was crazy – why wouldn’t I go for the biggest publisher in the biggest country I could? You know, that big place just 50 minutes down the 416 from here … and, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I was turning down offers from there. I didn’t have to beat them off with any kind of stick.

But it wasn’t what I pursued. I set out to submit to small / boutique / selective (whatever you want to call them) Canadian publishers and now I’m with a wonderful bijou Canadian publisher and those words just sum up the way I feel about it. “Printed and bound in Canada.” Conceived in Canada. Written in Canada. Edited and proofread and laid out and sweated over and nurtured into existence in Canada.

It’s important to me. And that’s not to say it has to be important to everyone. And it’s also not to say I won’t be delighted to sell copies in the U.S. or to our friend Veronique in France or to our friends and family in Wales. But being in Canada first means something to me.

I LOVE Canada.

Love it.

I’m a Canadian author. Yay!

My head is spinning with everything that’s going on right now.

Forget my regular paid contract work, and my school volunteering, and my parenting and just basic life, the book is coming out soon – Objects in Mirror is coming out soon – and there’s so much happening around that.

It’s great! Don’t get me wrong – it’s great. I’m lucky and privileged and excited to have all this to do. And, kind of like my wedding, I’ll never, ever have the opportunity to launch my first book ever again. So I’m trying to make sure I enjoy it. Which isn’t hard. It’s fun.

Here are some of the things going on right now:

1. I’m reading through the final, layout version of OIM. It’s beautifully designed – I just love it! However, this is the last chance I get to read it, and point out any changes, before it goes to print. Pressure! I’m trying to find all the genuine mistakes while keeping myself from second-guessing other things which I know have already been hashed over and decided by me when I was calmer and by other people who are highly qualified and much more objective than me.
2. The book trailer is almost done! And I love it!  This means I’ve been plunged into the world of buying royalty-free music licences, buying photo licenses, etc. I’m planning a future how-to post on the book trailer process.
3. The website is largely done. There are just a few small things for me to sort out. It’s finding the time to do that!
4. I’m trying to learn how to use Pinterest. A very smart advisor recommended using Pinterest to create a visual “glossary” of equestrian terms used in the book. So, it’s fun, but it’s something else to do.
5. I’m working closely with my fantastic, amazing, creative and motivated sales rep., trying to set up a strong pre-sell for the book. Part of this is me making a list of tack shops for us to approach. There are a LOT of tack shops in Canada. Which is great! I love tacks shops! But my table is very, very long…
6. I’m planning the book launch. Whoa. Remember I mentioned my wedding above? This might be the second most important party I ever throw. By the way, I want to make sure I invite everyone who wants to come so, if you read this blog and you’ll be in Ottawa mid-Junish, and if I might be unaware you read this blog, and you’d like to come to the launch, drop me a line (tudor at tudorrobins dot ca) and I’ll put you on the guest list. Or, if you know someone I should really invite, send me their name.

There’s other stuff too, but those are the main things for now.

Questions? Thoughts? Advice? All welcome – send them my way!

When I was a kid, there was really nothing to encourage me to write. At least nothing that I knew about.

There were organized ways for me to learn to skate, to ski and, yes, to horseback ride. I’m sure there were ways for me to learn ballet and gymnastics, although I had no interest (and absolutely no aptitude) for either of those. I could learn piano or any other instrument. I could – and did – take art classes (also very little aptitude there). Brownies and guides were widely available – although, I have to admit, I used to go to my brother’s Cubs meetings instead.

But there were no writing clubs that I knew of. I wasn’t aware of any writing contests. My teachers frequently told me I wrote well, and I would expect at least one of them would have pointed me in the direction of writing-related activities were there any. Or maybe not. The reality is, I wrote on my own. Maybe that’s why I still write on my own. It mostly works for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

So it’s great that there are now some supports for kids who like to write. Not many, mind you. It’s still easier to join hockey. Or long-track speed skating. Or fencing. But young writers do have some options.

Here are a few:

1) The MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference. Just this week we received my son’s acceptance and were very relieved because, apparently, there’s a waiting list every year.

2) The Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors Contest which is supported by writing workshops leading up to the closing date. My son entered this year and we’ll be going to the awards ceremony.

3) ABC Ottawa’s Take-Off program usually offers a novel-writing or fiction-writing course.

4) The City of Ottawa is now offering fiction and novel-writing courses for kids.

5) The Writers Union of Canada’s Writers in the Schools program subsidizes author visits to get writers into schools talking to kids about writing (I’m a participant in this program – check out my profile).

I’m halfway through a Creative Writing course I’m offering once a week at lunch hour for at my sons’ school. It’s really helping me hone my presentation / workshop ideas for future work in schools and with children.

Are there other programs you know about? In Ottawa or in other cities. Even online. It’s worth noting (since I love writing contests so much!) that there are more and more writing contests for kids out there, with many of them being national or international in scope.

If kids want to write, let’s help them do it!

You have to read this.

Our society is screwed up. Yes, in many ways, but hugely in the way that much of what enriches our lives – informs, entertains and moves us – is something we think we should get for free …. or for as little money as possible.

Writers are so badly paid. Really, I don’t say that to moan – I just say it as a fact. We are terribly paid. Horribly and awfully paid. Thank goodness I love writing so much I’d pay to do it – who am I kidding? I have paid to do it; I, like most other writers, have long subsidized my writing with other paying work. My husband supports my writing (thank god). Other people who love me would probably support my writing too, if asked.

And it’s not that I expect things to change overnight. It’s just that I’d like to see more respect out there. When publications like the Atlantic think it’s OK – think they’re doing writers a favour to use their work for free – then that’s disrespectful. If you’re a for-profit publication and you aren’t willing to pay your writers – the very people who give your product value – then that’s wrong. WRONG. Wrong.

Writers need to fight the good fight themselves too. Writers need to refuse to work for nothing in cases where others will make money from their words. It’s important or things will never change.

I wrote this quite a while ago now – in 2009 – but I stand by it:

I can’t say it clearer than this. I think accepting free stuff and then writing about it professionally is bad for readers and bad for writers. Companies seek these endorsements so desperately because they know no amount of paid advertising can ever live up to a supposedly, editorial and unbiased good review. However, with each “subsidized” trip or meal or service, that valuable editorial credibility leaks away ever so slightly until we run the risk of readers assuming that all writers, always, are writing because they got something for free.

It’s bad for writers because, in addition to undermining our credibility, it undermines our professionalism. Freelance writers today are paid less than freelance writers were when I graduated from j-school in 1996. Considering the impact our work can have, this is a disgrace. However, every time one of us accepts a trip or a gadget and then writes nice things about the provider it sends the message that we can be bought off with trinkets rather than being paid the appropriate amount for the work we do.

My opinion … what’s yours?

I’m going to tell you the honest truth here. When I first started the one-year Bachelor of Journalism program at the University of King’s College, I didn’t love it.

I kind of wanted to quit.

It may be a one-year program but it’s an intense one year. There’s much to cover and so they need some extra time to deprogram those of us (like me) coming from abstract, highly academic programs, who thought being able to produce a B+ essay (because, really, almost nobody got As), on the role of women’s work in Shakespeare’s tragedies, meant we could write.

As a result, school started partway through August. It was hard to start class without the symbolic arrival of Labour Day. It was hard to start learning when I didn’t have a place to live. I lived in a Dalhousie house (a great house) with three Dal students during my year at King’s but that house wasn’t available until September 1, so I spent my first few weeks in Halifax living at the Lord Nelson hotel, on an upper floor that had known prouder times, fetching ice from the machine located on a lower (nicer) floor every day, so I could keep some milk and yogourt in my room.

It felt strange to be at this new place, in school, when nobody else was. It was, as always, challenging to find my place in a group of 40 new faces. And it was devastating to discover I was a writer with a plethora of terrible habits and a tendency to pen stories 50 per cent longer than they needed to be.

But I did grow to love King’s. It would be hard not to. Halifax, first of all, weaves a spell. Falling asleep on a foggy night with the harbour foghorn sounding in the distance – magical.

King’s continues that magic in the intimacy of its courtyard setting and the stone of the buildings; worn smooth in places from years of feet shuffling their way up and down the inevitable steps.

The work was hard, but we were all in it together and there were chances to work as a member of an inspired team and moments requiring head-down solitary efforts.

There were awesomely gifted, and kind, and funny people – Katie Bowden, Stephen Kimber, Tim Currie – and many, many more who I still hear and see on radio and TV newscasts from time-to-time.

King’s gave me what I needed, to be the writer I am now. King’s – dare I say it – is now at least as fond in my memory as Queen’s; my undergrad university, where I first lived independently and where and love, heartache, freedom, and a myriad other emotions and experiences were imprinted on me.

And now King’s – always cutting-edge – is doing something else super-cool. I love the idea of their new Master of fine arts in creative non-fiction program. What a fantastic experience this would be. What a chance to learn and work and develop – and, yes, possibly have the writing crap beaten out of you but, I promise, it’s all for the best in the long run.

So, give the program a look. Give it a thought. This is great too: “Students can continue to live and work wherever they choose while they pursue this degree” – something to think about - just sayin’ …