Surprises at Whistler Writers Festival

A number of surprises greeted me at this year’s Whistler Writers Festival. I was invited because I was a Finalist for the 2019 Whistler Independent Book Awards in fiction for my novel, Sunflowers Under Fire. These awards are sponsored by the Writers Union of Canada.

The Beauty of Whistler

Above all, you can’t beat the glorious setting. Robert and I used to go to Whistler with our children to ski the slopes of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. No longer skiers, we appreciated the scenery and the European style village with its variety of restaurants and shops.

Perks of Being a Finalist

The Canadian Authors Association and Vivalogue Publishing hosted a luncheon for all the finalists. The finalists were: Edythe Anstey Hanen for Nine Birds Singing, Ann Shortell for Celtic Knot – A Clara Swift Tale, Diana Stevan for Sunflowers Under Fire, Bill Arnott for Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Tina Martel for Not in the Pink, and Mauel Mata for The Borders of Normal. In the evening, each author read from their works at the Audain Museum.

And we received a framed picture of our books as finalists in this competition.

I look forward to reading these authors’ books after I’ve finished Don Quixote, a mammoth novel of over 900 pages.

At the Literary Cabaret Friday evening, Ann Shortell won the fiction award for her novel and Tina Martel won the non-fiction award for hers. After they’d said a few words, celebrated Canadian poets and novelists took turns at the mic to read from their published books. They inspired the audience with their brilliance. Musicians played along on trumpet, saxophone, percussion, upright bass, and grand piano. In other words, it made for an astounding evening!

Workshops

After reading the impressive program, I signed up for several workshops.

Trade Publishing in Canada today. The panel consisted of heavyweight publishing representatives from Harper Collins, Mother Tongue, Penguin Random House, Groundwood, Simon & Schuster, Orca and agent Rachel Letofsky. Did you know that over a million books were self-published in 2018. How do you find the cream in all of that?

Creating Conversation with Your Readers presented notable authors reading from their works. My editor of Sunflowers Under Fire, Eileen Cook, (You Owe Me a Murder) was one of the panel members.  

Tom Wynne-Jones, a two-time Governor General’s Award winner, led The MASS of Writing Fiction workshop. MASS stands for motivation, anticipation, stakes and suspense. All necessary intangibles for the writer to consider in the writing of their novel. He’s written 37 books for people of all ages. MASS stands for

Final Thoughts

Having enjoyed the Whistler Writers Festival, I’m thinking of going again next year. It was so well organized. The biggest surprise was the myriad of talent presenting and reading. And I may enter the contest as well, if I finish the sequel to Sunflowers Under Fire in time. The link for the festival site can be found here.

Have you gone to any writers’ festivals that have inspired you? And if you’re a reader, I hope you check out some of the writers mentioned above. Any comments are always appreciated.

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