Off to the Word on the Lake Readers and Writers Festival

Today I'm off to Salmon Arm, BC to attend the Word on the Lake festival for Readers and Writers put on by the Shuswap Association of Writers. I'm so excited, as they have a great line up of speakers and they always do such a great job every year. This is their 10th Anniversary and it looks like they may just outdo themselves. I can hardly wait.

I am also bringing my 14 year old son this year, who will help to volunteer and attend some of the workshops. And another friend is going with me as well. It should be a great weekend.

Word on the Lake

It's coming up to the  

10th Annual Word on the Lake Festival for Readers and Writers  

in Salmon Arm, BC. 

I've been to this festival several times now and it is always amazing, well run, and fun. This year promises to be the best ever as they celebrate their 10th festival.

The organizers have listened to the attendees over the years and have booked a wide variety of presenters: a publisher, an editor, fiction, song writing, short story, young adult, poetry...the list goes on. And check out George Browning - a BC poet laureate! This festival will literally have something for everyone. You can see from the poster how much there is.

Also, each year, the Shuswap Association of Writers offers 10 x $100 bursaries to help offset the costs for people who need it. You can go to their web site for more details.

So, if you are lucky enough to be in the neighbourhood from May 24-26 and like books at all, whether reading or writing them, this will be the place to be. There is early bird registration and pricing until May 13. And the earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting your choice of blue pencil meetings.

FMI on anything to do with the festival, go to their website at www.saow.ca.

Book Review: Missed Her by Ivan E. Coyote

Book:  Missed Her, Stories by Ivan E. Coyote, Published August 31st 2010 by Arsenal Pulp Press, 144 pages.

Synopsis from Goodreads: 
Ivan E. Coyote is a master storyteller and performer; her beautiful, funny stories about growing up a lesbian butch in the Canadian north have attracted big audiences whether gay, straight, or otherwise. Missed Her is Ivan's fifth story collection, following 2008's Lambda-nominated The Slow Fix and Bow Grip, her novel that was named a Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association. Whether discussing the politics of being a butch with a pet lapdog or berating a gay newspaper for considering butches and trans people as "extreme," Ivan traverses issues of gender and identity with a wistful, perceptive eye.

My Thoughts:
I'd never heard of Ivan Coyote before I saw her name on the list for the Word on the Lake Festival I'm attending in Salmon Arm, BC next week.  I picked up her book, not knowing what to expect and found I tore right through it.  Each story is only a few pages long and I found myself reading "just one more," until the book was done.

Coyote is a storyteller and her stories are engaging, entertaining and sometimes challenging.  She is a lesbian butch and I haven't read anything like this since my university days.  Her stories are very personal, mostly from her own life or from her family's history.  I love this kind of attention to the details in life.

I will admit, I liked some of the stories more than others, but as a collection, they made me at various times laugh, feel angry, miss Vancouver (where I grew up), and think about things in a new light.