A highlight of my year
Write! Canada is one of the highlights of my year
Write! Canada combines professional development with a spiritual retreat. After you’ve attended a few times, it also feels like a family reunion.
When I attended the God Uses Ink conference in 2001 (the year before it became Write! Canada), it was only my second time at a writing conference. I was involved in two online writers’ communities, but stepping into this place, even though I didn’t know anyone face to face, I felt like I’d finally found a place where I belonged.
That year I arrived with a novel manuscript, hoping to find an editor as enthused with it as I was. Instead, I found an editor and a published author who each said gently, “It’s good, but here’s how it could be better.” Not what my ego wanted to hear! I came home with a wealth of insight and a manuscript needing major revisions. I also came home the richer because of new friendships formed.
Since then I’ve kept working at my craft and heading back to Guelph for Write! Canada each June. The year I missed, I was incredibly homesick for my “family” at the conference.
Write! Canada is one of the highlights of my year. I can’t wait for this year’s conference (2009), and am already hoping to attend in 2010.
Janet Sketchley (Nova Scotia)
