Writing & Book Camp

Carrie Mac: Monday August 9

Carrie Mac is an award-winning author who has read millions of books, and has sat happily at the feet of a legion of storytellers. She is equally fascinated by disaster and grace, car wrecks, hurricanes, plagues and genocides on the one hand, small and stunning everyday miracles on the other. She sometimes wishes she were a pirate. She'd often wished she'd run away and joined the circus when she had the chance. she spends a great deal of time in the company of her imagination, and when she isn't, she's wide eyed and awed by this planet and the people running amok all over it. Her most recent books include Jacked and The Gryphon Project. For more information check out www.carriemac.com.

Polly Horvath: Tuesday, August 9
From the Back of Your Brain to the Front of the List

Polly's talk will examine the mysterious process of writing and the not so mysterious business of publishing. How we get our ideas and how a book is published and promoted.

Polly Horvath is the author of many award-winning children's and young adult books. Her most recent books are My One Hundred Adventures and its sequel, Northward to the Moon, published in February 2010. Polly Horvath's books have won numerous awards and recognition including the National Book Award, the Newberry Honour, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honour, the Mr. Christie Award, the international White Raven, and the Young Adult Canadian Book of the Year. More information can be found at www.pollyhorvath.com.

Susin Nielsen: Wednesday, August 11
Books and Beyond - Writing for Page and for Screen

Have you ever thought of trying your hand at other forms of writing? Long before Susin Nielsen sat down to write Word Nerd, she wrote...and wrote...and wrote...for many Canadian TV series (and still does). Susin will discuss the differences in writing for television versus writing novels: the challenges and joys that each genre presents. She will look at how a script is formatted versus a book, and show campers one of the first TV scripts she ever wrote along with a clip of the show. She might even ask for a few volunteer actors along the way, too. And, of course, she'll talk about the inception of Word Nerd, and how her years of TV writing both helped and hindered the novel-writing process. The overall message of her presentation is to instill a love of writing in any form.

Gemini-Award winner Susin Nielsen penned 16 episodes of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High and four of the novels in the Degrassi book series. Nielsen wrote for and executive story-edited on many well-received TV series including Edgemont and Heartland. More recently she co-created the critically acclaimed series Robson Arms, acting as head writer and showrunner for three successful seasons. She also adapted Alice, I Think for television, a half-hour comedy series based on the best-selling novels by Susan Juby.

In between the TV work she found time to write three children's books and a young adult novel, Word Nerd. For more information on Susin please check out her website at: www.susinnielsen.com

Sarah Ellis: Thursday, August 12

Multiple award winner Sarah Ellis has written many young adult novels, including Pick-Up Sticks, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, Out of the Blue, which received the Mr. Christie's Book Award, and The Baby Project, which won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Book Prize. In 1994, Sarah was honoured with the Vicky Metcalf Award for her outstanding body of work. In addition to her own writing, Sarah works as a librarian and reviews children's literature for various publications. Check her out at www.sarahellis.ca

Meg Tilly: Friday, August 13 
How Much of One's Life Should Appear On the Page?

Meg Tilly will discuss the influence her own life has had on her work - how the line between fiction and memoir can be quite blurry. Is it possible to write the truth as we know it and still maintain close ties with family and friends? These topics and whatever else comes up will be the basis for our time together.

Meg Tilly is the author of two adult novels, Singing Songs and Gemma. Her first YA novel, Porcupine was released in Sept 2007 and was shortlisted for a BC Book Prize, the Canadian Libraries Association Best Children's Book 2008 and Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award 2008. It also was an Ontario Library Top Ten Best Bets 2008. First Time was released in November 2008.

Meg is also known for her work in her former career as an actor. She starred in The Big Chill and Agnes of God, for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. At present she is working on an untitled adult novel, as well as another YA novel. Please find more information about Meg Tilly at www.officialmegtilly.com

Gina McMurchy-Barber
Workshop: Spectacular Settings and Captivating Characters

Participants should be prepared to suspend their disbelief and travel into the past to discover how important setting can be in a story. Then they will examine a collection of artefacts for the purpose of creating interesting new characters. This workshop will include a dramatic presentation, role play, interactive activities and writing exercises.

Gina McMurchy-Barber is the recipient of the 2004 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. Prior to teaching, she majored in Archaeology at Simon Fraser University, studied orangutans with Dr. Birute Galdikas in Borneo, led backpack tours to Asia and South America, and studied journalism at Langara College. Besides fiction and non-fiction books, she has written plays and educational curriculum for various organizations. Please find more info about Gina at www.ginabooks.com

Tiffany Stone
Workshop: Word Play

Poetry has to be serious, right? No way! Poetry can be fun. And writing it can be fun, too. Summertime means playtime so let's play with words. We'll grow a poetree, race to create poems out of local newspapers - and how about a scavenger hunt? Lose your inhibitions and find inspiration!

Tiffany Stone is a children's poet from Maple Ridge, BC. Her first collection of humorous verse received critical acclaim.  "..Stone has a delightful sense of the ridiculous," wrote Helen Norrie of the Winnipeg Free Press. Tiffany's second book, aRHYTHMetic, is a picture book of math poems she created with Kari-Lynn Winters, Lori Sherritt-Fleming and Scot Ritchie. More information about Tiffany can be found at www.tiffanystone.com

Mike Fly
Storytelling through Improvisation

Mike Fly has been improvising for almost 20 years and his favourite part of improvisation is storytelling. This workshop will teach the basics of storytelling and how to use improvisation to discover new and exciting ways to tell stories and explore characters on your own and in a group.

Mike has worked in the film and television industry for almost 10 years in almost every imaginable capacity. He has written and directed for national television and worked on several advertising campaigns. Mike is a founding member of General Fools Improvisational Theatre. He has worked with Vancouver Theatre Sports League, Instant Theatre and Urban Improv as well as attended numerous festivals across Canada and into the USA. Find out more about Mike at www.themikefly.com

Lee Edward Fodi
So You Think You're a Villain: The Art of Crafting Characters that are Dreadful and Dastardly

Test your dastardly skills in this diabolical workshop for writers and readers who love fantasty and adventure stories. We'll take a look at some of the best-known classic villains from books and film, discussing the common traits and tricks that make us feel that icy chill down our spines. Your nefarious host, "Mr. Wiz" (a.k.a. Lee Edward Fodi), will explain how he "draws" on these same techniques to create the villains in The Chronicles of Kendra Kandelstar. Students will be inspired to show (rather than tell) their character's fiendish personality with pictures and words and will even take a skill-testing quiz to find out just what type of villain they would be.

Known as the Wizard of Words, Lee Edward Fodi has been writing and illustrating stories about magic, monsters and mystery for as long as he can remember. Fodi is the author and illustrator of Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers and Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger. He has also illustrated several picture books for other authors. Find out more at www.leefodi.com and www.kendrakandlestar.com

Pia Guerra & Ian Boothby
Workshop: An Intro to Making Your Own Comic Books

Pia Guerra is an award-winning comic book artist best known for her work as co-creator and penciller on the Vertigo title Y: THE LAST MAN. She has been nominated multiple times for the Eisner Awards and has won Outstanding Comic Book Artist for 2006 at the Joe Shuster Awards. Although this American-born illustrator has been working on various independent titles since the mid-1990s, Y-THE LAST MAN is known as her big break in the comics industry.

Ian Boothby is an Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and creator best known for his work as one of the lead writers for Simpsons Comics and Futurama Comics for Matt Groening's Bongo Comics. Boothy has written more Simpsons Comics than any other writer. He has also worked on numerous Canadian television series and is a well-known stand-up comedian and improv artist with Vancouver's Urban Improv. Ian is the creator of the CBC sketch comedy series The 11th Hour, which the National Post called "The funniest sketch series since SCTV". He currently performs with the Canadian Content, which has won the Canadian Comedy Award for a sketch group and also appeared in the Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore.

Julie Burtinshaw
The Youth Factor: How to Publish Your Work Before You Graduate from High School

This exciting workshop offers young writers tips on how to create great fiction and get published. Using examples, writing prompts and brainstorming, workshop participants will be inspired to take their writing to the next level.

Julie Burtinshaw is the highly acclaimed author of Dead Reckoning, Adrift and The Freedom of Jenny. She is an editor at the online magazine Suite 101.com, a member of the Vancouver Children's Roundtable, and a freelance writer and researcher for Books in Canada, the Globe and Mail and other periodicals. Follow Julie on her blog at www.burtinshaw.wordpress.com

Chris Humphries
Action! The Adventure of Writing

Chris will look at where ideas come from - and how to nail down a great one when it arrives. He will be exploring character in action: how to make your characters really live by what they do and say.

As C.C. Humphreys, Chris has written six historical fiction novels. As Chris Humphreys he has written a trilogy for young adults, The Runestone Saga. A heady brew of Norse myth, runic magic, time travel and horror, the first book in the series, The Fetch, was published in North America in July 2006, with the sequel, Vendetta, in August 2007 and the conclusion, Possession, August 2008. Chris is currently working on a young adult novel about a girl and a unicorn. Find out more about Chris at www.cchumphreys.com

Maggie de Vries
From Life into Story: Techniques for Blending Experience and Imagination

Maggie de Vries is a writer, editor, teacher and the award-winning author of several children's books, including How Sleep Found Tabitha and Chance and the Butterfly. Her adult nonfiction title Missing Sarah was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award and won the first annual George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in BC literature for 2004. More information about Maggie can be found at www.maggiedevries.com