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The Writing Life
FROM PEN TO PUBLICATION
» Thursday 21 May 2009 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing ideas
and people in the Okanagan creative economy. Join us as three of the Okanagan's most insightful writers - Ross Freake, Judie Steeves and Don Elzer - talk about the process of researching and writing feature articles on issues that touch us all.
» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Top Writers Lift the Lid on their Creative Process
What does it take to research and write a great story about a pressing topic of general interest, and get it published? How do you find stories and sources? How do you get people to talk to you, and tell you what's really happening? How do you drill down to the heart of the story? How do you organize your notes, frame the narrative, and discover the right flow and tone for the story? What skills and experience do you need to be a good writer?
We've brought together a group of dedicated and talented writers - at the top of their game - who know the answers to those questions, and are ready to share their "tricks of the trade," including the process they go through in developing stories: ideation, research, writing, revision. They are also ready to share their insights into the writing life, filled with trials and triumphs, and often painstaking labour.
This event invites participants to look over their shoulders as they prepare for and produce a feature story. Read the story in advance of the event - using the links to the online versions - and come out to hear how it was made.
On Thursday, May 21st at 5 pm the ongoing weekly Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café presents The Writing Life: From Pen to Publication. Join us as three of the Okanagan's most insightful writers - Ross Freake, Judie Steeves and Don Elzer - talk about the process of researching and writing features on issues that touch us all.
 Ross Freake has worked at 11 newspapers in five provinces, from St. John's to Kamloops. He was the city editor at three as well as managing editor at three. He has written three books and edited a few more. He is currently a freelance journalist who writes for newspapers and magazines.
Ross will be discussing his story, Death is a Beautiful Life, which appeared in the January/February issue of Okanagan Life. Spending big chunks of free time with the terminally ill - even watching and waiting as they pass - might not sound like the ideal way to fill a day, but hospice volunteers do it repeatedly (and enjoy it). Kelowna is a good place to die. The quality of care the hospice association and hospice house provides makes it a wonderful jumping off place into the unknown - that great adventure that many choose not to think about until life taps them on the shoulder and whispers, "Are you ready?" To read the story, click HERE.
 Don Elzer is an investigative feature writer and syndicated columnist in demand for both his storytelling ability and his insightful knowledge of both consumer and cultural trends. As a community development consultant he has over 25 years of on-the-ground experience working with small and medium sized enterprises and communities. He has acquired key knowledge about current community issues impacting rural British Columbia. As a consultant with the Canadian Tourism Commission he developed one of the first eco-tourism strategies in British Columbia, as well as the first creative sector development strategy in the Okanagan Valley. Elzer considers his writing as "solution-based journalism".
Don will be discussing his story, Shankers Bend Dam in the Okanogan, which appeared on the Monster Guide website. To the south, is the "Okanogan" and to the north, the "Okanagan." Connecting the two is the gentle and meandering Similkameen River with a place called Shankers Bend at which a dam is proposed which will challenge two nations as they both react to issues of climate change and energy. The dam will create a cross-border reservoir which would flood a delicate ecosystem that is home to 16 federally listed species at risk, and flood one of the most scenic regions in British Columbia. To read the story, click HERE.
 Judie Steeves started in the newspaper business in 1967 with the Penticton Herald, before graduation from high school, and then went on to a diploma in journalism. She was editor of the weekly Delta Optimist, then worked for the daily Columbian newspaper on the coast. In the Okanagan, she's been working for the Capital News for 18 years, and started writing her outdoors column, Trail Mix, not long after she began there. Her passion is the natural environment and she often writes about what she sees humans doing to destroy it, in the hope that people will stand up and say "enough." Judie has won a number of awards over the years from her peers in the provincial and national newspaper associations, as well as from other groups, including the provincial Art Downs Award from the B.C. Wildlife Federation, which she received a few weeks ago for the third time in four years. She is also the co-author of Okanagan Trips and Trails, with Murphy Shewchuk
Last year she won a top award for environmental writing for a piece in the Kelowna Capital News she will be discussing, Is Okanagan Lake on Drugs? on the emerging issue of pharmaceuticals entering waterways like Okanagan Lake from sewage treatment plants, a piece which got a lot of attention. Today, research is underway at UBCO into what impacts those invisible endocrine disruptors might be having in the Okanagan. To read the story, click HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
The Writing Life: From Pen to Publication takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 91st event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007.
Express has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and others from a wide range of creative fields.
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