Elliot Lake Arts on the Trail

What a wonderful weekend celebrating Arts on the Trail in Elliot Lake.

I enjoyed volunteering Saturday morning at the Renaissance Centre and spent the rest of the weekend touring all the venues -- amazing fall colours along Highway 108 -- Autumn is my favourite time of year.

I'll share a few photos.

Stamping passports at the Ren Centre

Amazing buffet at the Arts on the Trail Reception Friday evening.

Family .....

Relationships, especially those between family members, are not always what we want them to be.

I find these words of Mother Teresa especially helpful in times like these.


“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

 If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

 If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

  The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

  Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

  For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

― Mother Teresa

It was a challenging writing weekend .....

 

I received this banner today and share it here for posterity.

 

It was a wonderful, challenging writing weekend.

 

I'm glad I entered the contest.

 

No idea if my story is any good or not

 

but regardless I am left with a happy sense of achievement.

 

Roll on January!

 

I hope I make the short list.

Wynterblue Publishing's monthly WynLit 24 writing competition ..

Happy first day of fall -- my favourite season!  

The WynLit 24 writing competitions are offered each month by Wynterblue Publishing Canada.  They are always a challenge.  To complete and submit a short story following the theme prescribed in a 24 hour period is something I've been doing, as a member of Wynterblue, for a few years now.

Stories that are chosen and short listed each month automatically qualify to be published in Wynterblue's Annual short story anthology titled Confabulation.

So far I have had twenty-four short stories published in Confabulation; issues two, three, four and five.   I wasn't a member of Wynterblule in order to participate and hope to have something published in Confabulation One.

But I've made up for lost time.

It was a friend who told me about this monthly writing competition.  I took to it like a duck to water.  And now I am telling you about it and perhaps it will be something in which you will also want to participate.

Check out the website of Wynterblue Publishing Canada and learn more.

Today is another WynLit day ... I find myself trying to figure out why she is holding a pistol and whether or not she will shoot -- short story writing is a lot of fun; never know where it will take me :-)

And now at end of day I have written and submitted my story.  It is titled "No Magic for Magdalena".   Will it find favour with the Judges?  I have no idea.  I won't know until next month when the short list is made available.

But I do know I enjoyed the writing and, to me, that is what it is all about; the joy of creative writing.

I like writing competitions.  Tomorrow I plan to begin working on a story for Canada Writes 2012; another good contest that you may want to check out.

BOOK EVENT ........

YOU ARE INVITED

to

a collaboration event

 

celebrating the launch of

 

ELLEN AND THE HUMMINGTREE

 

Meet the author; Audrey Austin

 

Meet the illustrator; Susan Ruby K.

 

Book reading and signing

 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

 

1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

 

Gallery at The Centre

 

Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre

 

Elliot Lake

 

Participate in a free draw and win your copy of ELLEN and THE HUMMINGTREE



My E-books on Amazon.com

The exciting news is that I now have four books available for sale as
E-books published by Wynterblue Publishing Canada on Amazon.com 

The four books are:  Sara, a Canadian Saga -

Reawakening: -

The Silent Star Plus a Dozen: -

And last but not least, Keeping It Simple -








Cover design on all four books is by Susan Ruby K. 
Check out her fantastic website at Yuneekpix.com

To learn more about each of these books visit my website at
http://writeraudrey.homestead.com/index.html      and while you are there,
thanks for signing my guestbook.

Ellen and The Hummingtree

n

Ellen and The Hummingtree is now in the hands of Wynterblue Publishing Canada.

I've completed the final edit and I'm very excited about the wonderful illustrations that Susan Ruby K. of Yuneekpix.com has created and which are distributed throughout the book.

Ellen is a strong woman of faith.  She sits beneath her Hummingtree and talks to God through the magical yellow quartz rock. 

In a few instances I have drawn from my own life's experience but, in essence, Ellen is a composite of many beautiful, spiritual women I have known and loved throughout my journey.

It is hoped you will welcome Ellen into your heart and it is hoped you will enjoy the stories she shares with you in this book; her fictional, magical, mystical memoirs titled Ellen and The Hummingtree.

At the outset of this writing journey we met.  I became acquainted with her and now more than one year later I can say that I truly like Ellen.  She has the courage of her convictions and no matter what life threw at her, she never lost faith.

Ellen and The Hummingtree will celebrate its Elliot Lake launch Saturday, November 10, 2012 at the Gallery at the Centre located in the Civic Centre, Elliot Lake, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.    It will be an opportunity to meet the author; meet the illustrator.  There will be a reading and a book signing.   Participate in the free draw and perhaps you will win your copy of Ellen and The Hummingtree. 

Hope to see you there.

More information about this will be posted as we draw closer to the date. 

Books make excellent Christmas gifts.  I hope you will add Ellen to your shopping list this year and in the meantime check out the website of Susan Ruby K. at Yuneekpix.com.   Susan is the creator of Ellen's cover design and also the illustrations found throughout the book.

Northern Ontario Poetry Competition Book Launch ..

We spent most of our weekend in Sudbury and our reason for being there was to attend the Northern Ontario Poetry Competition Book Launch of Northern Ontario Poetry Collection, Volume Seventeen, titled Arising From The Mist.

This is an annual competition which began way back in 1995 and continues with great success until today thanks to Deborah Ranchuk of White Mountain Publishing Company in New Liskeard.

First prize winner  is Christine Schrum of Sudbury for her poem titled Rebirth..

Second prize winner is Louise Lane also of Sudbury for her poem titled Arrivals..

Third prize winner is Donald Bennett of Haileybury for his poem titled Highway 11 North..

Honourable Mention goes to Jerry Jordison of New Liskeard; Jane Sargent Nodwell of North Bay and our own Linda Duke of Elliot Lake for her poem titled, Mind Painting.

Judges Selections were poems written by:  Yours truly, Audrey Austin; Linda-Bea Chambers; Paulette Dahl; Karen Dick; Linda Duke; Jerry Jordison; William Knoof; Louise Lane; Greg Laurenceson; M. Ann Margetson; Marc Mullo; Jane Sargent Nodwell; Mary Ruth Reed; Christine Schrum; Judy Selinger; Richard Smith; Isabella Wehner.

To read the wonderful poetry written by all the talented poets listed above check out the website of White Mountain Publishing, New Liskeard, where you will learn how to go about purchasing your copy of Arising From The Mist.

I was overjoyed to have three of my poems selected by the Judges for publication. They are titled Eleven, Eleven; To Be a Daniel; and In The Mirror.

We enjoyed our stay at the Quality Inn in Sudbury and were very pleased that our beautiful Ki proved to be an excellent traveller and a quiet hotel guest as well.  What a good boy he is!  :-)

I will post some photos below of the view from our Quality Inn window, The Bridge of Nations; of our dog, "Ki"; and of some of the participants in the Northern Ontario Poetry Competition Book Launch.

 

Ki and me

Brian and Ki

 

Deborah Ranchuk

Christine Schrum with Deborah Ranchuk

Christine Schrum

Louise Lane

 

Audrey Austin

Paulette Dahl

 

William Knoof

Greg Laurenceson

Linda-Bea Chambers

Linda Duke with Deborah Ranchuk

Linda Duke

 

Socializing after the book launch :

 

We all had some fun autographing each other's books.

 

 

 

So it's all over for another year .. maybe you will enter your poetry in the Northern Ontario Poetry Competition next year? 

 

Check out the website of White Mountain Publishing Company,

New Liskeard, Ontario, Canada.

 

  Thank you, Deborah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

3-Day Novel Contest ...

24,400 words, 109 pages later, I have submitted my entry into the 3-Day Novel
Competition. It's a whodunit called Crabapple Court. No idea if it is a good story
 or not ...... do know that I'm wiped out. Think I'm getting too old for this stuff. lol 
But it's a done deal and for that I am overjoyed :-)

My original thought was to write a story based on a draft I had kicking around for

 years -- a romantic novel --- when it came time to write I'm not even sure why,

but I changed my mind, then thought okay, if not that, then what?

Just then I received an attachment from a friend with photos of crabapple trees

in beautiful blossom -- that was it! Crabapple Court about which I know nothing -- 

a whodunit which I had no idea who was going to do what... lol You get the idea!  

So it was brand new and even I had no idea who was guilty until I was nearing

 the end of the story lol

 

I found the weekend writing painful, difficult but when I completed I felt

wonderful; I hadn't let myself down.

 

Will I enter again next year?  I think I'll wait and decide in 2013.  :-)

3-Day Novel Contest

Unbelievable!  I've been working hard for two days and have reached slightly more than 20K words.  I'm grateful I still have another day to complete.

At this point I can only hope my story is making some sense.

Lord knows why I am attempting to write a Whodunit ......... not something I've ever attempted before.

Anyway one more day to go ........ I'll post when I complete,  if I complete --- no, no, no when I complete. 

Good luck to all competitors.  I had no idea it would be this difficult. 

Let the ink flow!