Patchy's ten-spot

Great mini-Boot Camp in St. Catharines Wednesday night with a small group from the Niagara Region troops of the Canadian Authors Association. One woman had never written a poem before and did some really neat stuff. All of them were great characters and great sports. Dinner beforehand at the Merchant Ale House and ale afterwards at the Blue Mermaid. I really liked the dedicated but playful spirit of this group and hope to work with them again sometime.

Next night, the fifth installment of my critiquing workshop at This Ain't. Excellent chemistry in this group too: each of them writes very distinct stuff, and there's no risk of everyone winding up writing like Lorna Crozier, which seems to be the danger of such workshops, as I understand it. One more session to go, and I hope they all keep in touch and keep supporting each other's work.

Meanwhile, Patchy has over 100 subscribers already! I figured our first mailout would be to about 20 people, so this has gone way beyond my expectations already. And at the Art Bar reading on Tuesday night (Stephen Price, Terence Go, and Susan Elmslie), someone came and tucked a ten-spot into my hand for Patchy!

Going to take Camille Martin's Plagiarism Poetry workshop on Sunday at This Ain't. I like the idea of taking a workshop instead of leading one, and concentrating on my own writing for a good five hours.

And then, that night, again at This Ain't the Rosedale Library:

The Fictitious Reading Series presents:

Salvatore Difalco

and

Leona Theis

Generous readings followed by an onstage chat conducted by Kate Sutherland. I'll be doing the hosting. It's at 7:30, and attendees are encouraged to bring their drink of choice. We'll supply the pretzels and pop. PWYC. Details at fictitiousreadingseries.com.

Over and out.