Convention(al) Wisdom?

I’ve written a few convention recaps in the past and, let’s be honest, they’ve never been very interesting for anyone who hadn’t also attended said convention/festival/conference, etc. I mean, I’d be happy to link to an old one in order to prove my (sad) point, but they all disappeared in the great website re-design of ’18… So instead of regaling …

Claiming Space: CanLit redux

Rayanne Haines represents so much of what’s wonderful about the writing community: she’s an acclaimed poet, a bestselling romance author, a powerhouse of a creative woman, and, as Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival, a hard-working community builder and advocate for inclusion. Rayanne personifies that we are, each of us, so much more than just the one thing we’ve …

Good Luck

Folks hate it when I tell them writing is hard work.— Krista D. Ball (@kristadb1) February 7, 2019 I love my writing community. It’s filled with intelligent people, many of whom I’m lucky to know in real life. The ones whom I seem to get along with best are writers with the same experience of writing: it’s hard work. And …

Giftmas 2018: Dec. 1

Whew. Rhonda Parrish, people. In addition to all of her writing and editing work, not to mention her handholding and support of sometimes anxious/nervous/tearing-their-hair-out-frustrated author friends (it me!), Rhonda created and manages an annual holiday fundraising campaign called Giftmas. Rhonda cheerfully persuades people to donate their time, creativity, and blogs to raise money for the Edmonton Food Bank. This year, …

Doing the Work: Part 2

Back in October, I did an interview with author Jo-Ann Carson, as part of her Blood, Sweat and Words podcast, which she entitled “Marginalization of Minorities in Genre Fiction.” Listen to the interview, which went live Nov. 20th. Read my thoughts on originally agreeing to be interviewed for this topic here. You know when your mind’s already full of something, you tend …