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 …
2019: Claiming Space
I’m kicking off 2019 in a new-for-me spirit of claiming my voice and my space in the parts of the ongoing literary conversation which I find of interest. In August 2018, Broken Pencil magazine interviewed me for a cover story article on “The New Noir,” written by Leah Coppella. Very little of my interview ended up in the finished piece published …
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 …
Doing the Work: Part 1
Why oh why would I agree to do a podcast interview on the “Marginalization of Minorities in Genre Fiction”? After years of avoiding being roped into that conversation—you know, the one you see at “Diversity Panels,” the one attended by many a (/n often cis-het abled) white writer searching for absolution for their culturally appropriative mindset and practices, the one …