DENMAN ISLAND READERS AND WRITERS FESTIVAL

It’s been a year since I’ve attended a writers festival, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to this one either. I thought perhaps I’d been to too many, and they’d lost their sparkle.

But once I decided to, I quickly caught the fever, and have enjoyed once again plunging in amongst other afficionados of the written word. There really is nothing quite as stimulating as being around a bunch of people who share the crazy love one has for something – in my case books and the written word.

Sometimes, to tell the truth, I find other writers’ success stories a bit discouraging, and that’s true whether they found instant fame and fortune (depressing because this is not me) or whether they slogged away for over a decade before finally publishing their first book (depressing because this is perhaps me, at best).

But in the end I’m drawn into the readings and questions and answers, the writing craft workshops, which I never tire of, and those wonderful, electric, galvanizing moments when I meet another writer and get to indulge in intricate, detailed discussions about anything from research to dialect to story structure to editors to publishing.

FINDING MY TRIBE

There’s a kind of passionate connection that ultimately reinforces my belief that when amongst writers, I truly have found my tribe. And that’s validating no matter where you are along the road to publication. Those that have achieved a little or a lot of success usually display a charming deer-in-the-headlights kind of astonishment, and I recognize the sense of disbelief that anyone might want to read what I have created, never mind thousands of people. And this brings them all back down to the level of the simple, human writer, struggling to find the words, to keep sitting down at the keyboard and squeezing out that vision, trying to express ideas and feelings and satisfy that vague, mysterious, powerful urge to share and connect and create and weave stories that will engage and move readers.

Have you found your tribe? Amongst what kind of people do you feel most at home? What topics get you so excited you’re vibrating, and make time with others fly by unmeasured. Is it sharing recipes? Raising or teaching children? Gardening? Is it vintage cars or Scalentrix race tracks? Is it boats? Trains? Star Wars? Vampires or fairies? What’s your passion? Tell me about it.