“You think we are gonna shoot any deer around here?” Jeb asked, as he and Tom ducked under the maple leaves. “I don’t know. Stop asking,” Tom said. He sat on a rock to empty the dirt, sticks and rocks from his shoes. “We’ll probably just shoot the empty cans of beer.” “Do you even [...]
Our story begins on an average day, when I decided to sell an expensive camera I’d purchased for a Journalism class. I needed the money desperately, so I placed an ad on Kijiji. The response was almost immediate: I had five or six text messages within an hour about the thing. It wasn’t just the [...]
What happened was a writer in my fiction circle shares this story that sparks a reaction from a few of the other members. The story that we had read was about a love triangle–nothing elegant like Gatsby loves Daisy and Daisy loves Gatsby and Tom hates Gatsby but also loves Daisy and Daisy still loves [...]
First day back at university and the coffee crowded hallways are busy as students line-up at the bookstore, at the Tim Horton’s, and even for the washrooms. Every year I have a first day ritual: identify the newbies. I get some sort of satisfaction from it — twisted, I know. Most young ones I spot [...]
So here I am, sitting in a wicker chair, on a balcony overlooking the BC rainforest. There’s a bird chirping in a high pitch, as if calling for a lost friend. A breeze rustles the maple leaves, and brings with it the salty air from the ocean. This is Sooke. A small town I have [...]
Flash fiction is a challenge to write. Telling a story in less then 250 words, while keeping all the details, emotions and character development intact is fucking stressful. And they’re so fragile. It’s like working on a micro chip; one wrong word or sentence can end up ruining the entire thing. This weekend I have [...]
Every now and then, I fall into these obsessions. Last year I had a fascination with firearms — where they were made, their killing power, models, history. It got to the point I spent thousands of dollars on replicas, just so I could feel them, which I hoped would allow me to understand them better. [...]
There is one thing I can claim I learned from my creative writing class this semester, and that is to preserve my creative integrity. The fact didn’t occur to me until the person I sit next to said, “if any one wants to keep their creative integrity, they won’t listen to other people’s ideas.” Each [...]
What do you believe is the most valuable part of a Short Story, Novella or Novel? I truly believe there is no definitive answer to this question. Partially due to the fact that each genre requires something different and also that writers have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, I am partial to vibrant characters. Any [...]