Category: Muskoka

Another 72-Hour Muskoka Novel Marathon!

Well, here we are again. Registration has opened for the 2023 MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON. I’m excited to see this time of year coming round again, and disappointed that we are still only meeting online! This will be the 4th online version of the Muskoka Novel Marathon. As usual, it happens in July. As is the case for the past four years, it does NOT happen in Huntsville (Muskoka).

The 2023 Muskoka Novel Marathon is Open !
Save the Date: July 14 – 17, 2023

The best part of this is that anyone from anywhere around the world can take part in this 72-hour novel writing marathon.

The building (Active Living Centre in Huntsville, Ontario) where the in-person Muskoka Novel Marathon takes place. As seen from the dock just down the hill. Yes, you can go swimming during a break from your words!

“Due to the on-going situation with the pandemic, we will be holding our fourth (and hopefully last) all online Muskoka Novel Marathon. Join us for a ZOOM event. No seat limit! Tell all your friends!”

Do you have a novel idea bursting to get out? Do you have a place with internet access that you can run away to for a 3-day weekend in July? Do you want to chat online on Zoom with your fellow novel writing marathoners while you luxuriate in your own creative fictional world for 72 hours? If you said yes to any of these questions, you should register for this online event.

At the in-person event, writers hang a slip of paper with their name and page count on it every time they reach a new 10-page milestone.

At the end of the 72 hours, participants are encouraged to submit their manuscripts (finished or not) to contest judges. The judges then choose the manuscripts for the Best Novel Award (Usually awarded in Juvenile and Adult categories), and the winners move forward to publisher consideration (after they’re given an opportunity to complete and polish their manuscripts).

At the in-person event, you’re always close to hiking areas. This photo was taken about a 5 minute hike from the Active Living Centre, which you can see in the distance behind me.

There is a long history of this marathon which begun in July of 2002. I myself have taken part in 14 previous marathons. This will be #15!!! Holy hell, how did that even happen!? I have won the BEST NOVEL AWARD 5 times.

At the 2016 Awards Ceremony for the MNM. Lori Manson and I won the Best Novel awards. Mine was for Adult Manuscript and Lori’s was for Young Adult.

I usually mention this part first, but here we are…the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON is a FUNDRAISER for LITERACY. Writers are expected/encouraged to fundraise in the form of sponsors, in much the same way as participants of the Terry Fox Run. Over the course of the history of the marathon, we have actually collected over $210,000.00 for the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka Learning Services in Huntsville, Ontario.

The fundraising tally for the 2016 marathon was no small feat, at an astounding $36,000.00!

A little more information from the MNM website:

“These funds are used to directly support literacy programs in our community. Two out of every five Canadians struggle with basic reading and writing. Literacy levels influence career opportunities, salaries, standard of living, housing, education and the ability to participate fully in our communities.”

The YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka is continuously adapting to the needs of the community. Programs funded by your donations include:

  • English as a Second Language classes
  • Digital Technology Training (computers, smart phones, tablets)
  • One-on-one training and support for low level learners

If you’re a writer with a free 3-day weekend July 14th-17th, you should ‘come’ to the marathon.

I wrote Pride Must Be A Place at the 2015 marathon. I brought copies with me to the 2018 marathon! It felt like bringing it home!

REGISTER TODAY BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK.

Registration is $25.00. All information regarding the marathon can be found at their website:

MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON

I am not affiliated with the marathon, just a longtime participant.

I promise you, the online event is NOTHING like the in-person event. There is such a remove. You have to rely on yourself to write during this 72 hour period. That’s hard to do when you’re firmly entrenched in your own everyday world. It’s so much easier to allow yourself to do nothing but writing when you’re stranded in a room in Northern Ontario with 39 other writers doing the same thing. The heartbeat of the keyboards clicking and writers sipping coffee and laughing and crying motivates your fingers to keep up with the beat. But doing the event online with all those other writers just a screen away? That’s the next best thing…I promise! Give it a go!

Hopefully this will be an in-person event in 2024 and we’ll be back to normal. There is nothing like the support and camaraderie of the actual MNM in-person event. 40 writers sit together in on big room, we take breaks together, we eat together, we help each other out of the thickets of plot holes and catastrophes. It’s a brilliant opportunity for writers on any stage in their writing careers. When this event becomes in person again, you really should find a way to attend! In the meantime, now would be a great time to figure it out from the outside on the inside through Zoom!

REGISTER NOW! The writing fun begins at 8pm on Friday July 14th!

 

On a personal note, many of my marathon novels are currently on sale for 99 cents at AMAZON. Best Novel Award titles are: Sebastian’s Poet, The Reasons, Half Dead & Fully Broken. Other titles on sale are Summer on Fire, Pride Must Be A Place, and Burn Baby Burn Baby.

GET THE 99 CENT BOOKS HERE.

 

Upcoming Event at Muskoka Authors Association…

kcs
I will be speaking at the Muskoka Authors Association in Bracebridge on WEDNESDAY, November 13th. Looking forward to some on-the-spot writing exercises and communion with fellow creatives. For several years I have felt a bit like an adopted child of the Muskoka region on Northern Ontario. It’s the place where I do the lion’s share of my novel writing. I have been going up to Huntsville, Ontario, in the heart of Muskoka, every year for over ten years. Huntsville is host to the yearly fundraiser for literacy known as the Muskoka Novel Marathon…where 40 or so writers get locked into a room together for 72 hours so that they each may attempt to write a complete novel in one sitting. It’s a magical experience that has had me falling deeply in love with Muskoka and its creative community.
From the Muskoka Authors Association website:
Novelist and Playwright, Kevin Craig, Shares Tips on Jump Starting Your Writing!

About this Event

Try Everything! Quirks and Tips to Help You Jump-Start Your Writing…

On Wednesday, November 13, Muskoka Authors Association welcomes, Kevin Craig, author of six published novels (Summer on Fire, Sebastian’s Poet, The Reasons, Burn Baby Burn Baby, Half Dead & Fully Broken, and, Pride Must Be A Place). Kevin will give a short overview of their own writing journey, including how they bounced from one form of writing to another while attempting to stay focused on their long-term goal of writing young adult novels. Kevin will also share how they discovered there is more than one way to write a novel, and that you should explore the different ways with each consecutive novel you write. They will discuss how invigorating it can be to explore alternate writing forms along the way to your own writing goals, whether they are to write the Great Canadian Novel, a screenplay, a memoir, or a poem. As well, Kevin will discuss how important it is to allow yourself to escape your comfort zones while getting to those goals.

Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned pro, you should never be afraid to try something new. New forms of writing can often trick our creativity and jump-start a stalled project back to life. They may even accidentally help you to discover new creative callings. What if the novel you’re writing is actually a play? Maybe the short story you’ve been struggling with is really a collection of poems.

Kevin will introduce some of their favourite exercises and prompts that helped in their own creative journey. Like Kevin, you may find that the journey is just as exhilarating and rewarding as the destination. Attendees should come prepared to write and share their work.

Kevin Craig is also a five-time winner of the Muskoka Novel Marathon’s Best Novel Award. Kevin’s seventh novel, THE CAMINO CLUB, is forthcoming from Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude Press (October 2020). In addition, they are a playwright with a resume of ten short plays and two one-act plays staged in various places from Toronto to Mumbai, Australia, and the United States. Kevin’s poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals throughout the world. For several years Kevin worked as a freelance writer, writing everything from articles on interior design and travel to interviews with musicians such as Bif Naked. Several of Kevin’s songs have been recorded by various artists. Kevin was a founding member on the board of directors for the Ontario Writers Conference and is currently a member of the Writers Community of Durham Region. Kevin lives in Toronto, Ontario.

kc

You can visit the EVENTS PAGE HERE FOR TICKET INFORMATION.

Here’s a link to the MUSKOKA AUTHORS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE.

September – #1 With a Bullet

Another hectic September. Surprise, surprise. I should have seen this coming. Not that I’m complaining!

I think this coming week is the busiest. Tonight is a committee meeting for the Ontario Writers’ Conference. We are heading into full-swing planning and organizing for our May, 2013 conference. This is a labour of love for each and every one of us on the committee. Our vision was to create an atmosphere of learning and a celebration of words. Even at our busiest, this is a wonderful project we deeply love. Look for 2013 updates to start springing up soon on the OWC website, as well as through social media.

Maybe I should have used a more apropos word when I said HECTIC. Is a string of parties, celebrations, etc. really something one could call hectic? September is always busy, but it’s also always the best time of the year. Lots of great things happening.

This coming weekend, we are off to Huntsville for the 2012 Muskoka Novel Marathon Wrap Party! Best Novel Award winners will be announced, as well as all the participant-voted prizes for things such as B.I.C. and Spirit Award. It won’t matter in the least who wins any of these things. Clearly, everybody who took part in the marathon has already won (as evidenced by the photo below!)!

$15,000 raised for literacy! From left to right: Rob Armstrong, CEO, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka; Fiona Cascagnette, Vice President, Child Development, Family Support and Community Programs, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka; Nancy West, Team Leader, Huntsville Employment and Literacy Services, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka; Paula Boon, Muskoka Novel Marathon 2012 Co-Convenor; Karen Wehrstein, Muskoka Novel Marathon 2012 Co-Convenor.

Yes. That is a cheque for $15,000.00. That’s what the marathon raised this year to put into the ring and fight against illiteracy. The MNM is such an amazing event. I can’t say enough about it…but in the end, it’s the money raised for literacy that matters. Everything else is just the icing.

There will also be a workshop on Saturday, after the wrap party…and the MNM contingent will probably walk to the next leg of the three event day—Supper at THE COTTAGE. We’re a pretty big family, the MNM contingent—so I feel for the poor restaurant. They’re in for quite a swarming. (-: I do think it’s great that we will be able to break bread together again, though. A lot happens during the July marathon weekend. In 72 hours, you write a novel AND discover that you are a part of a new family—a family that eats and sleeps and laughs and cries and sings together. We probably do so much more than that also, but—it’s complicated. (-;

To explore the history and the future of the MNM, click on the chair! (-:

There are happenings right up to the end of September…some big and some small. They’re all awesome, though. Hope you’re enjoying YOUR September. Just like every other month on the calendar, blink and it’s gone. Remember to capture the moments. (-:

(If you’re in Oshawa this coming Thursday, drop into Boston Pizza on Taunton just east of Harmony. My younger brother will be jamming there in the evening. (-:)

September – ALWAYS a busy month! (Updates)

I don’t remember a September that wasn’t action-packed. Historically, it just seems like one of those months where everything happens at once. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! This September is no exception. Things started to roll today, and it’s looking like yet another exciting September for me.

September 1st – My poem WHEN VENUS TAKES A RIDE was posted on the website of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate. It was chosen as the Poem of the Month by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Pierre DesRuisseaux. It will be featured for the month of September, and archived on the site for two years. I wrote this poem after my first day on the island of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya. I went there this past December with the Summer Literary Seminars, as part of their Kenya writing program. We took a plane to Manda Island from Nairobi and then hopped a dhow over to the island of Lamu. Once there, the group was given a walking tour of Lamu Town. During this tour, one of the poets in the group, Venus Thrash, was given a ride on a donkey (there are no cars on Lamu, but there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of donkeys). The poem is about that experience.

September 11 – Just like the second Saturday of every month (except for August), the Writers’ Community of Durham Region (WCDR) hosts it’s monthly Breakfast Meeting. If you’re a writer in OR NEAR the Durham Region, these are NOT to be missed. The September Breakfast Meeting speaker is Neil Crone. Personally, I think he’s one of the funniest people in Canada. It’s a DON’T-MISS month! Neil will be talking about writing humour.

September 24-25 – Uxbridge Celebration of the Arts. It’s a 25-year anniversary celebration of the vibrant artistic community of Uxbridge, Ontario. And when I say vibrant, I mean electrifying. I’m constantly amazed by the artistic community in this small town just west of Port Perry, Ontario. I’ve been drawn there on several occasions for BIG TIME artistic endeavors. This time, I’m partaking in the fun. I’ve been chosen to be the playwright for the 25-year anniversary celebration. On the 24th of September I will be given a prompt and I will have 25 hours not only to write a one-act play, but to send it off to my director, Jessica Outram, have her run through rehearsals with the actors AND have it performed live on stage at the Uxbridge Music Hall at the 25th hour. So I’m giving myself about 5-6 of those 25 hours to actually pen the script…as I think they’ll need the bulk of the hours to rehearse. This is the kind of thing I absolutely love! I was fortunate enough to do this type of playwriting on two other occasions, for Driftwood Theatre, as one of the playwrights for their 2009 and 2010 Trafalgar24 Play Creation Festival. I can’t wait to find out what I will be writing about! AND…the best part…watching it come to life just a few hours after it’s written. I am constantly amazed by the talent of the directors and actors that I am fortunate enough to work with!

September 26th– I will be MUSKOKA BOUND! It’s the wrap party for the 2010 Muskoka Novel Marathon. This event, held every July, has quickly become one of my favourite writing related activities! You sit in a building with approximately 30 other writers and you write a novel—in either 48 or 72 hours. How amazing is that! It was a great group this year (as it is every year). We had a lot of fun, and it’s hard to believe at the end of the weekend that there was actually time to put together a manuscript between the fun. I wrote a Young Adult novel this year – HALF DEAD AND FULLY BROKEN. I’ve been editing it since July. The wrap party is on the 26th…all the writers regroup and award trophies for various different things–BIC AWARD for Bum in Chair, Most Prolific Writer, Spirit Award, Rookie of the Year Award and the Remy Award for most money raised. Most money raised, you ask? The marathon is a double-edged sword. It is a huge benefit to those writers brave enough to participate, but it’s also a marathon of hope. Each writer raises funs for the Muskoka Literacy Council…it’s writers helping readers. The marathon raises funds and awareness for the council—it helps them to spread the joy of literacy. Another prize awarded at the wrap party is the BEST NOVEL AWARD—awarded, actually, in different categories—Best Adult Novel, Best Young Adult Novel and Best Children’s Novel. The manuscripts are sent to 6 industry judges immediately following the marathon…and they read and judge them over the summer. The winning novels get sent to participating publishers for consideration. The benefits of this event are just neverending! I have my eye on the hands on favourite for Best YA this year—I’m not going to name names (she will not be mentioned here!), but I had the opportunity to read one of the manuscripts and I found it STELLAR. We will see what the Wrap Party brings us. I consider this wrap party the official end of summer, even though Huntsville is already quite in bloom with turned foilage by the time it rolls around.

Month End – Museitup Publishing is preparing to launch! My Young Adult novel SUMMER ON FIRE will be published by Muse in July, 2011…but the publisher is launching in October. We’ve been talking excitedly about this launch behind the scenes. September is bound to thrive with chatter between publisher and cover artists and editors and writers. It’s a great family to be a part of! I’m really excited about the launch…and can feel the tsunami of its approach! September is THE month to be a Museitup member!

Not to mention! September is another month of busy planning for the 2011 ONTARIO WRITERS’ CONFERENCE. This is an ongoing labour of love that factors into every month on the calendar. We want to organize the best conference every year. To do this, we must be dedicated to putting in a lot of volunteer hours. It’s worth it, though…so rewarding to see the happy faces of writers on the day of the conference!

And I’m certain there will be more excitement along the way. Like maybe a reading from author friend Karen Cole  somewhere in Uxbridge, maybe! Or maybe some poetry read by friend Barbara Hunt!  (-;