Writing Life – Page 2

2025 Muskoka Novel Marathon Now Open For Registration!

Hello Readers!

What I will cover today: My love for a yearly writing event AND the OPEN REGISTRATION period for that event.

Writing in Muskoka…the balcony at the Port Sydney Community Hall where the Muskoka Novel Marathon is currently being held.

Today I wanted to talk to you about the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON. This is a yearly novel writing event that, without which, I would not be where I am today on my writing journey.

I first heard about the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON in 2006. I was halfway through the writing of my very first novel, SUMMER ON FIRE, at the time. I had not yet found MY WAY in the creative journey of novel writing. I was doing okay, slogging along, but I knew there was something missing. Writing a novel in the conventional way just wasn’t working for me. Not fully, anyway. I was not happy writing a novel throughout the course of a year…or years. I really struggled to keep myself on task and invested. I had to find another way.

When I heard about the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON, my ears perked up. Something about the creative writing process of the marathon spoke to me and my scattered non-linear way of thinking. I knew I had to give it a go, so I registered for the 2007 marathon that was taking place in Huntsville, Ontario that July.

First, you have to understand HOW DIFFICULT that decision was for me, an introvert who shied away from meeting new people at every opportunity I could get. It was a terrifying concept, registering for that first year’s marathon. I almost didn’t…so high was my anxiety. I even stopped midway there on the 2-hour road-trip up to Huntsville. I seriously considered turning around, with my tail between my legs, and going back home.

I’m SO glad I powered through.

That year I only took part in the 48hr marathon. When I registered, I was still really struggling with the concept of writer. I felt I was able to grant myself 2 days to the craft, but 3 seemed crazy. I was quite unkind to myself back then. I couldn’t justify giving myself a full 3 days grace to explore creativity. Two would have to do!

I wrote the entire first draft of what would later become my favourite novel of all I would write…SEBASTIAN’S POET.

After my 48hrs were up, I said goodbye to all my new writer friends (it was an incredible experience and everyone truly welcomed me on board. I was one of them. Imposter syndrome melted away during that weekend), got in my car, and drove home. I think I was the only writer not staying for the entire 72hrs. It was actually hard to leave, but leave I did.

The car journey home was a psychedelic trip like nothing I had ever experienced. I was tired, exhilarated, overwhelmed. I had brought a world into existence just by writing about it. I was definitely on a creative high. The three deer jumping out of a ditch and into my path was just one of the oddities that occurred during that trip back from Northern Ontario. I was electric.

SEBASTIAN’S POET won the 2007 Best Adult Novel Award. It has since gone on to be published. It’s my homage to Leonard Cohen and the Beaches area of Toronto…all wrapped into one story. A folksinger befriends a neglected young boy and his even younger brother and helps them to navigate in the tumultuous 1970s Beaches world. One of my main characters was closely modeled after Cohen. Can you guess which one? That’s right…the folksinger!

The original cover of ***Sebastian’s Poet***.

The current cover of **Sebastian’s Poet**.

Just outside the beautiful Muskoka Novel Marathon venue in Huntsville, Ontario! (This is no longer the venue, but the new venue also has a body of water at its doorstep.)

After that year, I was hooked. I kept going back…and I even gave myself the full 3 days of creativity going forward after that first year.

Muskoka Novel Marathon. 2014. Friends I’ve met along the way.

When I tell you the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON changed my life, I am not just throwing that phrase around lightly. It definitely made me the writer I am today. Here’s a list of the awards I’ve collected at the marathon over the years…

AWARDS WON

2007 – Best Adult Novel Award-Sebastian’s Poet, (BIC) Bum In Chair Award
2008 – Best Adult Novel Award-The Reasons, (BIC) Bum In Chair Award
2010 – Best Young Adult Novel Award-Half Dead & Fully Broken, Rock Star Award, (BIC) Bum In Chair Award
2011 – Best Young Adult Novel Award-That’s Me In The Corner
2016 – Best Adult Novel Award-I Will Tell The Night
2019 – Young Adult Runner Up Award-No Visible Damage
2023 – Best Young Adult/Juvenile Novel Award-Tyler Freemont Writes A Play
2024 – (BIC) Bum In Chair Award

I have found my way to write a novel. In one sitting. MY WAY. I adore the MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON. Not just because it’s a fundraiser for area literacy programs (they have raised over $213,000.00 for YMCA Simcoe/Muskoka literacy programs to date). And not just because of the great writer friends I’ve met at the event. And not just because of the amazing feats of the generous organizers and volunteers. All those things are pure magic. But I adore the marathon most for giving me MY WAY.

Author Selfie in the closet at the Muskoka Novel Marathon…

All this to introduce you to a yearly writing event that you probably know far too much about already if you’re a constant reader of my blog. I talk about it all the time. It’s been a life-changing whirlwind of a monolith in my life for almost 20 years. Of course I talk about it.

Today, I wanted to bring it to your attention because the registration period is NOW OPEN for this JULY’s event in Port Sydney, Ontario (just outside of Huntsville).

This year’s details:

Thursday July 10 – Sunday July 13, 2025

Port Sydney Community Hall, 607 Muskoka Road 10, Port Sydney, Ontario, Canada

CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE REGISTRATION PAGE.

If you are having trouble registering, please send an email to: writerliaison@muskokanovelmarathon.com

A photo of my desk at the Muskoka Novel Marathon, where this novel from hell began its messy life.

T-shirts from various Muskoka Novel Marathon years…

If you’re a writer in Ontario (or anywhere else), you should seriously consider registering for this event and getting yourself up to PORT SYDNEY this July. It will change your life! If it’s too far or impractical for any reason…there’s also ONLINE registration.

In-Person Registration – $100.00 – Covers ALL MEALS and comes with an endless flow of COFFEE.

Online Registration – $25.00 – You will be Zoomed into the event.

Writers are encouraged to collect sponsorship money for the fundraising part of the event. There are prizes involved for fundraising as well.

Best Novel Award comes with the prize of a Muskoka Chair! And all novels submitted to the contest for judging at the end of the weekend get critique notes from the judges.

This is a yearly fundraising event. Check it out if you want to up your writing game. Just imagine being in a room with 39 other writers…and you’re all clacking away at your keyboards attempting to write an entire novel in one tiny 72hour period of bliss and chaos. You know you want to.

Don’t be nervous! The writers and the organizers welcome all with open arms. You’ll immediately become one of the MNM family. Put your fear aside and take the step!

CLICK HERE NOW!

When Paris is Possible – A Journal of Paris…

When I want to manifest something, I first bring it to life on my blog. For those paying attention, I always do this. I’ve become predictable, even.

Sometimes these notions I have first appear in my Twitter feed. And then I feel the need to solidify them by writing about them on my blog. It’s called accountability and it’s a way to hold myself to task. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

This is how my last novel, The Camino Club came about. At first, I dreamed it. Then I tweeted about my idea. And then, while I was preparing to walk my first Camino in 2014, I blogged about it. It was a kernel of an idea. So in order to hold myself accountable, I put out into the world that I would write a YA novel set on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage path.

That novel was published by Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude Press, in 2020. Ask me about launching a book during a pandemic. You know what, on second thought…don’t ask me. Nobody should have to do that!

Anyway, I’m also famous for digressing. Today I want to hold myself accountable for a new idea.

My dream this time is to release a journal of our upcoming short trip to Paris. It will only be a week in Paris…but a week is enough if you’re fast of your toes. Paris is a moveable feast. But it’s also a well constructed easily traversed city that’s perfectly laid out for the hiker and consummate walker. That happens to be what Michael and I are. We will take that city by storm, one footstep at a time…and we will cover it all!

And I will keep a daily journal. And if all goes according to plan, I will publish it. The only other thing I ever self-published was my short story set on the Camino called Light Near the End of the World. So this will be my 2nd journey into that world.

I don’t have a plan, but I will write about the places we visit in Paris and how we got to those places. And I will write about food and restaurants and cafes and macarons and baguettes. I will cover everything that strikes my fancy. We’ll see how this goes.

I will probably start writing in the journal before I even get to Paris. This will be a personal account of ONE JOURNEY. We’re traveling during a pandemic and we’re getting to Paris via Iceland. I mean, anything can happen, right? We’ll see if we get there…and if and when we do, I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about.

I’m ready. With my Dollarama journal and the lovely bookmark I picked up somewhere along the way as its traveling companion, I will take notes on our Parisienne travels.

I hope this goes well! I’m so passionate about Paris. It appears in many of my short stories, and I am also currently writing a YA novel that takes place there. Wrapped somewhere in the reasoning for returning to Paris–one of my favourite cities in the world–is the excuse of doing some extra research for my novel in progress. But honestly, I just love it there so much. I want Michael to see it…and I want to see it again for the first time, through his eyes.

My Paris journal, with a Camino bookmark I received with an Etsy purchase.

Just over 40 days before our departure. Let’s hope the Delta Variant doesn’t keep us from our already postponed (we originally planned Paris for September, 2020) trip to the beautiful city of light!

When is a Writer Not A Writer, Because It’s Not When They’re Not Writing. Or is it?

Did that make sense? I mean, I always defended my right to call myself a writer whenever I go through long stretches of not writing. I get defensive and prove–with novels and plays and stories and poems already written–that I am indeed a writer. Even when I am not anywhere even remotely nearby the actual literal act of writing. But is that all just one big cop out? Am I justifying the owning of the title by pulling up historic data that makes it seem like it’s so when it isn’t actually so?

Wisdom from graffiti found on the Camino de Santiago…

By that measure, I should call myself a professional double-dutch skipper. I mean, I was REALLY good at it 45 years ago…so I should in fact still call myself a double-dutcher, no???

Maybe we should consider ourselves writers only while we are writing. The act of writing makes it so. I am writing at this very as we speak moment, typing these words out…so, therefore and ergo, I AM A WRITER. But once I click PUBLISH on this post…maybe I should just become Breather again. Human. Non-Writer.

Would it motivate me more to only call myself a writer while in the act of writing? I need something to get me to keep on track. I am between novels. One was just released. Three are near completion. One is completed and without a home. And I sit and do nothing writing related for far too many hours of the days I have left.

I keep hoping for an Elves and the Shoemaker scenario. I mean, aren’t the statistical odds in my favour that this could eventually one day happen? I’ll wake up one morning and all three WIPs will be completed! Perhaps the elves will even leave a lovely pair of slippers across the top of the manuscript, which will be neatly tied with a pretty purple ribbon, and finished off with a bow. Or, no…that is perhaps asking too much. Maybe they’ll just leave me a chocolate. After all, I can’t expect them to make me a pair of slippers and finish the drafts of all three manuscripts, can I?

See…this is me typing words now. I am fulfilling my claim that I am a writer, simply by typing this gobbledygook. Thereby tricking myself into not being required to dig into those manuscripts and get cracking. I’m so good. There should be awards for WRITERLY PROCRASTINATION!

How’s your writing going? Are you on task? Are you getting things done? Are you calling yourself a WRITER?

It’s NANOWRIMO 2020 in precisely 9 days from now. Are you participating? Are you planning? Are you going in with an outline or cold turkey pantsing it once the day (NOVEMBER 1st) arrives?

I need to commit to something, so I suppose NaNoWriMo it will be. Sometimes just thinking about calling myself a writer when I’m not in fact writing is stressful enough to motivate me to get back into the game. I keep thinking about that little saying, if you don’t use it you lose it. Man, I would hate to lose writing just because I’m too lazy and unmotivated to write RIGHT NOW.

Once I stop writing this post, I will be a non-writer again. Until the next time I write something. Here’s to motivating myself to have less time in between these two realities. Or at least slipping into WRITER now and then. I’ve been so bad lately. Let’s see if waving this threat of removing the title from myself is the trick that gets me back in the business of word slinging. Wish me luck!

Oh! And good luck with NaNoWriMo, if you’re imbibing! And don’t forget to enjoy it. It’s the journey, not the destination. It’s the writing, not the having written. It’s the time spent in the web of words, not the word count. Just enjoy yourself this NaNo! 2020 is enough of a mess without imposing self-inflicted punishments on ourselves for something as arbitrary as word counts. Just enjoy the words you DO spend time with.

Happy NaNo, writers who are writing!