May 2010 Newsletter
Powell River Writers Conference Newsletter May, 2010
Publishing Coming to Powell River
CHPPPR (Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River) is about to be born. Think of it as a chipmunk dancing on a printing press!
A fund-raising project will soon be rolled out to earn Powell River its very own Espresso Book Machine. Our goal? $150,000. By when? The end of 2010! Chipmunks are cheaper and faster than cats!
CHPPPR offers community publishing to Powell River and beyond. What does that mean? It means that, for the first time in history, anyone can put out a book, a real, official, perfect-bound book, for just a few hundred dollars.
The Espresso Book Machine manufactures beautiful books with full-color covers (black-and-white book blocks) in just a few minutes apiece. Our local publisher, The Pack Press, offers editing services to authors. CMG Printing provides layout and book design. All these skills have been pulled together to make Powell River a new and vibrant center of writing, publishing, and book manufacture that it deserves to be in its second century.
An office for CHPPPR is being established. Stay tuned for details of fund-raising initiatives. If you have always wanted to publish a book, whether it’s a family history, a book for your grandchildren, a reprint from history, or the Great Canadian Novel (no, it hasn’t happened yet!), call coordinator Eva van Loon at 483-4940 to develop a plan unique to the needs of your book.
Peace Poem Lyrics Set to Music
I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to work with the Peace Poem initiative with Eva Van Loon under the PRIPPWA (Powell River International Peace Poem Walkers Association) tag over the past two years, as judge and now this year as Vice President.
The poems are judged on merit, but in addition, I had begun a Poem-to-Song Workshop last year, continued this year in a larger way with Canada Folk star, Valdy. Out of this year’s entries came some promising ‘lyrical” poems that we chose as possible song writing material. With the approval of the family, I chose Braea Mayenburg’s poem, “Tears” as lyrics, and wrote the music for this poem. In doing such a thing with someone’s work necessitates their input and approval. After writing the music for Braea’s words, and having her excitement over this, we have now launched this song. In the days to come, the song will be recorded professionally and released.
This is the song the world needs to hear, an 11 year old girl showing the world how to stop war.
I’ve just posted a video of Braea’s song “Tears” on Youtube. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQn-IlCmL9o&feature=channel
Randy Pinchbeck, Bass Clef Studios
Tears
They were brave they were loyal,
They were willing to die,
To die for their country,
Their spirits to fly.
The tears on the faces,
Of the people who lost,
A brother, a husband,
They all paid the cost.
They dreamed in the trenches,
They wished for the sound,
The sound of the guns,
Being dropped to the ground,
The war has continued,
When will it stop,
When will these tears cease to drop.
Braea Mayenburg. 2010
Research Tools
When your writing calls for research, the following 2 sites can be a big help.
Our Provincial library system has a great service called AskAway. You can access it from our PR Library’s home page. You chat online with a librarian somewhere in cyber space and they solve your problem.
The website www.globallibrarian.info connects people to librarians worldwide (through the Surrey Public Library service). It is available online 24 hours a day. It guarantees a response within 10 hours.
Wanted: Powell River Tourism Stories
POWELL RIVER TOURISM WEBSITE IS POISED TO PUBLISH AND DISTRIBUTE REGIONAL STORIES ON THEIR TOURISM WEBSITE CELEBRATING POWELL RIVER AND LUND, AS WELL AS SAVARY, TEXADA, AND LASQUITI ISLANDS.
THERE IS AN IMMEDIATE NEED FOR 25 POWELL RIVER STORIES WRITTEN BY POWELL RIVER WRITERS.
WRITERS WILL BE PAID A FLAT RATE OF $100 FOR ACCEPTED STORIES, PLUS $14 PER PHOTO. LENGTH: 400 TO 700 WORDS.
INTERESTED WRITERS ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND THE ‘INFORMATION EVENING’ FOR A DISCUSSION OF ‘WRITERS GUIDELINES’ ON WEDNESDAY MAY 19TH, 6:30 PM – SCHOOL BOARD DOWNSTAIRS BOARDROOM.
Contact: Gary Grieco: 604-486-7770
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The Annual General Meeting was held May 12 with conference reports and elections.
Welcome the new board:
Barb Rees: President
Donna Koleszar: Vice President
Gwen Enquist: Secretary
Dave Rees: Treasurer
Bud Gilham: VP of Membership
Heidi Sullivan: VP of Publicity
Members at Large: Eva van Loon, Jennifer Salisbury
We wish you time over the summer to get rejuvenated and refreshed before we move
into the planning stages for April 15,16, 2011 conference.
Anyone can contribute to the newsletter. We’re interested in anything to do with the writing world, especially if it pertains to local writers. Send items of interest to egwen@shaw.ca for inclusion in the newsletter.
