Why I love to blog (and why I think others don’t)

A blog is a personal thing. It isn’t like a diary or journal that a person can whisk under the bed when someone enters the room. A blog is published on the Internet, and anyone – even your worst enemy – can access it. Anyone who wants to be is privy to your thoughts, dreams, fears and desires. In essence, they have the opportunity to learn about the inner you, whether you want them to or not.

Sounds kind of daunting if you ask me.

I have been blogging for almost two years now, and I couldn’t imagine my life without it. I love sharing my opinion about everything, and I like having a forum that is strictly mine on the Internet. I also enjoy the comments people leave me, and the emails I get from friends, relatives, and even strangers.

So why do other people hate to blog?

In school, it is required that every first-year CreComm student maintains a blog and posts at least once a week. In second-year, that requirement extends to every major except Media Production (I guess they just don’t write).

Here are the top three reasons why I think people don’t like to blog:

ONE – It takes time.

TWO – There is the fear that a person won’t be able to think of anything to write.

THREE – It’s depressing when no one reads the post.

All legitimate issues, but still not good enough reasons not to try. A blog is a fantastic form of self-expression, and I think every person should try starting one at some point. I plan to continue with my blog after I graduate from Red River College. It will follow me wherever I go, wherever I live, and will catalogue whatever experiences I have and decide to share with my audience.

In many ways, a blog is like a time capsule. Or a photo album.

The CreComm Reading Series presents student talent

WINNIPEG, Feb. 23 – On Saturday, starting at 4 p.m., five second-year Creative Communications (“CreComm”) students from Red River College will read excerpts from their most recent writing at Aqua Books in Winnipeg. They have been working on the writing they will share since September 2010, and many of the excerpts have been recently published in print or online.

Amanda Hope is a first-time novelist who fell in love with the written word as soon as she learned to read. She is a graduate of the University of Manitoba – where she majored in History and English – and is also a soon-to-be graduate of the Creative Communications program at Red River College in Winnipeg. This is her debut novel, and it was written to honour and celebrate the life of her great-aunt.

Jennifer Hanson is a lifelong movie lover who has been blogging for the past nine years. Her project – 200 Movies, 1 Woman, 1 Blog – was a natural way to combine her two passions. She lives in Winnipeg with her parents and younger brother.

Danielle Conolly is a CreComm student who writes things sometimes, when she's not cooking or hobbling around on crutches because she's a klutz.

Stacia Franz is a gifted gymnast and swimmer who also indulges her creative side through her blog, "Have You Hugged Your Server Today?" Recognizing the larger story behind the blog, Stacia embarked on a novel-length description of the serving experience, which you'll hear this evening. In her spare time, this soon-to-graduate CreComm student has a passion for fashion, fine food, and world travel.

Lisa Tachan is a self-proclaimed vampire expert who has spent the last six months working on a high school play that is a parody of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Twilight Series. In her spare time – when she isn’t busy with schoolwork – Lisa enjoys acting, dancing and chasing around sparkling-skinned boys.

Event Details:

Date: February 26, 2011
Location: Aqua Books; 274 Garry Street (between Graham & Portage)
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. (approx.)
Note: Students will be available for questions following the readings.

About the CreComm Reading Series
Red River College's Creative Communications ("CreComm") program is the training ground for Manitoba's professional communicators. The CreComm Reading Series curated by K.I. Press brings writers of all genres to Winnipeg. Opening acts are current and former CreCommers with creative works in progress.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council of the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

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For more information, please contact:

Karen Press
Instructor, Creative Communications
Red River College
949-8316
@kipress
kipress.wordpress.com

Understanding really great sentences

Each week in Advanced Creative Writing class, a few students are required to give a short presentation on a chapter from Francine Prose’s book, Reading Like A Writer.

Last week it was my turn, and my presentation was about sentences.

I admitted to my classmates, and I’ll admit here, that I found the chapter to be quite long and boring. There were so many examples of ‘great sentences’ that I found myself lost among the ‘great sentences.’ Sure, there were a few authors that stuck out – such as Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway – but overall, the chapter didn’t impress me.

What I did find interesting, however, was how the chapter started. Prose recounted a conversation between a young author and his publisher. The author was gushing about how his goal was to create really great sentences, and the publisher was rolling his eyes.

Francine Prose, the author of my textbook.

It’s easy to say, “I want to create great sentences.” It’s very difficult to actually do it.

I started thinking about sentences a moment ago when I opened a copy of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The book was a Christmas present, and I am finally getting around to reading it. When I flipped to the first chapter, this is what I read:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…

So that’s where that quote is from! It’s so famous, and I’ve heard it so many times, but I didn’t know what it was from or who wrote it.

One of the original covers of the novel.

As I kept reading the passage I was taken aback by how beautiful the sentence was. It flowed together in such a perfect way that I – the reader – went through a number of different emotions as I worked my way through the passage. In short, the opening paragraph in A Tale of Two Cities is quite possibly one of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read.

I wish I had read the passage before I did my presentation in class, and I feel like I have learned a lot about sentences just by reading a few short lines The entire book isn’t written in the same, beautiful format, but there are many parts that have made me stop and go ‘oooh.’

I’m sure that all authors want their work to stop readers in their tracks and make them contemplate some aspect of their own lives. I know I do. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s incredible.

Words are beautiful. So are sentences.

*Images taken from Google.

My book launch venue

I want to give a quick shout out to Cre8ery Gallery, the venue for my book launch in March. The manager of the gallery - Jordan - was kind enough to create a page dedicated to my event.

Check out the link here. Hopefully it will entice more people to come!

P.S. If you plan to attend the launch, please RSVP by Friday, March 11 to amanda.hope@live.com.

Welcome to Advanced Creative Writing class

This term, I am taking Advanced Creative Writing at school. So far, it is one of my favourite CreComm classes to date. For three hours every Friday morning, a small group of us sit around a table, drink coffee and critique each others work. It's fantastic.

One of our projects for the class is to maintain a blog called 'The Gemini Unjournal.' Each week, a few classmates post excerpts of work from other students. We also post information about book readings and other activities that will take place during the semester.

I am currently working on my post about Lisa Tachan's vampire play, Slaying Edmund. I checked out the blog and realized a classmate of mine posted an excerpt from my book. If you would like to read it, click here.

A Winnipeg girl in Brandon

I guess it’s safe to say that I really do write about pretty much everything that happens to me.

Yesterday I was sitting in a hotel restaurant doing homework as my boyfriend wrote the LSAT at nearby Brandon University. Why the U of M chose to schedule a test two hours away is beyond me. But Jeff needed to write the test, so to Brandon I went.

I’ve never been to Brandon before. Correction, I’ve never had a reason to come to Brandon. It struck me as a smaller version of Winnipeg with friendlier people. It’s quite cute, and quaint, but there didn’t seem to be much happening.

I do want to give a shout out to my server at the restaurant I was sitting in. I was there for four hours and he kept bringing me iced tea. The rest of the time, he left me alone. I like that.

Travelling to a new place is always exciting for me, and I can now cross Brandon off my list. For good…

I killed my Dell Notebook

It was inevitable. If you buy a laptop for $500 it’s only going to get you so far.

My 13” Dell Notebook lasted exactly one year, one month, 6 days and 45 minutes.

I installed both Adobe Photoshop and InDesign on it, and those programs sucked the life out of the battery. I also wrote my first book on it, which is what I believe sped along its demise.

Throughout the first year of CreComm, I fought the Mac craze. I was determined to stubbornly hold onto my PC and I refused to listen to anyone’s opinion. I am very much a person who hates adjusting to new things. I fear change.

But using a Mac is a million times more user-friendly than a PC will ever be. A Mac holds onto things like formatting when cutting and pasting Word documents into other locations (such as this blog window). It also has a million little shortcuts that – once you learn them – are fantastic.

After mourning the loss of my Dell Notebook, I marched straight to The Apple Store and purchased a new MacBook Pro. I jumped on the bandwagon, and I’m glad. There have been moments of frustration – as software refused to load – but I’m glad I finally decided to make the purchase.

I hope that I haven’t hurt my Dell Notebook’s feelings. It really was a fantastic little purple computer while it lasted. I’m just ready to move on.

The Novel Files: Patricia Cornwell

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a medical examiner? Read any novel in Patricia Cornwell’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta Series, and you’ll quickly find out.

There are currently four main characters in the series, and each one has their own, distinct personality. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the main character, and she is roughly 55 years old. She has been working as a medical examiner for over 20 years, and always uses the latest forensic technology in her investigations. She is a tough, strong-willed, no nonsense protagonist, and is based on the real-life former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Marcella Fierro, MD.

Lucy Farinelli is Scarpetta’s 30-something niece who enters the FBI at age 18. She’s a computer genius who also has a knack for firearms, high-speed vehicles, and helicopters (the latter of which she owns two). Farinelli is also a lesbian, a fact that has repeatedly proved problematic throughout the series.

Pete Marino is Scarpetta’s overweight, heavy smoking, borderline alcoholic liaison that was initially a homicide detective working for the Richmond police department when the two met. Marino helped raise Lucy, and in many ways he is a surrogate father to her. He has also had a long-term crush on Scarpetta, and issue that comes to a head in Book of the Dead when she becomes engaged to Benton Wesley.

And last but not least, Benton Wesley is currently Scarpetta’s husband. They meet when Wesley is working as a profiler for the FBI, and at first they are strictly professional. Gradually they begin to have an affair, a move which proves troublesome because Wesley is also married. He decides he wants to be with Scarpetta instead, but then goes missing in Point of Origin.

Patricia Cornwell. She just looks so cool.*

Wesley’s death is staged by the FBI and he was forced into the witness protection program as a result of a case he was working on, and for years, Scarpetta thinks he is dead. Both Farinelli and Marino knew he was alive, but they were sworn to secrecy. Wesley returns in Blow Fly, and he and Scarpetta are later married.

Overall, the novels are great. They are engaging, they are interesting, and they feature aspects of cutting-edge technology that I would otherwise know nothing about. Unfortunately, the latest novel – Port Mortuary – wasn’t my favourite. The entire plot took place in roughly a 24-hour timeline, and I felt that there was far too much information crammed in.

There was also a lot of new technology introduced, which is usually something I like reading about. But because this novel was so fast-paced, I wanted to keep reading until there was a natural break in the text. That break never came, and I found myself skimming through some sections because I became too bogged down with details.

Despite my reservations, I still thoroughly recommend the series. I would start with an earlier book and become familiar with the characters before reading Port Mortuary though, because the characters are the most entertaining part. Cornwell has a knack for effective storytelling, and she’s definitely a master at her craft.

*Image taken from Google.

My book launch has been finalized!

Date: Sunday, March 20, 2011

Location: Cre8ery Gallery
2nd floor – 125 Adelaide Street
Winnipeg, MB R3A 0W4

Doors open: 7:00 p.m.

Presentation: 7:45 p.m.

Book signing: 8:15 p.m.

Book price: $15.00 (cash only please)

Complimentary appetizers and desserts are being generously provided by Diversity Catering; beverages will be extra.

Live music.

Please r.s.v.p by Friday, March 11, to: amanda.hope@live.com.

And here is the cover. It's beautiful and exactly what I wanted.

Martin Sexton @ the Burt

Yesterday, after attending the 2011 Directions Business Conference, all I wanted to do was sleep. I was exhausted...

My phone rings, and I look down to see my friend Tiffany’s name pop up on the call display. I haven’t talked to her for a few weeks, so I was excited and answered.

45 minutes later, my boyfriend and I picked her up and headed to the Martin Sexton concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre. I hadn’t seen him perform live before and he was AMAZING.

The entire audience turned into one large, singing, breathing entity. It was something I hadn’t experienced before, and the Burt was the perfect venue for his show.

If you haven’t seen and/or heard of Martin Sexton before, start by watching this video below. It will blow your mind...



P.S. I want his Taylor Guitar. :)

Welcome to the CreComm Reading Series...

WINNIPEG, Feb. 1 – on Friday, starting at 7 p.m., author Matt Duggan will read an excerpt from his latest novel – Cherry Electra – in front of a live audience at Aqua Books. He will be joined by Greg Berg, a second-year Creative Communications (“CreComm”) student who is currently working on finishing his first science-fiction novel.

Matt Duggan graduated from Churchill High School and he is delighted to be visiting Winnipeg to read from his most recent novel Cherry Electra. His previous novel, The Royal Woods, is a tall tale for children set in a new suburban subdivision of a prairie city. It was nominated for The Moonbeam Award and the Silver Birch Award.

Cherry Electra is about a dirty cottage weekend that culminates in murder. Quill and Quire call it “a satisfying bit of cottage-country gothic”, and the Toronto Star says it “has the delirious quality of a wreck recollected”, and claims that “it’s rare to come across something that is both so sadly astute and so infectiously, vibrantly witty.” The Globe and Mail depicts the novel as “a drug fuelled fratricide” and listed it as one of the Top One Hundred Books of 2010.

Greg Berg is a transplanted Saskatchewanian living in Manitoba. He is also an aspiring YA writer and full-time communications student upgrading his skills to reenter the working world. He likes CBC, PBS, IFC and enjoys making, and occasionally drinking, different varieties of wine.

The evening Aqua Books reading will be preceded by an afternoon reading at Red River College’s Exchange District Campus at 10 a.m. in room P107.

Event Details:
Date: February 4, 2011
Location: Aqua Books - 274 Garry Street (between Graham & Portage)
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (approx.)
Note: Mr. Duggan will be available for questions following the readings.

About the CreComm Reading Series
Red River College's Creative Communications ("CreComm") program is the training ground for Manitoba's professional communicators. The CreComm Reading Series curated by K.I. Press brings writers of all genres to Winnipeg. Opening acts are current and former CreCommers with creative works in progress.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council of the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

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For more information, please contact:

Karen Press
Instructor, Creative Communications
Red River College
949-8316
@kipress
kipress.wordpress.com

The above is one of the series posters. If you spot one around, take a look!