Things I've Noticed: Edmonton is a pretty cool place for writers

Imagine sharing your latest short story, not by passing around a copy of it to your friends, but instead by getting up on stage and reciting the thing to an audience. This is exactly what I watched on Wednesday night, and it was pretty darn cool.

As a guy with aspirations to write, I try to keep my ear open for opportunities in my local area. On Wednesday I came across one of them - my friend Trish suggested I check out Edmonton's Story Slam, as it was partnering with our local genre fiction magazine - On Spec (I went to a reading hosted by them recently and had a pretty good time).

The concept for the Story Slam was pretty simple - 10 contestants, 5 minutes each, a microphone in front of a bunch of other writers and their friends. The event was held in the Haven Social Club, a basement cash bar with a stage and comfortable seating, and when I got there at around 7:00pm, the place was already packed. I got a really good vibe off of the audience, as everyone seemed very supportive of the writers and was having a great time.

Although I didn't personally perform a story (I thought I might give it a try, but then got a little gun shy after seeing the size of the crowd), I will definitely check out the next couple of these events (they happen on the third Wednesday of each month. Also it was nice to see that the writers could bring their stories on stage with them and read, as I thought it may all have to be done spur of the moment.

It's really kind of cool to see just how big the writing community is in my northern city, considering I always used to feel there were only one of two folks up here giving it a go. BTW - my favourite story there was an interesting take on the maze of King Minos from Greek mythology, told from the Minotaurs (extremely pleasant) point of view.

You Owe it to yourself #6: Reading your favourite Author more effectively

One morning while reading the paper I was struck by an interesting idea - what if you read all of an author's books in chronological order? Would it change your perception of the world? Would it change me from a black-and-white '50s Dad into some sort of demented bookmonkey? Only one was to find out.

I started the habit back in 2003 - never having read any crime fiction I thougt I would try some Elmore Leonard, and more specifically, I would read his books in the order he wrote them. I had just finished reading all of Louis L'Amour and as Leonard started with Westerns before he moved to crime fiction, I figured it would simply be a fun couple of months reading.

6 months and 40 novels later, my reading habits had changed. I was hooked on reading authors in publication order.

What I noticed as I went through Elmore Leonard's books (his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, was published in 1953) was that over time, the quality improved. I love his early stuff (again, big fan of westerns - thanks Mom), but by reading his books in order I could see that over time his pacing, his descriptions and his already amazing dialogue just get better and better.

I only had two problems with my experiment: first, reading 40 books of a similar style and tone in 6 months kind of made all their plots run together, secondly, it felt really cool to read an author like that, really, REALLY cool - I had to do it again.

The next author I tried this with (starting in July of 2004) was Terry Pratchett, and to solve my first problem I limited myself to one book of his a month. I just caught up with him this spring (March 2009). Pratchett wrote his first book - The Carpet People, when he was 17 years old, so again, over the course of nearly 50 books and 30+ years I got to see the evolution of a writer.

Since then I've done the same with a few more writers - Lois McMaster-Bujold, Michael Crichton, Robert B. Parker, Pierre Burton, and Robert R. McCammon, next up is Canadian fantasy author Charles De Lint.

The rewards are great - especially if you are personally looking to get into writing yourself. What I do not recommend is doing this with an untested author - often their first book is the worst place to start - read something you've heard good things about first, and once you've decided you want to commit, then you can go back to the beginning.

It'll show you a lot of stuff about the writer you might not have noticed before, which will make you appear much smarter (and slightly annoying) to your friends and family.

If you've already done this - congrats - get yourself a celebratory piece of cake and send me a comment letting me know about your experience, otherwise give it a try, after all, you owe it to yourself.