passed along by Melba Burns:

WANT TO WRITE?

“Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.” W.B. Yeats
This writing group will light your fire!

Ever thought you could write a book — but have no idea how to start?

Want to get re-motivated on that story that’s been flitting through your brain?
What about all those experiences your friends keep telling you to write about?
You say? “Oh, later… One of these days, I’m too busy right now…I need more time.”
What about NOW?

· You will be re-motivated to write that book or story
· And achieve the goals you set for yourself.
· You will let go of blocks to your creativity.
· You’ll begin to trust that what you want to write you can, &
· You’ll gain more confidence in your writing.
· You’ll learn to write amazing characters too.
· You’ll be in a community of supportive, like-minded people.
· You’ll get to read at a literary cabaret.
· You will have the opportunity to be published on my new website.
· I invite you to join us in a great Writing Workshop.

It will nurture your soul and you’ll be amazed at your own creativity!
Please call Melba Burns, Ph.D.
604-736-6789
(soulwrites AT telus DOT net)
Tuesday, September 23rd, 7-10 p.m. for 12 weeks
St. Mark’s Anglican Church, 1805 Larch Street in Kitsilano.
$450
Or, Wednesday, Sept. 24th, 1-4 p.m. for 8 weeks, in False Creek
$300
(Post-dated cheques are acceptable – whatever works for you.)
Melba has been writing for over 40 years; articles, poetry, educational scripts for Disney, feature films,
a 13-week TV show, short stories & nonfiction books: she just completed Woo Your Writer Within Like
a Lover. She believes that the soul needs expression to be fully alive. For 20 years, she has encouraged
thousands to tap into their ‘natural writer,’ strengthen self-confidence, keep on writing, & get their
work out there.

Walking on Water, the second book of short stories by local author Jancis M. Andrews, has had its publication by Cormorant Books pushed back to Spring of 2009. Contact Cormorant Books directly to pre-order.

Walking on Water, the latest short story collection from award-winning author Jancis M. Andrews, searches for the intimate moments of life that reveal the fantastic amongst the mundane. In these nine stories, Andrews explores the jutting coasts and heaving mountains of British Columbia, crawls through the communities of poor Vancouverites, and brings to life characters fully imagined with tender care and aplomb. In each story, characters face a turning point in which they are forced to succumb to the suffocating crush, or rise above and walk away. The opening tale, “Big Girl,” is the story of Betsy, a pubescent teen growing up in the socially stifling 1950s. Barraged by conflicting ideals and virtues from her stringent mother and her voluptuous Marilyn Monroe look-a-like aunt, Betsy comes to understand the price a sexually mature woman sometimes has to pay. In “Balancing,” a destitute mother of two and abused wife must deal with her inner demons to find a constructive release for the fear and frustration she faces daily at home. And in the chilling, autobiographical “Country of Evil,”Andrews leads the reader through a chaotic night during the London Blitz to question the origin of evil and if it can be contained within any set borders.

Just a reminder to all literary types that this Tuesday will be our first Shebeen Club meeting in Ye New Shebeen, directly across the street from Ye Olde Shebeen. The theme for this meeting is new horizons, and I will be presenting a selection of readings and discussion topics for your delectation. If you have a reading, quotation, or exercise on the topic to contribute, please contact me by email before Tuesday, so I can work you into the schedule.

Join us and check out the Irish Heather and the Shebeen in their brand-new home. As always, $15 includes a fabulous dinner and a refreshing beverage, and the full menu is available to order from additionally.

Meet and Greet: 7-7:30
Listen and Learn: 7:30-8:00
Gossip and Algonquian One-Liners: 8:00-9:00

The Pivot Legal Society-sponsored Justice Rocks festival is coming up, and they’re looking for volunteers. Hey, there’s swag in it for you, not to mention the chance to schmooze with the impecunious, yet famous, staff of the Pivot Legal Society and the future Mayor of Vancouver, semi-notorious rock god and blogger Dave Eby.

Here’s the call for volunteers in full:

In case you haven’t heard: on August 30, 2008 Pivot is hosting Justice Rocks, a free, all-day music festival in East Van’s Strathcona Park! Justice Rocks aims to bring together all things progressive: social and environmental justice movements, independent music, and, of course, Vancouverites!

There are two important ways you can help make Justice Rocks a huge success: purchase a virtual ticket and/or sign up to volunteer.

Virtual Tickets:

Here is how it works - we have partnered with GiveMeaning to offer virtual tickets to Justice Rocks. Virtual Ticket holders will receive a Justice Rocks t-shirt and a tax-receipt, as well as a special invitation to the Justice Rocks AfterParty - join the band members, volunteers, and organizers for the party that starts after the concert!

We will also be awarding fabulous prizes to the top three people who get their friends to purchase virtual tickets, so get your friends to buy their tickets today!

Volunteers:

We’re looking for site volunteers, organizers, promoters, videographers – you name it – to help with the lead up to the event, the concert, and the after-party.

Aside from connecting with other awesome folks who are also volunteering, and helping to launch the first year of a great event, Justice Rocks volunteers will also receive a free Justice Rocks t-shirt, 2 tickets to the after party, and special identification at the event.

To take part in this fantastic festival of social change fill out this form or visit the Justice Rocks website and let us know how you’d like to help!

If you have any questions about virtual tickets, volunteering or if you’d like more information about the event feel free to email pwrinch AT pivotlegal DOT com for more information.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Peter Wrinch
Pivot Legal Society
604-255-9700
www.justicerocks.org

FYI:

The Shebeen Club: Gonzo Vancouver!

When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Where: the Shebeen, 7 Gaoler’s Mews, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street, Vancouver BC

How Much: $15 includes dinner: limited to 40

What: mingling, door prizes, eating, drinking, fornicating!

Who: Heather Watson (Civixen), Gonzo Journalist and founding columnist at Terminal City

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-coloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.”
Hunter S. Thompson
Well, we probably won’t have that, but we will have a great introduction to indigenous Vancouver Gonzo journalism with the hyperkinetic and internationally infamous Heather Watson, alias Civixen (http://www.civixen.com/ and http://cvxn.tumblr.com). Coming at you straight down the Mojo Wire at 95 miles per hour, it’ll be an evening of raw, uncut literary power. Bare-knuckling her way up the ladder from the wide open frontier of the Wild West to the mean streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Heather has seen it all, done most of it, and has a damn hell solid alibi for everything else.

Bio: Heather Watson created the satirical op/ed column “Civixen,” which became a source of enjoyment and irritation for political bright lights and dim bulbs alike (including the current mayor) in the four years it ran in two local alternative newspapers. Besides a brief tenure as editor-in-chief of the 30,000-circulation Gonzo-inspired Terminal City (now sadly defunct), Heather Watson also presented a popular seminar on Gonzo Journalism at the request of the Western arm of the Canadian University Press in 2006. She is a published poet, a produced playwright and her essay “Vancouver Today” is featured in the Time Out Guide to Vancouver. In addition to a few years at Vancouver’s éminence grise of independent bookstores, Duthie Books, some of her more surreal side jobs have included voice-over and motion capture for a video game and six years spent hand modeling toys from Star Wars figures to Barbies in dozens of TV commercials.

Meet and Mingle 7-7:30
Listen and Learn 7:30-8
Drown Sorrows and Vow to Buck the System 8-9 or, really, the rest of your life.

VFS and YouTube have just announced an international scholarship competition that should knock Chris Crocker off the front page and into the obscurity which has hungered for him ever since the Leave Britney Alone fifteen minutes started.

The prize is a full tuition scholarship to internationally-respected Vancouver Film School, the school out of which Kevin Smith dropped to go on to produce the magnum opus, the veritable Big Chill of his generation, Clerks. Like I ever saw that.

I’m old, yo.

Anyhoo. The challenge is to make a compelling YouTube pitch explaining just exactly why you’re the natural choice to win. Anyone with enough self-confidence to go into film should have no problem with this part. The school picks the finalists, and then the viewers on YouTube make the final choice.

Official Rules

Full Press Release (PDF)

A few more details, from the FAQ:

This competition is about making film school accessible to everyone. The YouTube community will award three aspiring artists (that includes directors, animators, actors, sound designers and more) with full-tuition scholarships to the Vancouver Film School program of their choice.

Between March 18th and May 9th, submit a short film, animation or creative pitch addressing the theme “What Matters to You.” You must start your video by identifying the VFS program you wish to attend and you must limit your video to no more than three minutes. On May 20th, we will announce the 10 finalists, selected by Vancouver Film School.

From May 20th to May 27th, the YouTube community will view and vote for their favorite videos.

On May 30th, we will announce the 3 scholarship winners.

What programs are up for scholarship awards?

1. Foundation Visual Art & Design
2. Acting Essentials
3. 3D Animation & Visual Effects
4. Classical Animation
5. Digital Character Animation
6. Houdini™ Certification
7. Acting for Film & Television
8. Digital Design
9. Entertainment Business Management
10. Film Production
11. Game Design
12. Makeup Design for Film & Television
13. Sound Design for Visual Media
14. Writing for Film & Television

Some handy tips:

Be creative. Don’t just tell us what’s important to you – show us. For example, if you’re a director, make a short film or documentary about an issue you care about. If you’re an animator, animate a story about an issue, person, place, etc. that matters to you. If you’re a writer, pitch a fresh screenplay concept about something that matters to you. If you’re a makeup artist, transform a stranger into someone who matters to you. These are just ideas and we know you can do better, but the point is: think creatively!

What gets into the shortlist?

Vancouver Film School will judge submissions based on the following criteria:

a. Creativity and Originality (up to 25 points)
b. Relevance of the video to the particular program of study selected (up to 25 points)
c. Technical Execution: Camera/Sound/Lighting/Editing (up to 25 points)
d. Overall Impression (up to 25 points)

And after that, it’s all up to the community on YouTube, so start sucking up building relationships now!

What: The Shebeen Club Presents: Screenwriter’s Alert!

When: 7:30pm-9:00pm, Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Where: Upstairs at The Shebeen, behind The Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement of keen interest to all aspiring screenwriters and anyone hoping to break into the business of movies, games, or animation.

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy AT gmail.com for more information. Note that, as this announcement is embargoed till delivery, we cannot give out many details.

How(much)? $15 includes presentation, dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta, one celebratory beverage, and mingling.

Our March meeting will be of intense interest to anyone with celluloid ambitions. Alice Zhou from our world-renowned Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement about a worldwide VFS event of major interest to those with a desire to become involved in the industry.

Bio: Alice Zhou Alice Zhou is a recent winner of Cultural DiverseCity Youth Enterpreneur Business Award, a graduate of Simon Fraser University with a degree in Communications. Her career has focused on Corporate Events Management and Seminars, and she is currently the Events Coordinator at Vancouver Film School. Her passion lies in building relationships and creating a massive network, to provide resources and information to help facilitate additional entrepreneurship. Alice is a board member of the International Special Events Society (ISES). She teaches several Events Management courses at Vancouver Community College, and is a regular columnist in the Vancouver View Magazine. She currently is the event coordinator, public relations and sponsorship coordinator for Vancouver Film School.

7-7:30: meet and mingle
7:30-8: listen and learn
8-whenever: David Mamet/Nora Ephron/Joe Eszterhas three-way cage match! Okay, not really, but you’d pay to see that, wouldn’t you?

Shhhh, it’s a surprise!

What: The Shebeen Club Presents: Amy Tan’s Birthday Party

When: 7:30pm-9:00pm, Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Where: Upstairs at The Shebeen, behind The Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: to celebrate Amy Tan’s Birthday, duh!

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy AT gmail.com for more information

How(much)? $15 includes presentation, dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta, one celebratory beverage, and mingling.

Resurrecting the Old Skool Shebeen Club tradition of celebrating authors who are not actually present, we move up from our former practice of toasting dead celebrities and begin to celebrate the living! Amy Tan is deservedly one of the best-beloved authors on the contemporary fiction scene. February 19th is her birthday, so we have arranged a short presentation on her life and works and her (I’m sorry) don’t-quit-your-day-job rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders. If anyone has a CD, you’re welcome to bring it!

7-7:30: meet and mingle
7:30-8: listen and learn
8-whenever: The Joy Luck Club Literary Lottery: good luck!

Current course: Learn to Blog

Upcoming Courses: Blog Promotion (Pimp My Blog) January 12th
Blogging for Nonprofits and Community Groups, January 23.

What: a hands-on learn to blog workshop

When: 10-2 Saturday, January 5th, 2007

Where: Tradeworks Training Society, Downtown Vancouver

Why: Get a blog up and running in one day with personal instruction in
small classes. This workshop covers blog basics like:

* what a blog can and can’t do for you
* how to post podcasts, video, audio, images, and text in your blog
* basic copyright law and accepted practices
* solving basic technical problems, where to find help
* privacy and the internet

Who: raincoaster media ltd, in partnership with Tradeworks Training Society.

Contact bloggingclasses AT gmail DOT com or 778-235-0592.

How(much)? $65 tuition, or $100 for Learn to Blog PLUS Blog Promotion (Pimp My Blog).
Please pre-register via email to ensure your reservation.

With class size limited to 8, this will be a program of personalized,
hands-on learning. During the class you will create your own blog,
tweak the design, publish your first few posts, add a YouTube video,
and even some music. You will leave with a functional, personalized
blog and the basic skills you need to run it.

Upcoming Courses: Corporate and Nonprofit Blogging, Pimp My Blog (blog
promotion), Blogging for Business, Audio Podcasting, and Photoblogging (online and in
Montreal, courtesy Neath of Walking Turcot Yards). Please email
bloggingclasses AT gmail DOT com to be put on the notification list.

Bio: Lorraine Murphy has been blogging for many years, and her
flagship blog, raincoaster.com, is ranked in the top 20,000 blogs in the
world.

Contact us for more details:
bloggingclasses AT gmail DOT com or 778-235-0592