Word On The Street 2008

Tomorrow (Sunday Sept 28th, 2008), Queen's Park in Toronto will transform into a book lover's paradise with a marketplace of more than 258 book and magazine exhibits, more than that many authors, poets and storytellers and close to 200 readings, workshops and other events.

WORD ON THE STREET is Canada's largest book and magazine festival and it's FREE.

I will be in the Horror Writer's Association booth along with authors such as Sèphera Girón, Nancy Kilpatrick, Michael Colangelo, Jason White, Joel Arnold, Derek Clendening and James Roy Daley. Authors will be in the booth throughout the day signing their work, sharing information about HWA, chatting with fans and offering advice to writers.

I've been an affiliate member of HWA for a couple of years now and am amazed at the benefits of belonging to such an organization. I've been in contact and discussion with so many talented writers from around the globe, sharing advice, information and tips about the craft as well as the market. I put off becoming a member for several years because I was waiting until I made enough professional sales to be declaired an Active member -- and I sincerely regret doing that because of how much more in touch I've been with my colleagues since I joined up a couple of years ago. The information and advice alone that I now have access to are going to help me achieve Active status that much sooner.

Becoming a member of a writer's group like this really does allow a writer (who often wiles away many hours alone in a dark room hammering out words on a keyboard) an opportunity to connect with other writers and mentors and benefit from shared wisdom and experience.


I'm going to have about 100 or so free chapbooks to hand out featuring a story I recently had published in an anthology -- I'll be there for the morning as well as an hour or two into the early afternoon.

The HWA booth is in the Writers Block and is booth WB3.