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Join us on Retreat in Costa Rica
Join us on Retreat in Costa Rica

Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place

Join us on Retreat in Costa Rica

In February 2017 we will be holding our second annual writing trip to Costa Rica! As with last year, we welcome solo writers as well as writers with accompanying family members. We’re staying in a spectacular lodge in the rainforest, 10 minutes from La Fortuna. Mornings will consist of workshops for participants whose focus is on writing, while other group members relax around the pool, climb the viewing tower, or enjoy nature from one of the many hiking trails. In the afternoons, writers can take advantage of the serenity to work on independent writing projects, or join other group members on local sightseeing trips: hot springs, zip lining and more. This is a fully escorted tour: we meet your flight, and return you to the […]

juliehartley2016-10-17T18:44:44-04:00October 17, 2016|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place|

It’s ‘Authors for Indies’ this weekend!

These days, emerging Canadian authors rely on thriving independent bookstores more than ever. Why? You may have noticed that it’s often difficult to find works by emerging Canadian writers in the big box stores. And though you’ll find them in online stores, they are often buried among the works of more established authors. So the support of independent bookstores, and the enthusiastic readers (and writers) who work there, can be essential to new Canadian authors as they establish a firm readership. This coming Saturday, 30 April, is Authors for Indies Day across Canada – a time for Canadian writers to give back, and a terrific opportunity for readers to meet their favourite authors, whoever they may be. If you want to learn more about Authors […]

juliehartley2016-04-29T13:09:27-04:00April 29, 2016|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat
A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat

Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting

A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat

The following article was sent to us by L.S., a participant on our recent family/solo writing tour to Costa Rica. She attended the retreat with her teenage daughters, who had previously also attended our arts programs at Centauri Summer Camp. A fortuitous conversation four years ago my daughters at a uniquely special camp called Centauri. The positive impact of Centauri has been vastly disproportionate to the time they’ve spent there which speaks volumes to its ability to affect young people. How two short weeks within an entire year can hold so much meaning is quite remarkable. I’ve never asked what the word Centauri means, allowing me to create my own encompassing definition: A place where kids can find their own rhythm, their own voice, a […]

juliehartley2016-02-05T15:27:29-04:00February 5, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting|

Costa Rica Writing Retreat
Costa Rica Writing Retreat

Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!

Costa Rica Writing Retreat

My first family/solo adult writing retreat to Costa Rica has now concluded – and what a wonderful week it was! Our group stayed at Finca Luna Nueva, a gorgeous bio-dynamic farm and lodge in the heart of the rain forest, where sloths lazed outside our windows and hummingbirds flitted past the pool. To kick start the week, I gave a reading – from The Finding Place, and from two new novels, one written (Beyond Chaos) and another in progress (The Hibernators). There followed six mornings of writing workshops – an hour long for the younger participants, and two hours for the adult writers. We explored surrealist writing prompts, looked at structure (and planned a novel!), discovered how fiction is inspired by life experience, tried out […]

juliehartley2016-02-01T19:37:52-04:00February 1, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Five More Writing Prompts for the Holidays

Hoping for some writing time over the next few weeks? Here’s some more prompts to get you started… A gift is delivered incorrectly to your home. It’s an intriguing shape. What do you (or your characters) do? Choose your genre.. is the gift magical? Sinister? Suggestive of an imminent crime? Do you open it – or is this a human story about what happens as you seek the rightful owner? Write for ten minutes without stopping, beginning with the following prompt: I packed a suitcase, the scent of winter in the air. Attempt a picture book for the holiday season. Your main character is a child who has never seen snow. Write about one of the first holiday seasons you can remember. How old were […]

juliehartley2015-12-17T18:03:15-04:00December 17, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Writing Prompts for the Holidays!

Have some free time on your hands in the next few weeks, and want to get creative? Here are five prompts that might just help! 1. Write about a character alone and away from family for the first time ever during the holidays. Are they are alone by choice, or out of necessity? Where are they? What has happened? How do they spend their day? If you have time to write for a longer period of time, ensure your character undergoes some form of transformation in the course of your writing. Their perspective and emotional state is quite different, by the end. 2. Ever had the feeling, during a snow storm, that the snow is never, ever going to stop? Write about a time when […]

juliehartley2015-12-10T19:17:54-04:00December 10, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Five Editing Tips for Young Writers

So you love to write, you’ve finished your first draft of a short story (or maybe something longer) – but how do you make your work as good as it can be? A circle of writing friends to nurture and critique your work is fairly important, because we all reach a point where we think our work is as good as it can be, and we can’t see potential weaknesses ay more. But there are a few things you can do for yourself as you start to edit your first draft: The ‘was’ edit! Do a search for the word ‘was’ and replace, where possible, with more direct and active verbs. Consider the difference between: “The girl was standing by the door, waiting for him […]

juliehartley2015-11-11T19:39:42-04:00November 11, 2015|On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Why I Love to Write for Children

When my daughter was about six or so, we were walking in a forest. It was mid morning. She paused, looked up through the trees and saw the faint outline of a moon in the sky. She turned to me, wary and suspicious. “That should not be there,” she said. I was reminded of a similar feeling I had had at about the same age. I was walking home from school on my own, because that was still something six year olds could do, back then. Cutting across a park, I saw what was probably a carpet of mist and dew caused by English fog. I was certain, however, that it was an endless network of spider-like webs, suffocating the world. I ran home as […]

juliehartley2015-11-04T16:28:25-04:00November 4, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Writing Beyond the First Draft

When I was a teenager, I didn’t know anyone else who wanted to write. I felt lonely and different, sitting in my bedroom, tapping out novels on my manual typewriter, while other teenage girls I knew spent their weekends hanging out in each other’s houses, talking about music and boys. I grew up in the North of England in a working class steel town where most kids saw me as fairly bizarre. The experience was profound, because without it, I wouldn’t have worked so hard to create communities for artistic kids. I wouldn’t have known how important it was that such places existed. But there is danger in thinking you are the only one. I didn’t know anyone else who wanted to be writers, so […]

juliehartley2015-10-26T15:21:22-04:00October 26, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

To Self-Publish… or Not

This week, I was invited to give a talk at the Muskoka Author’s Association in Bracebridge. The audience comprised writers and people of all ages who hoped to publish work in the future. They asked me to tell the story of writing and publishing The Finding Place. When I told them how many years I’d been writing before having anything accepted for publication, one of the participants asked: why didn’t you ever think of self publishing? I thought I’d address that question here. Self-publishing is a far more respected and viable avenue for a writer than it ever was before, and a route chosen by a vast number of authors. In my view, though, it’s only a viable option if you have (or can develop) […]

juliehartley2015-10-19T15:48:34-04:00October 19, 2015|On Writing, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|