Some not-so-incriminating photos

Stefan Aarino and Margaret Eve Mackinnon canoodling. Margaret Eve is another of my creative writing classmates, she is also the daughter of Margaret Shaw-Mackinnon. Stefan used to work at UMFM; he the one who suggested I apply for a radio show.



A Sears glamour shot of Tricia.



Jenny Yee and Kristel Jax, catching up. Thin Air: reuniting old friends. Jenny writes short fiction, Kristel writes online zines.



"Hey Adam Koreker, how's the novella you're writing for your M.A. thesis going?"
"Good!"



Stefan hoarding the gouda. The first time I met Stefan, he was talking about the "post-modern" paper he handed in for his Chaucer class. It was several blank pages, followed by a bibliography.



Sitting in the splash zone during JonArno.



The Thin Air crew: small, but powerful.



The infamous Loud Chair.



Adris Taskans and blogger-in-chief, Ariel.



Oh, cheese table. I think I'm going to miss you most of all.



Tricia got me back for posting those unflattering pictures of her, by taking this horrendous one of me and Mr. Mierau. No, he hasn't read my post yet.

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

The last ABC

To commemorate the last Afternoon Book Chat.



I guess everyone was at The Gap?



JonArno Lawson and Charlene do a sound check.



Charlene introduces JonArno and Douglas Burnet Smith. Douglas asked me if I was the one he saw sneaking out of the Hospitality Suite this morning.



People have trickled in.



"Bueller? Bueller?"



Douglas talks about completing a book: "After you've given birth, you're just changing diapers."



I'm no photographer.

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Overheard

A few sound bites from Andre Alexis, author of Asylum.

On stock characters: "What they [the characters in Asylum] represent are people at different moments trying to do the right thing. They are recognizable within what it is to be Canadian, but their responses are unique. Although they come from places you know, they act in unpredictable ways."

On growing up as an immigrant: "It's difficult to write about it directly. When characters have to come to terms with coming from an outside place...that's how I talk about it. To me, that's the essential immigrant experience."

On providing answers: "Literature is not the ideal place for political answers. I would write an essay, where morally, simplicity is necessary. Literature isn't a place for simplicity."

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Photos from this morning's Words On Screen seminar.

I needed a permission letter to get in. Note Tavia's stationary.



Perry videotaping the panel discussion.



The Words On Screen speakers: Judith Keenan, Susin Nielsen, and Paul Quarrington.



We got to watch a bit of one of Susin's projects, Alice, I Think. Susin has written episodes of Ready or Not, which I'd say is only to Degrassi High as the greatest Canadian teen sitcom (which Susin has done, too).

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Since Flickr hates me

My mobile provider, for all their youth-targeted advertising, isn’t Flickr friendly. My first attempt at a Flickr post was actually sent with a caption:

“I checked out Shutter Speed by Larry Krotz from the library. After my overdue fines I should have just bought it.”

Here’s a picture post to hold you over until I get down to writing something about the four events I went to today. These were all taken at The Mainstage event, The City.



Rob Ross and Tricia Arden Caldwell: festival volunteers, emerging writers, my chums. We all met through being writers U of M. Trish and I were in the same creative writing class, and I met Rob at her post-Manitoba Book Awards party. Yes, we do sit around and talk about writing. It’s all very esoteric.



Rob hamming it up with my name tag, because he didn’t have his with him. For this year’s festival he played chauffer for the flown-in writers. Fun fact: Rob did his M.A. in Creative Writing at the U of M, the same program that Saleema Nawaz graduated from.



A very bad picture of Tricia. She’s actually quite cute. And a poet. On her Facebook page she claims her religion is “e.e. cummings.”



Two professional writers: Amy Karlinsky and Charles Wilkins. Amy is an art critic, curator, and teacher in Winnipeg. I took her Writing About Art class when she was at the university. You know that Bruce Head exhibit on at the Winnipeg Art Gallery right now? That’s her work. She’ll also be doing a stint as the writer-in-residence starting next week at Aqua Books. She’s pictured here with one of tonight’s readers, Charles Wilkins.

Tomorrow I will bring a real camera around. Expect lots of pictures of above-camera-phone quality!

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

A Roo Borson Inspired Writing Exercise

I've been suffering from writer's block. I had some good stuff going earlier in the year, and then when school finished (and subsequently my creative writing class), I stopped. "The worse thing you can do is stop," my professor Struan Sinclair told me.

For the past few months I've been struggling to get my momentum back. I am stuck. I have fragments, but no real story. Before I could sit down and crank out 1000 words, now I trudge my way through 200. It's pathetic and sad. But more sad.

When I heard that Roo Borson was doing a talk on creativity for the Big Ideas series, I thought, "Ah-ha! Just what I need!"

Part of her creative process is writing fragments of ideas down ("Hey, I have those!"). She then takes years worth of these fragments, and collages them together like "newspaper clippings, except you wrote all the content."

I asked her, "What do you do when you have trouble putting together the pieces?"

Her response: "Rearrange them to get new ideas, but you'll likely have to write more to fill in the gaps."

"Write more."

So here are some fragments of my own from my Big Ideas experience:

Would David Waltner-Toews consider writing about the appropriation of food chemicals by molecular gastronomists?

My best friend started to pick "fair trade" when we went for coffee, but I think she just liked the taste.

A man had a U-shaped foam cushion strapped to his hiking backpack. He placed on his seat, but spent most of the reading standing up.

I eyed the last piece of a California Roll on the platter. The disposable chopsticks wrappers said "Sushi Train," but I was so hungry it didn't matter.

It's silly to stop the elevator going down on the second floor.

Now to fill in the gaps. Arg.

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

A Picture/Video Message!

A Picture/Video Message!, originally uploaded by hotair.2008.

Writers + fashion

I don't consider myself stylish. I make rather boring fashion choices, and over the past couple years have taken to trying to look like a boring grown-up. My most recent favourite purchase is a secretary top: a blouse with a high collar secured with a big bow, originally conceived to keep cleavage out of the workplace. I think modesty is making a comeback, and who but the reclusive writer most embodies modest style?

Matches & Misses was the fashion event of Thin Air. Charlene Diehl set it off when she explained her outfit choice for the night; the theme was love, so she went with her "date clothes." Also taking into consideration the pink-patterned Loud Chair from EQ3 that none of the readers ever sit on, Charlene wore a tangerine cowl-neck sweater and a pleather skirt—with slits up both sides. I'd say it was a date outfit: cute, and a little saucy.

Each of the night's readers was sporting a signature look. David Bergen looked the most writerly of the bunch: black blazer over black t-shirt and dark jeans. All it took was the jacket to take him from writing in his den to headlining The Mainstage. The adorable Rebecca Rosenblum donned a cotton dress and cardigan. She became the sweetheart of Thin Air when in the middle of introducing her new book Once, she stopped, shrugged her shoulders and smiled. Cute!

Then there's the woman who breathes fresh air into writer fashion, Daria Salamon. I met Daria back in 2003 when I was interning at her husband Rob's record label , so I know that she's always had style. In fact, I remember thinking that her wedding dress was very similar to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's Vera Wang gown. In a nutshell: Daria has great taste.

Last night she wore a fitted grey/pink/white cocktail dress from Swank. She said it was a toss up between heels and boots, and she ended up going with black motorcycle boots. I was into the combination, it reminded me of Rihanna: though with girly. Daria expressed concern about a potential wardrobe malfunction; she told me at Bloodlines that the dress showed more cleavage than when she tried it on at the store. The solution: a camisole.

So how does Daria pick out her outfits?

"I wear whatever Oskar (her almost-two-year-old son) rips down from the closet."

Rob has his say too. Don't be fooled by the band t-shirts, Daria says her husband has "great fashion sense." Your consultants do good work, Daria! Pasha Malla called you "a dynamite."

Pasha Malla held his own, too. He looked like a New Yorker, in impeccable jeans and a heavy ivy cap. He confessed to having style by default:

"I own one button-up shirt. And my girlfriend told me that I should wear a button-up shirt at a reading."

What about the hat?

"My hair's thinning, and it's hot under the lights."

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Fear Not: the fan letter

I got a late start to the festivities due to a sudden cold, so I didn't make it to my first event until last night. I went to Bloodlines at The Mainstage, where my poet crush, Maurice Mierau read from new book Fear Not.

I didn't have my volunteer schwag yet, so I swung by the hospitality suite in a vain attempt to pick up my golden ticket (i.e. name tag) in time for Bloodlines. Of course, no one was there except for the volunteer host, Adrian Michael Kelly. Adrian and I chatted for a bit over cheese and crackers, and I learned that he just moved to Winnipeg from Calgary. It turns out, the one Calgary writer I've talked to, Adrian knows as well. Or maybe just met him. Once. At some point.

Adrian convinced me to try to talk my way into Bloodlines. "I'm blogging about this event," I said at the door.

Too easy.

By the time I got in, Joan Thomas had just finished. But like I said, I was there for Mr. Mierau. I fell into literary lust when I first saw him read a few months back at the launch of Prairie Fire's Home Place 2. One of the poems he read at Bloodlines was "How to be a man," which there's actually a clip of him reading at a different event on youtube:



He cemented my adoration last night with "Friends Fail," a poem about my favourite reality TV show, America's Next Top Model. Mr. Mierau provided footnotes for the audience, but I'm actually so obsessed with this show that I would have been able to pin-point which season he had been watching. I liked that he assumed the audience was too cultured to know anything about this show, and suggested that they may even be too cultured to know who Tyra Banks is.

An index is provided in the back of Fear Not, because "poetry should be more friendly." So how many poems about ANTM are there in this book?

I'm still swooning, but unfortunately Bloodlines was Mr. Mierau's only reading at Thin Air. So until his official book launch on October 16, I'll get to work on a crafting perfect fan letter (or e-letter). Something sweet, but not aggressive—and genuine!

Mr. Mierau, if you're reading this, the current season of ANTM features a contestant that was born biologically male in the absence of Janice Dickinson's fake tits. Surely, some discourse in that...

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Intro: Ashley Sy

This past summer, I became an "emerging writer."

I decided that it was time to start the process of getting published. I had a few stories that upon re-reading them several months later didn't mortify me, so I started sending them out (after a few more edits, of course). Those three semesters I had spent in creative writing courses at the U of M had prepped me for what to expect—rejection.

But I was used to being published! I started writing as a wannabe music critic, using student papers as the forum where my opinion mattered. I hadn't taken any formal writing classes, so my foray into journalism was one of trial-and-error. All my stylistic mistakes are on record, but likewise, as I continued to improve, my flashes of insight were printed, too.

So how unusual it is to receive rejection letters, when my writing has been getting the OK from editors hungry from content. This is a different scene, I had to remind myself, time to pay your dues all over again.

When I was writing about music, I knew how to pull strings to get onto guest lists. In the Winnipeg literary world, I have no pull. My involvement with this blog is entirely selfish—I want to schmooze. I need professional help—as a writer, I mean.

Keep reading: to see who I meet, what I learn, and how I attempt to use this blog for career advancement.

As of today, I'm still emerging.

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.