Author Rao

TD Culture Lab and Mississauga Arts Council, October 26, 2024

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by

AuthorRao
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I had the opportunity to attend a one day workshop titled Breakthrough to Writers‘ Success. It was a sold out event for writers and poets to learn more about the writing and publishing industry.

Here are some highlights of the day:

  • The day started with an introduction to the event by Wali Shah (Poet and Public Speaker) who was also the MC of the event
  • This was followed by a Keynote Address by author Eric Walters (https://ericwalters.net). Eric is tall enough to look like an NBA player and has a commanding voice. He spoke to the room of 200 people by walking among them, he did not stand still even for a minute of this one hour long talk and enthralled the audience with his writing process.
  • The next event was a Publisher’s Panel discussion moderated by Mary Ellen Koroscil (Courtney Park Writer’s Group) with four panelists who spoke about the the business of publishing from an Canadian independent publisher’s point of view
    • Debby de Groot (Assembly Press)
    • Jay Millar (Book*hug Press)
    • Bala Menon (Tamarind Tree Books)
    • Jeremy Luke Hill (Gordon Hill Press and The Porcupines Quill)
  • We then jumped to a talk by Mika Colins (Screenwriter and Producer) who spoke about adapting creating words to the screen.
  • The last event of the day was another illustrious panel about self-publishing, promotion and staying motivated as a literary artist.
    • Belinda W. Thomas (http://www.belyndasbooks.com)
    • Wali Shah
    • Kern Carter (https://www.kerncarter.com)
    • Cheryl Rankin (Fit for Business)

I was seated at a table with three amazing people:

I also got to say hi to author Anjula Evans.