Today was the Cross Polination Day in Oakville

There was only Norm and I who went from Hamilton. The Brick Publishing people came to speak on publishing poetry in general. It was very interesting.

It was a very small group this time who came out, even from the Oakville Poets. I wonder if it was because this year they charged $8.00 for the day?

Norm went to buy his sandwich and coffee and I had brought mine so we found a little sheltered place and sat at the only picnic table and had a lovely chat. The hour and a half passed very fast

Norm took the afternoon session and we broke up about 4.

At the gathering, I met a very nice young fellow who had his novel printed by Lulu. He had designed the cover himself and the print looked fine. All that was lacking was an ISBN number. He told me that would have cost more to have the ISBN number with Lulu. I must say the book looked fine and it only cost him $10.00 to print one copy plus shipping and handling. The more copies you have printed, the less it costs apparently. He said that you can even go back and correct any errors even after it has been printed and reprint the amended copy.

That was very interesting to me.


Norm drove back via the Lakeshore Drive for quite awhile so I could see all the grand houses. There sure must be a lot of money in Oakville, Bronte as well as in Burlington, that is all I can say!

All in all, a good day but I am glad to be home as I am very tired.

Poetic Cross-Pollination

Yesterday was a very good day for me. Our President of Tower Poetry, Norm Brown, was kind enough to pick me up in downtown Hamilton and then go and pick up Jeff in his area. We then proceeded to drive to Oakville where we spent a very good day discussing the writing process and poetry with poets from that area. Each poet was able to read his/her own work for three minutes before the group.

This was the second year this lovely event has been held at Central Library on Navy and Lakeshore in Oakville.

We were most fortunate in the weather, it was like a summer day but we paid for it later on with a severe thunderstorm.

Happily for our little group, we were home by that time.

This year, we had a very good speaker, Jody Sanderson, who is the Editor of Oakville Today and a lecturer at Sheridan College.

Among the points she offered for our consideration were the following:

1. Who are you writing for?

2. Format: - write a lead, then take out every second work, rework and try and make it tighter.

3. Be concise - choose the best words. Be considerate of the busy editor.

4. Content: What is the editor looking for?

5. Be consistent - when you start one way, continue doing it the same way.

6. Don't take anything personally.

7. Have a peer review - such as a workshop. Your friends won't want to hurt your feelings.

8. If critiquing sounds wrong, it may be that the ones doing it are not correct. It remains your
work.

9. Read your work out loud to yourself at home.

10. Dealing with success or rejection - it is only the editor's opinion, don't take it personally.

11. Know that you won't get rich or famous by your writing.

The group broke for a delicious Boston Pizza lunch which was provided free of charge. In the afternoon, former English language High School teacher, Norm Brown, took us through some thought provoking exercises which offered people the opportunity to get to know each other and to express their opinions, should they wish to.

The event was a success again this year, thanks to the hard work of Elka Enola and Norm Brown.