Those of you who know me well, know that I cherish the
simple life and have an ongoing love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with
technology of any kind.
But I gotta say, I do like (maybe love is too strong of a
word) “go to meeting.”
Last evening, I participated in the first ever online “Open
Mic” session put on by The Word Guild. All I needed was an inexpensive headset
and my old desk-top computer, and I was “in” (or should I say “on”?)
One of the exciting things for me, living as I do in a
remote northern community, is my annual trek down to Write! Canada www.writecanada.org . There I can renew
acquaintances with authors from all over the country and participate in writing
events such as workshops, classes, readings and such. Throughout the year, the
connection wanes and a feeling of isolation sets in again, especially as I hear
of events happening in Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver… But for that one hour last evening, it was
almost as if I was at Write! Canada again!
The session began with an introduction by the organizers,
Les Lindquist (chair of Christian Info Canada) and Paul Oleniuk (2006 winner in
the teen category of “God Uses Ink”). This was followed by readings and Q&A
by Sara Davison and by Jayne E. Self, two authors shortlisted for the best mystery book award at the Canadian ChristianWriting Awards. I had known ahead of time that these two authors were going to be reading but
was in for a surprise when first Marcia Laycock and then Linda Hall gave a reading and had
a Q&A.
What was amazing for me was the way that we could all, for that
one hour, be communicating and connecting from such diverse parts of the
country. Even though I was way up north, I could connect with Jayne and Sara in
the south, Marcia in the west, and Linda in the east. For that one hour,
technology shrunk our huge country down to a manageable size!
I think The Word Guild is hoping to have more online
sessions connecting writers from coast to coast. And for all of you
technophobes out there, trust me on this, if I can do it, you can! And just to prove how inept I am, I’ll confess
something I was planning to keep a secret. I was on a “go to meeting”
conference with N.J. Lindquist earlier that day. The meeting started okay when I responded to the link she sent
me, but for some unfathomable reason, I couldn’t get my microphone or speaker
to work, and we finally resorted to conversing over the phone. I was surprised
because I had experienced no problems the last time we connected. Well, last
evening, I discovered my mistake. In the tangle of wires I have on my desk, I
have TWO little green connecting thingamabobs that I plug into my computer: one
is for my infrequently used set of speakers and one is for my new set of
headphones. Yeah, you guessed it: I had
the wrong little green thingamajig plugged in. Sigh… They really do look the
same.
And soon - just thirteen more days! – the real Write!
Canada will begin – hope to see you all there!
Dorene Meyer
Award-winning Author of:
3 comments:
"Can do" encouragement rides high in this reflection, Dorene, and I thank you for it!
Hmm, my computer mic cord was accidently chewed up by a vacuum cleaner a few years back, but I'd never used it, anyway.
Feels like a repair project coming on . . . :)
A'hem! Peter, that mic cord being chewed up by a vacuum cleaner sounds suspiciously like "my dog ate my homework." :)
It really was a really great experience connecting with everyone from east to west.
And mic cords are pretty inexpensive - as long as you keep them away from ravenous vacuum cleaners!!
Heh! Heh! Good one, Dorene.
I'll have to wake up, smarten up, get with it and join the gang! :)
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