Ottawa Christian Writers’ Fellowship’s fall workshop/Some recent pieces I wrote - Denyse O’Leary

     On Saturday, October 1st we will be hosting a Short Story Writing Workshop from 10:00 to noon at Ecclesiax Church, 2 Monk St. The cost is $20.00 with coffee and snacks provided.

David Kitz will be doing the teaching with some assistance from me.

Think you can’t be a short story writer?

Well, can you tell an anecdote people will listen to? Yes?

Then you could probably learn to write a passable short story.

 Here’s what goes wrong for a lot of people: They tense up and feel they must go all “literary.” If it were a murder mystery, the culprit would be the author!

 As it happens, there are techniques for short story writing, and they are mainly technical skills you can learn. Foreshadowing, building suspense, and creating red herrings are three we have covered in our local critique group meetings. More to come ...

No, we can’t create inspirations for you or motivate you, but we can give you the tools that enable success. If you live in or near Ottawa, come out if you can. We’d love to meet you.

As for my own work, readers might be interested in a series I wrote recently for MercatorNet:

Part I: What’s wrong with social science today? Did it all begin with Margaret Mead's giddy portrait of guilt-free promiscuity in the 1920s?

How did UTexas sociologist Mark Regnerus get to be so hated? A study of gay parenting exploded when it hit the media

All sides agree: progressive politics is strangling social sciences

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