Luanne Armstrong ... novelist, poet, writer of non-fiction and memoir, children's writer, teacher, mentor, story-teller, humorist and student. This wonderful speaker took the time from her very busy schedule to speak to us about her writing life on January 18 at the Silk Purse in West Vancouver. Luanne read from her latest book, still in first draft, a memoir of growing up on a small organic farm in the Kootenays. She writes with both humor and pathos of her early recollections of living in a small farming community and what led her to become a writer. Her advice to anyone writing their own memoirs is to turn oneself into the main character in the plot of one’s own life. Another piece of advice is to read - read - read - the kind of books one wants to write so that they will serve as a model, one’s own personal mentor. Her final suggestion for the audience was to surround oneself with like-minded people who are both positive and lovingly honest. I can only hope for myself that they will be as real and as bright and as funny as this talented writer, Luanne Armstrong.

She is presently teaching a Children's Writing course as well as a Non-Fiction Course at Langara College and she will commence teaching Memoir Writing at Capilano College beginning in early February 2005.