North Shore Writers' Association

By Cathy L. Scrimshaw

During our February meeting we had the pleasure of Patrick Taylor's company. A doctor, sailor, boat-builder and now successful novelist, Patrick read several passages from his latest novel, An Irish Country Doctor, the story of a young medical school graduate in his first post. Set in 1964 in a small village where, in Patrick's words, education was respected more than money, the novel is populated with quirky characters who lead interesting lives. With beautifully descriptive passages evoking a gentler, but not necessarily simplistic, time and place, his novel is a well-plotted, highly entertaining story of the kind we rarely see these days.

Bowen Island novelist Patrick Taylor for is going to read to us from his latest novel, An Irish Country Doctor and help us with publishing tips.

They're not Dumas' 3 Musketeers, but Jen Sookfong Lee, Mary Novik and June Hutton have put their own SPiN on "one for all and all for one"! And in this spirit, they shared with us both their writing and their personal stories of how their writing group, SPiN, has lead them to completed novels, two of them published.

Jen, Mary and June met during a the Booming Ground writers' workshop at UBC. Recognizing in each other a seriousness of craft and purpose they keep contact after the workshop, became friends, and formed a writing group they dubbed SPiN.

The three shared details of their group's inner workings and their journeys from story concept to full time writers. It's clear from their readings that each has her own style. This hasn't stopped them from providing writing critiques and moral support to each other. Though their subject matter is pre-21st century their communication methods are not. In addition to face-to-face meetings they make extensive use of the Internet for communicating and firmly believe every writer needs a website.