So you may have noticed that the story from the Scrawl-A-Thon was still posted. I've decided to keep that up for now. Firstly, because I am just too darn busy to actually take it down and two because I was running a great program called DramAntics. (I'll post pictures soon).
I experienced a wonderful week with some amazing kids writing and producing a play of their own design. It's a ton of work. I weave their words into a working script in just one night - usually ending at three in the morning. I make cast shirts, the poster and playbill, and I help with set and costume if things are running behind. It's all worth it though. The kids get so much self esteem and happiness from this program, I don't mind all the effort I have to put in to make it happen. My cohort, MJ Uszy, feels the same way, and has about the same amount of sleepless nights.
Right now, I'm gearing up for the book launch of Stupid. Or, I guess, my Stupid book launch. I really should have rethought that title. Some things are still up in the air but the date and time are finally nailed down - below are the details. I hope to see some of you there.
Until next time. . . 

YOU are all invited to my book launch event for my newest book, Stupid!
Monday, April 28 from 6-8 pm at Breathe Parkour (#8 - 401 33rd Street NE. about a 10 min walk from the Marlborough C-Train station) 
Details are still up in the air but this was the plan originally:

1. Bethan McBreen - poem & video - "Century Gardens" 
2. Steve Nagy / Matt Turner / Frankie Skripal / Riley Hilton - reading / story / film - Parkour in North Korea - Breathe Parkour Magazine Issue 3 "Parkour Without Borders"
3. Kim Firmston - Reading & Performance - "Stupid"

PK Magazine will be for sale. 
Stupid will be for sale for $10.00 (as well as the rest of my books).

And if you want to parkour before or after the show, it's just $15.00 plus tax to go and play in the gym (I think there may be a DJ afterwards too).

Well a lot has been happening lately. First, Resource Links magazine named Touch one of their “Year’s Best for 2013”. I'm on the list with some other Canadian writers I look up to. It's a big honor. 


Then last week I was interviewed by Canadian Children's Book News for their regular column called "Keep an Eye on..." That issue will be out in April. Of course before that my new book, Stupid, will be on the book shelves. It comes out March 1st. The same day, coincidentally, that a brand new parkour gym, Breathe Parkour, opens. They are mentioned in my book. Yes - I can see into the future.

And if that wasn't enough, I signed up for the Scrawl-A-Thon on March 15 where I will write for six hours straight in a room full of rowdy drunken (aren't they all?) writers. I will be posting all my writing that day, hourly or so, on this blog. So check in at  around 4 PM mountain time to start seeing stuff. Hopefully a whole story will be told. This Scrawl-A-Thon is a fund raiser for WordsWorth youth residency. If you want to help out by either becoming a participant of by sponsoring me, just give me a shout and I'll hook you up with the details.

Of course during all this I've been working hard on my class materials (mostly bleeding on said materials) for my Drink The Wild Air class. Which is a live action version of the Hero's Journey. It's going to be so much fun, I can't wait. And this ridiculous cold might actually bugger off by the time we go to camp. An added bonus.

Then, last night, the best news ever - I'm going to be teaching at WordsWorth for week one AND week two. I'm so excited. I love that camp.

And just when I caught my breath and thought I couldn't take any more excitement, I get this e-mail from Ontario telling me that my play (which I wrote with the 35th Calgary Girl Guides) called, The Rock 'N Roll Trolls was performed to raise money for a seniors centre. The kids had fun. The audience had fun. And they sent me pictures! I've had the best ever couple of weeks and it's only going to get better I'm sure.

Wow! I had so much fun being Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto last month. I'm so glad they invited me. If you missed it - you can see all my blogs in their archives here: http://www.openbooktoronto.com/kim_firmston/main

But on to that writing game. So the other day I was prepping for a writing class and I needed a simple writing game that could be done either individually or as a group - and here's what I came up with:

It's called THREE THINGS

Materials: A container with objects written on small pieces of paper. Things like skirt, open CD case, saddle, glitter, tire marks, empty wine glass, a book on how to build a raft, etc. You can make these ahead of time or get the class to help you out.

To play: The player draws at random three papers out of the container. They have to come up with a scenario of what might have happened if they had come upon a scene where those three objects were and the people are no longer around. What happened, essentially. Individually, each player can either speak the scenario or write it down as an opening to a story then read it out. As a group there can be a brain storm of all the possible things that could have led to these three things being left where they were.

Example: Say you drew glitter, carrot, and saddle. Perhaps someone was trying to make a real My Little Pony for their daughter but the pony hated the glitter, and the carrot wasn't enticing enough and it bolted out of the house. The dad didn't even have time to get the saddle on the thing!

A simple, quick, fun game that would make a good icebreaker to any writing group.

I can't wait for summer! I have the special privilege of working with young writers while the sun is hot. This particular summer is going to be extra great. I'm working on a new class for WordsWorth Youth Writing Residency - week one (there are only three spots left, so get registered now if you want to go). I'll be doing action adventure writing. To this end I have been procuring cameras, laptops, sound effects, soundtracks, fake bombs, plastic, wood, and cardboard weapons, and small latches with keyed padlocks. It's going to be a blast. Oh, yeah, and I'm bringing a parachute. And after all that I get to write a play with another bunch of talented kids at the DramAntics theatre camp and perform it at the Calgary Fringe Festival. Then at the end of the summer I'll be hanging out at RIO summer camp where I don't even know what to expect as the whole thing is planned by the kids themselves. And in between all that is the People's Poetry Festival in Kensington and the When Words Collide writers and readers conference. So much to do this summer! Insane! I had better rest up now and do my prepping because once July starts, I'll be running.

Boiled Cat is launched. I’ve managed to get another book proposal in to my publisher for a little novel I call Stupid. Now it is that time of the  year when I start prepping my classes.
I work all summer. I teach at various summer camps such as WordsWorth, DramAntics, and RIO. And what do I teach? Writing of course. But not just any writing. I like to use play to teach. So in my classes we play  writing.
That probably sounds strange. I mean how do you play and write at the same time. Well, it’s pretty easy. I think of the lesson I would  like to get across, be it incorporating more senses into one’s work, or learning to pump more tension in to an action scene. Then I think of a way to get bums out of seats and up and moving. Bringing the lesson to life.
For senses I’ve done blindfolded hiking and  tasting/smelling/touching/hearing crazy stuff. For tension I’m thinking of firing live water guns at my students while they run around trying to write in  a notebook. Not everything I do works. But I do try everything. And even if it  doesn’t work 100 percent, we have fun and writing comes off as a positive  experience. Which is success in my book.

So Boiled Cat is launched! What a fun night. MJ Diva and Thrashadactyl rocked it out. I read. Books were signed. And I got to connect with people I haven't seen in a long, long time. (That's what happens when you lock yourself away to write)!
Now I'm on to new adventures. I'm doing art for the Boiled Cat book trailer. The STICK IT TO THEM Boiled Cat sticker contest is launched - go to the Boiled Cat website for info on that (www.boiledcat.com). Stickers are free so contact me to get some. I'm putting together classes for the THREE camps I'm teaching at this summer. I've also been invited to be a panelist for the When Words Collide conference in August. In November I'll be the Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto. And during all this I've pitched a new book to Lorimer SideStreets called Stupid. If that makes it through all the hoops, I'll be working on a new book soon. I also plan on getting How To Be A Super Villain sold as soon as possible and finding an agent for February. The amount of work I have to do is endless, however I look forward to all of it. I hope you'll all stick with me on my adventures. Who knows where this road will take me but it looks like fun!
Oh, yeah, one more thing - there's new pictures on the corkboard and, as usual, they all link somewhere. Have fun with them!

Some of the people I most admire talk about fear. How they felt it during their work. How during a new endeavour, that later became such a defining moment in their career, at the beginning, terrified them. Many of them felt like a fraud about to be caught out. And it’s not the people you would expect. It’s people you look at now and say – wow, he or she really knew their path. But they didn’t. It was a gamble. But instead of running from their fear, they put forth extraordinary effort, stood steady in the trembling wind. And what I’ve learned from this is that you can’t fail without trying. And that failure is in itself a reward for trying. Therefore failure is not a negative thing. It is a leap. A badge proving you went forward. That you are more than the ones who turned away when the terrifying task was set upon the table. And do not forget that alongside failure is success – which you also do not gain without attempt.
So whether I succeed or fail, no matter how afraid or fraudulent I feel at the task set before me – I am going forward and I will see just what happens. Whatever it is, it may well be extraordinary.

I can't recommend the WordsWorth program enough. If you are a youth writer, go to this retreat. It will change your life.
Drink the Wild Air
Come join us at the WordsWorth Winter Retreat! March 1-3 at Camp Chief Hector.  Why there, you ask? “Nature has no outline. Imagination has” William Blake
March 1-3 we’re heading to the mountains for another Creative Writing Re-treat and of
course, we hope you’ll be there!  But why do we keep bringing our writing to the outdoors?William Carlos Williams said things close to the nose aren’t proper subjects.  Not all writing can be direct self-expression.  Looking inward can keep poets and writ-ers from looking outward.  And so we’re taking you outdoors this time to Camp Chief Hector to partner with the outdoor staff to notice evocative new images and to have fresh adventure. And then we’ll  create time to take these new images and experiences
...and collaborate them with language.  So even if you already have a relationship with
the natural world, this one will be new.The locale of the happening always colours the
happening, and often, to a degree, shapes it novelist Elizabeth Brown observed. 

So join us and DRINK THE WILD AIR March 1 – 3, 2013 at Camp Chief Hector
YMCA in Kananaskis, Alberta. Thaw your brainfreeze with warm words and we hope
you will find an unexpected connection between the outdoors and words.
To register or click here: http://drinkthewildair2013.eventbrite.ca/
We will be outdoors, indoors writing, up late writing under the stars, sleeping
late -ish.  There will be campfire, music, parlour games, Exquisite Corpse Games... the fun will never end.
Oh, yes it will. On Sunday just after lunch. But in true Words-worth fashion, we will pack the fun in.  We’re even offering a bus out from Calgary on the Friday night.

When I was in high school the school counsellor asked me what I was going to do after school. Of course I said, “I’m going to be a writer.” At this point I had already written a novel, had a one act play produced that did quite well in the local festival and had the same play reach the top five in a province wide playwriting competition against adults. So I was well on my way. Not to mention that even with the three or more hours of high school homework and studying I had every night, I regularly managed to pound out another two to four hours of writing a day too. Mind you, I didn’t have a job. Still, I was a writer and that was that. My school counsellor didn’t see things quite my way. “You can’t be a writer,” she said. “You won’t make any money.”
I recently saw a similar conversation directed at one of the kids I met this summer. “You can’t be a writer. Why not do what your parents did? They’re successful.” I’m afraid to say, this girl is already is writer, and a damn good one at that. With no real training, she just writes from the heart. Says what is on her mind, and it blows me away every time. So telling her that she can’t be a writer isn’t going to play out well for anyone.
Besides, being a writer isn’t something we choose. It’s what we are. You don’t decide to be a writer. Not in my experience. You either are one or you aren’t. You either spend hours fiddling with words, desperately searching for a way to make your words better, to ring truer, to be brighter, or you do something else. Find excuses. Do laundry. And not everyone who likes to write is a writer. But when you are a writer, having someone tell
you that you can’t be one – doesn’t work. You can’t just stop being a writer. There isn’t any way around it. It’s like telling someone that they can’t be human. How the heck would you pull that off?
So to all you struggling writers out there. Don’t listen to the can’ts. Don’t worry about the don’ts. Just write. You have to anyway. So why fret. Trying to explain this passion to those people is a waste of time. Besides you have better things to do – like writing.

I didn’t go to university. When the time came to make those decisions I was taken into the guidance councillor’s office in my small town school, where she asked me what I wanted to do as my career. I told her I wanted to be a writer. She replied that I couldn’t be a writer, they didn’t make any money. So offered, prostitute. She gasped and said I couldn’t be that either. I told her, since she wouldn’t be satisfied with anything, I was leaving. I never got the university information. I had no idea how to apply. I had no money to go even if I could figure it all out on my own. And I didn’t even know they taught any kind of writing at university anyway. Had I known, I may have actually tried to figure out how to get there. Instead I moved into a small, one room apartment in Calgary, with the bathroom down the hall and a couple fighting in the next room, because it sounded like a place a writer could be born. Then I wrote. I wrote every day, two to twelve hours a day. I wrote plays to start with. Then I  traveled and wrote novels. I moved to Montreal, not speaking any French and  lived in the slums and wrote more. I sought out experiences and interesting people. I figured I’d be decent by the time I hit forty. Around thirty I decided to learn how to get published. And true to my career trajectory, I began to get published around forty. (I did have a few plays produced before then). Now I write full time and I’m working on getting an agent. I teach writing to youth and tell them that there are classes in University that teach all kinds of writing. I encourage the kids to go to university. I don’t know if it will do anything for them, or if it would have done anything for me. Maybe it would  have speeded up my learning curve. I can’t say, because I never went. But I’m pretty happy with how my writing life is and all the experiences I’ve had working to get where I am.