WWG alumnist shows us how it's done!

Yay for Ariel Gordon!

One of my old WWG (Wolseley Writing Group) gang won a major award last night at the Manitoba Book Awards!
Ariel Gordon won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer. So awesome. So very awesome, and so very deserving.

As I mentioned in an email to the group this morning, she's done TONS of work in the past few years, including her annual May Day poetry project, her gorgeous photography (which I still hope one day becomes a gorgeous book of fungus poems), and her own poetry writing which resulted in two chapbooks last year and her first major published work this year from Palimpsest Press!

I still remember when the entire group of us went to the awards show back in 2003 or 2004 and David Fuller said (quite seriously) something along the lines of "we should totally be able to be on that stage one day. There's no reason not to be." And Ariel proved him right. :)

Ariel even gave a playful jab to the WWG during her acceptance speech last night, stating that being the youngest of the group she was the first to get there! Awesome.

I can't wait for her official Winnipeg launch next week (May 5, McNally Robsinson Booksellers) of her book Hump. Should be a packed house!

Now if only I could get my own writing butt moving again! Heh-heh.
My MS of the Ghostcatchers Club is still M.I.A. at Tundra books (they've had it for over 10 months, and the editor I sent it to left last year...and now they're trying to locate it). I've been doing lots of editing for my buddy Steve in the U.S.A. for his P.O.D. gaming company Rite Publishing, which has been totally awesome, and has now resulted in my getting a major editing deal with Amber-sourcebook-co-writer Jason Durrell. Looking forward to that! (I'll post the press release here later today). But Ariel's win has really uplifted my spirits, not only for her, but for myself. It shows me that it is possible to get stuff done with lots of hard work. And maybe it's high time to get this blog up and running again, with some new writing. :)

Congratulations again Ariel! You've inspired me!