Hi everybody! Two years ago I joined up with the Edmonton Writers' Group and have been attending the meetings regularly. The group is a loose affiliation of writers who just get together every two weeks to critique one or two short stories or pieces of writing from a member(s). It's all done in good fun and the group has been running for fourteen years.
The group had previously published some anthologies and late last year, people started wondering if they should do another anthology. Well, it is a year later and I contributed a story to All Mapped Out, the fourth collection that has just been published.
All
Mapped Out is a set of stories based on the theme of MAPS. Many kinds
of maps are involved that range from actual paper maps to abstract
concepts of a path or even a journey. There are fifteen stories in this
collection with no two stories being alike. Some are mysteries, others
are emotional journeys, and there are fantasy and science fiction
stories too. They’re all pretty enjoyable reads too (a good thing as
this volume went through a number of editing passes within the group).
The volume has been in the works for over a year and it is the fourth
anthology published by the group, and it is the first one for me to be
involved in. All Mapped Out is available online as an ebook or in
print. All profits from this anthology are donated to the Edmonton Public Library which also hosts our meet ups when we meet in person.
It is a whole bunch of work to get out a printed book and ebook, but the Edmonton Writers' Group is a good bunch of folks who apparently love a good challenge and writing of all kinds. Membership isn’t
all that exclusive as there are no fees and you just have to attend
three meetings to be considered a member, but we have people who come
regularly and people who only drop in a few times a year. The group has
a pretty diverse membership with dozens of members and meets every two
weeks to do friendly reviews of one or two stories. Even with the
pandemic this year, we went online to hold our meetings by video (and
didn’t miss a single meeting), and I think everyone is glad to have some
social contact with their fellow writers. Personally, I’ve found that
everyone is pretty supportive of each others writing and the commentary
is always interesting as it brings up things that I never thought about
or missed.
I contributed the story “Green Day” to the anthology.
My story is set in a future Edmonton which has undergone immense change
due to climate change. It is a story about competitors running a foot
race around the core of the city while racking up scores on an overlayed
virtual map. The prize is luxury food privileges in a future that
provides for all, but things we take for granted are now expensive
luxuries.
It was really interesting to see the diversity of
stories in this anthology and it really shows the different
personalities and interests of the people in the group. If you pick up a
copy of the book, I hope you have a good read.
A big thanks also goes out to our editor, Howard, and Robin for facilitating the online meetings.
Where To Get All Mapped Out
All Mapped Out at Amazon.ca - Canadian Kindle ebook
All Mapped Out at Amazon.ca - Canadian trade paperback
All Mapped Out at Amazon.com - USA Kindle ebook
Older Works by the Writing Group
Between the Shelves at Amazon.ca - Canadian Kindle ebook
Edmonton Unbound at Amazon.ca - Canadian Kindle ebook
The Edmonton Writers' Group Blog and Website
http://edmontonwritersgroup.blogspot.com
https://sites.google.com/view/edmontonwritersgroup
My Writing
Tokyo Intro - a storytelling guidebook to the city
My science fiction books and stories
