writer’s life

2025 11 24

Death of an Imposter

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From the moment I could put words to a page, I have written stories and poems. Being a child of the 60s, many of my earlier tales were dark fables influenced by the Brothers Grimm, or limericks inspired by the prolific Mr. Edward Lear himself.

As time passed, I never imagined I would do anything but write. Sadly, time and circumstance are pranksters, Pied Pipers who lead us away from our chosen paths until we awaken from the reverie, decades later, wondering how the heck we ended up where we are.

Or at least, that’s how it played out for me.

But writing is like an addiction. The euphoric high produced by crafting a story, even a sentence, surpasses (I imagine) most narcotics. And so, when I awoke from the Piper’s spell—more accurately the need to keep a roof over my head—my compulsive craving for words returned.

Full of self-doubt, I entered contests, and with some encouragement entered more. Gradually, I felt the need to find a community, a space where I could meet other writers. But as a 60-something adult locked down in the throes of a global pandemic, I had no clue where to turn.

One early winter evening, I sat staring at the blinking cursor in the search bar and typed, “writers clubs London Ontario.” To my surprise, a website appeared: www.londonwriterssociety.ca. The site said they welcomed authors of all levels, but years of experience (cynicism?) made me doubt my abilities.

Would I fit in? Am I “good enough” to belong to a “writing society”? It took a gentle nudge from my husband for me to take the plunge.

And there it was. Home.

Even over zoom meetings, it became clear that I had found my people. The London Writers Society (LWS) has a diverse demographic—ages spanning early 20s to mid 90s, various backgrounds, cultures, and gender identities—with members ranging from those just starting out to those who have published several books, plays, and more. Membership includes access to critique groups, where writers can share their work and receive constructive feedback from their peers.

My timing was impeccable, because I was welcomed into a critique group with five other members—a diverse bunch of exceptional writers with a broad spectrum of life experience—who have transformed my approach to writing through their meaningful insights.

They have taught me how to receive criticism and how to offer it (a useful tool in every aspect of life). It’s not easy to share our work with strangers. As writers, we are often baring our innermost feelings, fears, or fantasies, which means the process demands an immense level of trust. Feedback must be handled with care, always remembering to tread lightly on someone’s soul.

In a few short years this group has surpassed being “peers” or “fellow members.” We have become a clan, a tribe connected to each other through our love of writing and reading, and our desire to hone our craft.

When I joined LWS, I was an unpublished “wannabe” writer who didn’t believe that status would ever change. Now, just a few years later, thanks to the support of my LWS family, two of my poems were selected by Emma Donoghue for publication in the Society’s inaugural anthology, Out of the Woods: Voices from the Forest City, launched back in June. I’m currently working on a series of short stories, a collection of poetry, and am gradually falling back into my habit of writing.

If I were a mediaeval knight, you might say I have slain the dragon known as “imposter syndrome.”

Thank you, LWS. It feels great to call myself a “writer.”

Brenda Martin owns a marketing and design studio in London. For decades she has written, edited and designed marketing content. A late-emerging author, she is working on a collection of short fiction and poetry.

2025 09 16

The Anthology Journey, Part 5: Finalists and Editing and Publishing—Oh My!

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On December 15, 2024 the committee announced the 35 LWS authors whose work was chosen by Emma Donoghue to be included in the anthology Out of the Woods.

Emma’s selections were thoughtful and can be summed up in the blurb she provided for the back cover of the book: “Out of the Woods is a harvested banquet – the impressively varied fruits of new writing from London. Whether telling stories that are historical, futuristic, or urgently contemporary, in fiction, poetry or narrative non-fiction, these voices speak movingly about a wide range of lives.”

My poem The Rollercoaster had been selected! My other poem about Snowball and Quackers didn’t make the cut (yes, I re-read my favourite Stephen King Carrie rejection story) and then I celebrated, realizing that the promise I made to my grandmother to someday write poetry was coming true. Not only had I written poetry, I was about to become a published poet.

Brenda and Donna both had pieces selected too—poems inspired by our day with Penn Kemp. Donna had a fiction piece published as well, a genre that wasn’t normally her focus. And she had a piece rejected. (I let her read Stephen King’s rejection letter.)

We heard from many of the finalists about their excitement at being chosen for the anthology. Their enthusiasm made all the hard work behind-the-scenes worthwhile.

With the collection in hand, our next step was to send the document to our editor. A few months earlier, we had researched professional editors and had met a London-based editor whose nurturing but thorough style was a perfect fit for the anthology because we knew the authors would likely range from the ‘first-time-ever-published’ to seasoned writers. Our editor generously offered a discounted rate for a community project so Donna, our money-tracker, gave that a thumbs up.

During the editing process, our editor announced to us that she had transitioned and would be using new pronouns and a new name, Heather Godden. I share this information now, as we did with the Out of the Woods authors, just in case you read past anthology communiqués and wonder why the name changed between the announcement of our editor and the acknowledgements in the book. We are honoured that Heather felt comfortable to share her truth with us.

For some writers, this was their very first experience with professional editing. The anthology team served as the liaison between editor and author to help with the process, ensure content moved back and forth for those requiring more than one set of revisions, and to make sure we stayed on budget. We also assisted folks who had never worked with “tracked changes” in Word. Heather emailed back and forth with the anthology authors until each piece was polished and typo-free. She then carefully and considerately selected the order of appearance in the anthology until we had our final approved document.

Many enjoyed Heather’s thoughtful and generous editing style so much, they hired her for other projects. (Check out goddeneditorial.com if you’re looking for a great local editor!)

We sent the finished manuscript to award-winning author and friend of the LWS, Terry Fallis. This author who has twice won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and has nine national bestsellers to his name (soon to be 10 as his latest novel, The Marionette, is forthcoming in October, 2025) volunteered to take time out of his packed schedule to write the foreword for the anthology. If you haven’t yet purchased your copy, you might consider doing so to read his moving words on the writing process and the importance of local art.

Terry also helped us connect with celebrated Canadian icon, Douglas Gibson (of McClelland & Stewart fame), to read the anthology and provide a blurb for the back cover. What an honour to have Douglas Gibson, a man who edited work for the Who’s Who of Canadian authors, cast his eyes on our anthology.

Behind all this excitement, committee Zoom meetings were ongoing and emails were still flying between the A-team. There were author bios to organize, cover art to finalize, an introduction to write, and newsletters to prepare to keep our members up-to-date on the progress.

We had researched many publishers, but one stood out for both professionalism and quality, and that was Indie Publishing Group, owned by LWS member, Chrissy Hobbs. Chrissy splits her time between London, Ontario and Tasmania, Australia, so finding Zoom times wasn’t always easy, but Chrissy’s easy-going personality and dedication to detail made the process not only seamless, but fun. Plus, those Tasmanian landscape backgrounds on Zoom were incredible! When she noticed the four of us glancing over at her window, Chrissy would tilt her screen and let us have a glimpse of her world down under.

Chrissy also talked to us about sales, specifically pre-orders. We would have to do a lot of promotion in order to meet our goals. Now that we had the finalized document, we needed to start selling books!

To be continued…

Photo of Martha Morrison, Chair of the LWS Anthology Committee Martha Morrison is honoured to have served as Chair of the Anthology Committee for the London Writers Society’s inaugural anthology project Out of the Woods. She holds a BSc in Biochemistry and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing. Her work has been published in various literary anthologies and she was shortlisted for the International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir. Her previous careers include flight attendant and professional ballroom dance instructor. Martha lives on a farm outside London with her family, dogs, cats and chickens. Most days, she gets up before the rooster (and the kids) to write in the quiet early mornings.

2025 08 13

The Anthology Journey, Part 4: The Portal is Open!

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The submissions started rolling in! What a thrill it was to hear that the numbers were increasing each day. With each submission, we knew another brave member had polished their work and made the courageous decision to hit “submit” for a chance to be published in the anthology. I submitted two very different poems: The Rollercoaster explores the emotional ride we experience when a loved one faces cancer; and Barnyard Duet depicts a humorous incident involving my goofy goldendoodle and an unwanted duckling named Quackers.

And so, with everything ticking along nicely, the anthology committee (with lattés in hand) sat back, put our feet on our desks and relaxed.

Just kidding! There was way too much work to be done to enjoy more than a momentary virtual clink of glasses. This was confirmed as I researched past emails in order to write this blog. There were thousands of communications between the A-Team members as we worked furiously behind-the-scenes to research publishing options, figure out promotional opportunities, find an editor and finance the project. While the London Arts Council grant had covered a large part of our expenses, it wouldn’t cover everything. We decided to seek out sponsors from community members. Brenda’s years of expertise with corporate sponsorship served in creating levels of support and incentives such as being mentioned in the anthology, thanked on the website and social media channels and, for some levels, logos added to the tote bags.

From family members to local businesses to friends of the LWS, we were humbled by the amount of support we received. Brenda coined the term “Literary Champion” because that’s what each sponsor was to the anthology project. It cannot be overstated the gratitude we felt, and continue to feel, toward the sponsors who made this project possible.

When the portal closed at midnight on October 15, 2024 and submissions were no longer being accepted, an image of a closed door with a huge padlock appeared on our socials. The anonymous entries were sorted by category and sent to our panel of First Reader judges.

We provided our First Reader judges with a scoring rubric (generously provided by Mirror World Publishing) to ensure that they were reviewing each entry consistently. Based on the judges’ final scores, the top percentage in each category formed the longlist. The judges had a month to review the submissions. And so, we waited.

On November 15, 2024, it was a thrill to announce the longlist. But as in any contest, there will be those who do not advance to the next round. The anthology committee received some emails and in-person conversations about the disappointment of not being chosen. As we faced these conversations, the words of one of my writing teachers, Alison Wearing, came to me: “Rather than taking rejection as evidence that you are not a writer, it’s also possible to take it as evidence that you are.”

The truth of the writing life is that there’s a lot of rejection involved. While I know this personally, I also keep a list of famous rejectees near my laptop: J.K. Rowling, Beatrix Potter, Agatha Christie, George Orwell, Stephen King. A favourite story is that after King’s debut novel was rejected more than 30 times, he threw it in the trash, only to have his wife retrieve it and encourage him to try again. A few years later, Carrie was published and became a bestseller and major motion picture.

The longlist entries were passed on to Emma Donoghue who would curate the shortlist which would become the anthology Out of the Woods. An agonizingly long month stretched out ahead of us as we waited for word from Emma with the results.

To be continued…