Sarah Butland's Blog, page 4

School Visits Are The Best!

As an introvert, being at home reading and writing is my habit, so being invited to present and speak about my writing is equally thrilling and nerve-wracking. Until I take the stage. Once I get in front of the crowd and start, it seems like another side of me takes precedence and shines! It has [...]

2024: The Year of Writing Successes

To say it has been a struggle is putting it mildly, as well as a lie. It has taken a lot of persistence, hard work, dedication and soul searching most definitely. All that simply means is the signs of progress are made ever so memorable. Already, in the less than three weeks of the new [...]

A Christmas/ Holiday Giveaway

Oftentimes, my son makes me super proud and, with his idea to celebrate 12 days of Christmas with a Canadian book giveaway is one of those very moments. As a YouTuber, reviewing books primarily by Canadian authors, he has gone above and beyond by aligning with Digitally Lit to offer a holiday giveaway of books [...]

I Won At NaNoWriMo …. Sort Of

I admit it, in full transparency I did not get the daily word count and did not technically write 50000 words on a new project in 13 days. I’m still calling this a win. Last year my local writing group, or a small portion of such, motivated me to try NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, [...]

I Read Canadian Day: A Growing List of Canadian Authors

For Canada 150 I compiled a list of Canadian authors I could recall. Instead of adding to that list, I thought I’d create a new post with the ones you suggest here, starting at 151. Please be sure to look back at the other list and let me know who I’m missing. 151) Kacey Dean152) Camilla [...]

The East Coast Gambler / Canadian Creative Writers Contest

For the inaugural Canadian Creative Writers Edgar Allan Poe Contest I came in third place with this submission: The East Coast Gambler The raven looked down on the detective as the detective looked back. Both summoned to the room in the House of Usher moments before its fall. Detective Roberts shook himself out of his [...]

Letting Go of Rejection

Emails confirming your story (or other medium of presenting your heart to be judged by strangers) has been rejected hurts. It hurts like hell, to be honest. My first instinct is always to understand it as a rejection of me, of my heart, of my story and I do default to taking it personally. After [...]

How Does One Become a Professional Writer?

Looking now beyond the measure of success that seems we all struggle with, the concept of giving ourselves a title of writer or author, and the hurdles we work to overcome to define who we are, there are more questions. Many more. With sixteen “books” (some are short stories, ebooks and some would argue not [...]

Call Me Hunter by Canadian author Jim Shockey

This novel, Call Me Hunter, is much more than a book. It’s an adventure mixed with doubts, tribulations and chaos from page one. The cover was what first intrigued me when I first requested a review copy from Simon and Schuster, then as daunting as the book seemed, after reading the first page, it haunted [...]

What I’m Learning From TP Wood

TP Wood is a new author and longtime reader and writer. He is someone I knew was special the first time I met him, I just didn’t quite absorb the importance, I still haven’t. TP Wood is a friend and fellow writer who is teaching me a lot of things about the confidence of being [...]