The four worst things a writer can hear

Freelance writer David Hayes, wrote an entry in the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers listserv called  Four Worst Things a Writer Can Hear. Here they are, slightly edited:PAY ON PUBLICATION: Articles get bumped to future issues for all kinds of reasons (the mix worked better by moving your piece to a future issue; fewer ads than expected shrunk space in the issue your piece was scheduled)

Great books can -- and often do -- grow from great magazine articles

Allan Casey (Canadian Press)
Many a great Canadian book gets its start, or its impetus, from being first published in a magazine.
Allan Casey of Saskatoon, took the non-fiction prize in the Governor General's Literary Awards for his first full-length book Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (Greystone Books).Two of the chapters originated as articles published by Canadian Geographic

Ian Brown named writer-in-residence at Stratford Chefs School

Ian Brown, a well-known and award-winning magazine writer and author, has been chosen writer-in-residence at the renowned Stratford Chefs School. According to a story from Canadian Press, the program is named for the late Joseph Hoare, former food editor of Toronto Life magazine who died in 1997.Brown recently swept three awards for his book "The Boy in the Moon," including the Charles Taylor

ED search at Writers' Union might be an opportunity to explore merger with PWAC

Unsolicited advice is worth what you pay for it, I suppose, but one has to wonder whether the current search for an executive director to fill a vacancy at The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) isn't a golden opportunity to consider a merger with the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC). TWUC represents about 2,000 professionally published book authors and supports them and advocates

New listserv for Atlantic Canada freelancers

[This post has been updated] One of the things that I think distinguishes the magazine business, and journalism in general,  is its collegiality; people in this trade, such as freelance writers, wish each other well and realize that there's much to be gained from sharing, collaboration and networking. One good example is the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list (TFEW), a listserv that has

Doc's Afghan diary takes us up close and bloody in Afghanistan

[This item has been updated; see below*]It's worth wondering why the article in the current (July/August) issue of Mother Jones [thanks to This Magazine for tipping us on this] wasn't published in a Canadian publication*. It's written by a Canadian doctor, Kevin Patterson, a diary of time working among Canadian, other NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and it is rivettingly well-done. Of

Write-Aid benefit to be held May 24

The cause is just, the venue somewhat baroque and the price reasonable, plus the music is by 3-Chord Johnny, the house band of the magazine industry (John Macfarlane, David Hayes, David Macfarlane etc.) It's all in support of Write-Aid, to raise funds for the defence of Derek Finkle (late, editor of Toro) in his fight against a subpoena ordering him to turn over the research materials for his

Where are the women magazine writers? asks Mallick

That buzz saw that the editor of Harper's walked into was Heather Mallick. The columnist, late of the Globe and Mail and for some time now writing for CBC.ca, essentially shreds him* for misogyny, condescension and being boring."...he is a Tennessee-educated insular boor who has made this well-intentioned American magazine even more boring than it used to be, which is a trick and a half. Read it