Russell Barton
Course Director
Russell taught Creative Fiction Writing
to
beginning and
intermediate
writers
for
ten
years at
Algonquin
College,
Ottawa, Ontario,
and for
three at the Nova
Scotia Community
College. Through
Creative Holidays Nova
Scotia, he leads a
number of
popular
summer
workshops
in
Liverpool NS.
They
focus on
issues
dealing with
understanding and
exploiting
first
draft
creativity
and
techniques for
refining
later
drafts. This
is
Russell’s sixth
year directing these
workshops. He also
teaches 30 hour
courses
(3 hours
per
week per
course) in
Halifax and
Dartmouth
during
the
fall
and
winter.
His curriculum covers the basics and is
built
on
needs
expressed by
students, a
number
of
whom have gone on
to
publish full length
novels. Russell has
written The Way of The
Story, a
two-part
textbook,
that
students
find easy
to
understand
and
insightful.
His
good sense of humour
and
consideration for
the
sensibilities
of
each
student
contribute to a
fun-filled
learning
experience that
will
change the
way you
write,
read and
appreciate
literature.
Russell is currently working on a
novel, The Lemon Squeezer, the story of
a boy
raised
during
WW11
and how he
copes
with
growing up to
become a
member of
a
civilized
community in a
world
that is waging
war.
A chapter
from The
Lemon
Squeezer
called
Heroes
Until
was
awarded a
prize
in the
2006
WFNS Atlantic
Writing
Competition Short
story category
and
was
published in
May
2007 by
Vagrant
Press.
Russ's additional writing credits
include thirty years as a public servant
writing speeches and
briefing notes for MPs
and Cabinet Ministers
and reports for
Parliament on
Multiculturalism
"Everyone is capable of creating good
fiction. My courses speed up the journey
to
excellence,"
says
Russ. He is a
member of the Nova
Scotia Writers’
Federation.
Aah... now we
have
another
photo of
Russell...
July 2004
'Writing
the
Historical Novel' -
Russell
enjoying French
Apple Tart at the
Queens
County Museum.
C~
Susan Borgersen
Company Facilitator
Susan in her art studio, Glorious Mud.
photo courtesy of S.
Corkum-Greek,
Lighthouse Publishing
Susan is a visual artist/writer with a
background in business strategy. She has
embraced
the
South
Shore
of Nova
Scotia,
making it her home and
inspiration for the
past
20
years. Her writing appears in
A
Drop in the Ocean
a
collection of
short stories from Nova Scotia,
Life,
an
award
winning collection
of poems and
The
Beach,
poetry
written
on
Cherry Hill
Beach
Lunenburg
County.
Susan lives
with
her husband
Arne
and four dogs on
the
lighthouse route in
Queens County Nova
Scotia.
In November 2006 and 2008, Susan
participated in
National Novel
Writing
Month - which
challenges
over
70,000
writers
around
the
world
to
write a novel
in the
30 days of
November.
Susan
achieved the
goal on
both occasions
and
is now
busy
researching,
editing,
and
rewriting the
first draft of her
novel
Stones
while
her first
murder/mystery, Hens'
Teeth, is on
hold.
Susan is your first point of contact
when making your programme selection.
She will ensure that
your individual needs
are
provided for, custom
design getaways for
you
or your group
and be
your host
during your
stay.
Susan in red hat. A good shot for the next book
jacket? Photo courtesy of Jane
Beaumont
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