2011 News March 15, 2011
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December
- “How the Natal Star was Born” was published on Your Daily Poem on Christmas eve.
- My poem “Two Poems about Christmas” was published in the December 2011-February 2012 issue of Rejoice.
November
- November 22 - I’m excited to announce I have contracted with Word Alive Press to publish my novel Destiny’s Hands! This biblical fiction will be released sometime in the spring or summer of 2012.
October
- October 30th my poem “October Fashion” was the day’s poem on Your Daily Poem.
- October 1 my poem “Tomato High Priestess” won first place in the Inscribe 2011 Members only Contest. It was published in the November issue of FellowScript.
September
- September 28th to November 23rd: I taught a class at Women By Design, our church’s Wednesday morning program for women. We studied Joyce Meyer’s book Battlefield of the Mind. I’m sure it impacted me more than the wonderful women who studied it with me.
- September 27th – The 2011 Word Alive Publishing Contest results were announced. I was thrilled to see my novel Destiny’s Hands on the list of finalists.
- On September 19th we welcomed our first granddaughter, beautiful little Myelle, into the family.
Welcome to this world, Myelle!
- My poem “Caraganas” was published in the September 7th issue of Prairie Messenger.
- My review of The Watcher by Sara Davison was published in the September/October edition of Faith Today.
August
- My Poem “In Stitches” was the poem of the day on Your Daily Poem – August 13, 2011
- A tanka I wrote for the Poets Online Summer Tanka challenge was published with a slew of other summer tanka (or is it tankas?).
July
- My review of Tim Challies’book The Next Story was published in the July/August issue of Faith Today.
May
- My poem “To Mother” was published in the May issue of Testimony
- My poem “Chalk” was published in the May issue of Good Times.
March
- My review of Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts was published in the March / April issue of Faith Today.
January
- I spent some hours in early January reading and evaluating the entries for The Word Guild’s God Uses Ink Novice Writers Contest. There are some great new writers in the wings!
- On January 25th we got the sad news that my brother had died after battling cancer for almost four years. The trip to Saskatchewan to attend the memorial service was bittersweet. It was wonderful to be with the everyone, but very sad too.
2010 News January 3, 2010
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December:
- My poem “From Grandma” is published in the December 2010 issue of Good Times.
November:
- My poem “In Stitches” is published in the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Vogue Patterns.
(Click on photo to enlarge)
October:
- My blog Other Food: daily devos was nominated a Best Canadian Blog in the category of Philosophy and Religion. It didn’t win, but a big thanks to all who voted for it!
September:
- I took on the responsibility for website of the Matsqui-Sumas-Abbotsford Poets Potpourri Society (MSA-PPS). It meant transferring all the data from our old site to a WordPress-hosted site. It is now running well and super-easy to update. Check it out.
July and August:
It’s always hard for me to keep up my writing momentum in summer. I did get a laptop computer so was able to keep up with writing the Other Food: daily devos while on vacation (which included a weekend in Victoria and trips to Saskatchewan and Kelowna)
June
- 06-22-10: Blue Moon Reading – Clearbrook Library @ 6:30 p.m. Alvin Ens and I are the featured readers. All are welcome to attend this poetry reading and open mic!
- 06-17-10: My article “Slowest Mammal on Earth” published by Partners last year won The Word Guild award in the category of “Article, Children/Young Adult. (All the awards listed here.)
- 06-16-10: I began my volunteer activities with The Word Guild – behind the scenes working on various web sites, as I am assigned.
- 06-01-2010: June’s Poet’s Classroom column, “Capture Your Summer with an Ode,” is about odes. It is also my last column. I’ve enjoyed writing these a lot, but I’m out of ideas!
May
- 05-01-2010: May’s Poet’s Classroom column “Twelve Ways to inject new life into your poems of faith” is the second article about writing poems about faith.
April
- 04-01-2010: April’s Poet’s Classroom column:”Writing Poetry of the Spirit” is the first of two columns that address the subject of writing poems that speak of faith.
- 04-01-2010 to 04-30- 2010: April is National Poetry Month. I took the challenge to write a poem a day using prompts from the Poetic Asides blog.
March
- 03-01-2010: March’s Poet’s Classroom column is “Pantoum — A Dance With Words.“
- 03-01-2010: My poem “In His Shop” was published in the March issue of Good Times.
- 03-01-2010: My book review of Mike Mason’s excellent YA fantasy The Blue Umbrella was published in March/April issue of Faith Today.
February
- 02-01-2010: The latest Poet’s Classroom column “The Sonnet — a little marvel of poetry” talks about all things sonnet.
January
- 01-01-2010: Began posting daily devotions to the Other Food: daily devo’s blog. These meditations are based on the Bible reading guide published by the Canadian Bible Society. Email subscription is available.
- 01-01-2010: The latest Poet’s Classroom column “Shorter, Shortest” is up. Learn about the Clerihew, Haiku, Haiga and Bantu.
2009 News February 5, 2009
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- December 14: A haiku I submitted to a Time of Singing contest won an Editor’s Choice award and will appear in the next edition of TOS.
- November: A poem I submitted to Good Times magazine was published in the November issue.
- November 1-30: I took the NaNoWriMo challenge and wrote 50,401 words of fiction in November (very raw first draft). I even completed the task six days before the deadline!
NaNoWriMo Winner Goodie
- Faith Today: My review of Barbara Colebrook Peace’s book Duet for Wings and Earth was published in the November/December issue.
- September 2009:
- testimony September /09 issue contains an article I wrote about our church’s Downtown Eastside volunteers.
- Utmost Christian Writers published my poem “Fire Test” in their Genesis Project Collection.
- Story Mates published my puzzle, “A Lesson to Learn” in their September 20/09 issue.
- Partners published “Slowest Mammal on Earth” (a piece about sloths) in their October 11/09 issue.
- Prairie Messenger accepted a poem for publication sometime in the future.
- Pockets accepted a piece I wrote for their January 2010 issue.
- September 14, 2009: David Matthew Spooner, our second grandson, arrived at 9: a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz. Welcome baby David!
- June 19, 2009: I will be presenting a workshop on writing short pieces for children at the 2009 Write! Canada Conference in Guelph, Ontario, June 18-20.
- April 14, 2009: I’ll be one of the featured readers at the 2009 Blue Moon Poetry Readings. These poetry readings (usually running monthly from April through early fall) are sponsored by the MSA Poets Potpourri Society and happen in the Clearbrook Library (32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford, B.C. – 6:30 p.m.
- April 8: Signed up for a Twitter account. It’s all Michael Hyatt’s fault! My feed is in the sidebar with a link to sign up as a follower.
- April 1-30: I’m celebrating National Poetry Month by writing a poem a day. That’s right – ONE POEM A DAY! Poetic Asides provides us weird and wonderful poets the prompts and the comment space to strut our stuff. I’m also posting my daily poem on my writerly blog Line upon line.
- March 2, 2009: My contributor’s copy of Sabbath Action Blast arrived. This book has 101 ideas for ways to celebrate the Sabbath or Sunday (I contributed three). Some activities from the book are also online here.
- January 14, 2009: A poem I entered in The Ontario Poetry Society competition “Open Heart For Poetry Competition” was one of 19 to place in over 260 entries. My winning poem, “To Mother” will be included in a chapbook of winning poems.
Conference Information and Registration.
Sabbath Action Blast: 101 Ways to Celebrate God's Special Day
2008 News February 5, 2009
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Photo © 2008 by S. Spooner
Wonderful things happened in 2008 – among them, I became a Grandma!
- October 31, 2008: The poem “His Name” won an Honorable Mention in the Utmost Christian Writers Canadian Site winter contest on the theme “Where Is God?”
- September 27, 2008: My devotional, “Stalled on a Dangerous Road” placed third and my poem “Elgin Park” earned an Honorable Mention in the Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship 2008 Fall Contest.
- August 23, 2008: My poem “Flag” won first place in an Utmost Christian Writers contest for Canadian poets.
- August 1, 2008: I start a six-month writing gig as Utmost Christian Writers monthly poetry columnist. My first article for Poet’s Classroom is “Who’d Want to Read Your Poems?”
- July 15, 2008: My poem “Broken Things” got an Honorable Mention in the Christian Publishers Poetry Prize Rhyming Poem Contest.
- June 11, 2008: My story “Jason’s Picnic” published in Primary Treasure September 22, 2007 won the Word Guild 2008 Canadian Christian Writing Award in the Article – Children & Young Adult category. Complete list of winners here.
- April 12, 2008: My poem “The Prodigal’s Things” won a merit award in the 2008 Utmost Christian Poetry Contest.
- March 12, 2008: A big welcome to Liam Walter Spooner – I am now a Grandma!
2007 News February 5, 2009
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Here’s my news for 2007 (from newest to oldest). It was a great year!
- December 1, 2007: My poem “Canadian Rivers” won an Honorable Mention in the Canadian Landscape contest at Utmost Christian Writers – Canadian site.
- November 2007: I joined The Word Guild – an organization that networks and supports Christian writers across Canada.
- September 28 & 29, 2007: On Friday, September 28th, Family Reunion will be part of a book launch event. Saturday, the 29th I will be presenting two poetry workshops. Both of these events are in conjunction with the Inscribe Fall Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
Photo: The cake with book cover decorations presented to Marcia Laycock and me at the Inscribe book launch event.
- July 10, 2007: I will again be part of the Blue Moon poetry Reading series as a member of the MSA Poets Potpourri Society (July 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Clearbrook Library – 32320 George Ferguson Way, Abbotsford, B.C.).
- June 13, 2007: Winner of two The Word Guild 2007 Awards in the “Children and Young Adult – Article” category and the “Review” category. The Winners were announced at an award gala on June 13 in Toronto.
- May 21, 2007: I will be reading from Family Reunion and talking to the Fraser Valley Christian Writers Group about using the internet for writing (7:15 p.m. Alliance Manor Lodge).
- May 2007: Pieces I wrote have been shortlisted in the categories of Personal Experience Article, Column Series and Poetry, 2007 The Word Guild 2007 Awards.
- April 2007: my poem “Converting to Childhood” won a merit award in the 2007 Utmost Christian Writers Poetry Contest.
- March 2007: The poem “Some Words” was chosen, by reader vote, to appear in the second annual ‘Best of’books published by Infuze Magazine.
- March 2007: Two poems have been accepted by Mark Gilroy Communications Inc. for inclusion in book compilations. “Mrs. Beasley Packed Her Purse” will be in The Bad Hair Day. “A Christmas Poem” will be in A Christmas Wonderland.
February 2007: My second book of poems, Family Reunion is now out. Find out how to get a copy here.
2006 News February 5, 2009
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- May 2006: Two pieces submitted to the The Word Guild 2006 Awards have made the short list in their respective categories.
- April 2006: I was appointed Utmost International Christian Poet Laureate.
- April 2006: The poem “Wisdom of the Scarecrow” won honorable mention in the 2006 Utmost Christian Writers Poetry Contest.
