The students of The Writer's Studio will be reading at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island next Sunday. While it's not mandatory, we've been encouraged to read the work we'll be publishing in Emerge, our anthology being released the same day. Our only problem is time. For the reading next Sunday, the Vancouver International Writers Festival has given us about three minutes each. I've had to take my story, The House of Lancaster, a cute little tale set in a strip club in Etobicoke, and basically chop it in half to get it down to the three minute mark.

Last night, I presented the new, slimmmed-down version of The House of Lancaster at a reading in downtown Vancouver. From all the feedback I got, I think I cut the right bits out. People still enjoyed the story, even though I didn't get to say nearly as many naughty words as the original. Oh well, I guess I'm now good to go for a general audience.