Today, I met thirteen writers I hadn't known before and was very impressed with their enthusiasm, talent, honesty, and openness. We had an indoor snowball fight (which was fun). We shared weird facts with each other and told some lies. We made stuff up on the spot and even got to talk as loud as we wanted to inside a library (which was really weird for me as I've always been taught to SHHH!, you're in a library, quiet voice please, Mr. Mavin! Don't make me remind you again!).

What's happening is this: I'm participating in a program called New Shoots (where creative writing students from UBC team up with writers in Vancouver high schools to, well, write) and yesterday was our first session. I'm working with these fantastic people at Templeton Secondary School and it looks like we're going to have a lot of fun. Several of the writers have done this before, so I'm the newbie, but nevertheless, everyone was very welcoming. Even after our moment of sharing when I told them I've dug up dead people before.