Changes at Write Canada

Only five weeks until Write Canada 2015!

I have this love-hate relationship with change. I want to grow, and develop. I want to be adventuresome, to embrace risk. But the truth is, I don’t like change. I like familiarity.

Write Canada is a prime example.

This will be my fifteenth year at the conference. My fifteenth year hearing people say Write Canada needs to grow. It needs to move. Be more centrally located. Airport friendly. With more agents and publishers. Better internet connections. More comfortable beds. Fancier meals. More handicap accessible.

Cheaper.

And although I agree with all of those points I was, I confess, a little reluctant to entertain a move. I was okay with the beds and food. I was still making career connections. Still developing as a writer. And I liked GBCC’s beautiful gardens. Okay, since I’m being honest here, I loved them.

Then last year God stepped in.

It became clear that holding Write Canada 2015 at GBCC was not going to happen. I was part of the team who went looking for an alternate location and when we approached Tyndale Seminary I thought we’d found the perfect solution. Central location, high tech connections and the campus’ park-like setting. What more could I ask for?

Then God stepped in. Again.

January arrived and Tyndale’s renovations were incomplete. We realized we had to find another solution.

I’m not a city girl and the idea of holding Write Canada 2015 at a Toronto hotel left me unsettled to say the least. But when I stepped into Novotel for the first time I was surprised. And at peace.

I’ll tell you why.

Novotel is comfortable, almost cozy. It’s compact—easily accessed by anyone with mobility issues.

The entire hotel is equipped with high-speed internet—not just one or two seminar rooms.

Novotel connects to subway, parking, a shopping concourse with a food court (ie coffee shops), and the North York Public Library—all without you having to leave the building. But, if you want to leave, there’s a park across the street and Mel Lastman Square is practically next door.

The hotel rooms are modern, bright, comfortably furnished, and varied. No carbon-copied Comfort Inn here. There’s also an indoor pool, fitness center and boutique restaurant—if you like that kind of thing.

And the staff at Novotel went out of their way to make their conference package affordable for us. Lumping in all sorts of extras, including free underground parking if you stay at the hotel.

But for me the kicker was their room prices. I was blown away by how much cheaper they are than what I’d paid last year at GBCC.

I think you know why I’m telling you all of this.

Sometimes God pushes us out of our comfort zones. We can shake our heads and reject His prompting. We can stamp our feet and say no way! Or we can open our minds, our hearts and our arms to embrace the new thing He is doing for us.

Yes, change can be scary. But I’m pretty sure, if we step out in faith and trust His wisdom, we’ll never regret it.

Because the way I see it, maybe Change is God’s middle name.

Write Canada 2015

June 11-13

3 Park Home Avenue, Toronto

See you there!