Susie Moloney has found her niche in screenwriting, while Conni Massing is an award-winning playwright.
But the 2020 Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries writers-in-residence are prepared to help any writer with whatever they’re working on from novels to essays to short fiction and even poetry.
“From my point of view, it’s all storytelling,” Massing said Friday in an interview on CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active. “Story is story is story, right?”
Massing was named this year’s regional writer-in-residence for the communities of Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan and St. Albert.
She’s worked as a writer and editor for numerous TV shows including North of 60. Her 2018 play Matara was inspired by Lucy, Edmonton Valley Zoo’s elephant. She was also Edmonton Public Library’s writer-in-residence in 2009.
“I’m just delighted partly because I know how much fun the gig is from having done a version of it before,” Massing said.
Horror appeal
Moloney, whose second novel, A Dry Spell, has been published in 18 countries, translated into 12 languages and had film rights optioned by Tom Cruise, is this year’s EPL writer-in-residence.
Local writers can book time to work with either writer one-on-one on the library consortium’s website.
“I’m starting the residency with a motto and my motto is ‘How can I help?'” said Moloney, who will be based at the Highlands library branch until the Stanley A. Milner Library downtown reopens in the spring.
Moloney has preferred horror fiction since she was a child, when her mother would wake her and her brother to avoid watching scary movies alone.
“Being frightened and laughing are very close together and, in fact, often when we’re frightened, after the initial gasps there’s a laugh.
“They’re super basic human emotions right up there with hunger and love.”
‘Just write’
Massing, who will be starting her residency in Sherwood Park on Wednesday, has simple advice for writers: “Just leap in and do it.”
“I know there is a kind of notion that there’s something like writer’s block and I actually don’t believe in writer’s block.
“If you’re feeling like you don’t know what comes next, I think you just settle down into a routine and write whatever comes to mind and eventually I think something creative will likely take shape,” Massing added.
“If you get stuck, just go for a walk.”
In addition to creating some sort of writing routine, it’s “super important that you read,” Moloney added. “Not just that you write but that you read and you should have practice. You should have a writing practice that happens every day.”
During their residencies, the writers will also be working on their own writing projects and offering free courses for local writers.