Written By Martha Morrison, The London Writers Society (LWS)
The London Writers Society (LWS) inaugural anthology began with the seed of an idea; the collection’s creation was suggested many times over the years, but lay dormant, waiting for the optimal conditions to grow. That time came in 2023 when the membership expanded and brought a variety of new skills and expertise to the Society. The soil was warming up, watered regularly with maybes. Maybe we could? Maybe we should?
In the next Society newsletter, a call went out to form the first-ever anthology committee. The seed germinated.
I read that newsletter on a sunny afternoon with my two-year-old son asleep for his nap and my infant daughter happily enjoying tummy time. A few months before her birth, I had set aside the memoir I was writing about my time working as a flight attendant for the rich and famous to give myself a break. I wanted to enjoy the postpartum bubble with all the messy chaos it entails, but I missed writing and the creative process. While I didn’t think I could return to the mental load of writing a full book, I wondered if I could help with the behind-the-scenes process of pulling together an anthology. Could I organize nap schedules around committee meetings? Maybe I could? Maybe I should?
I thought of my former LWS critique group and the stories that were still haunting me. I remembered the diverse voices I read over the years at LWS events. I thought of my own dreams and ambitions as an author. I had been published in various anthologies, and the thrill of seeing my name in print, I knew, was another step toward my dream of book publication. I could be part of a project that could give a publishing credit to other deserving writers and aspiring authors and work toward my own dream as well.
With that in mind—and the reality that the majority of my current creativity was focussed on making up silly songs and new fun ways to serve vegetables—I put my name forward for the committee.
The first pre-planning meeting took place in the fall of 2023. The committee had four core members: Donna Costa, Anne Kay, Brenda Martin and myself, affectionately dubbed the ‘A-team’. I was honoured to be nominated as Chair.
The quartet gelled instantly and I looked forward to our meetings each month. We had a goal of publishing in June 2025, and it was up to us to figure out how to make that happen in 18 months. The ‘A-team’ shared a common vision for the anthology: to showcase LWS members, to provide them with an opportunity for a publishing credit—a plus for authors hoping to be traditionally published down the road—and to promote the Society by attracting more writers and readers from the community.
With our vision in place, we needed a theme. In one of our early meetings, Brenda suggested, “What about, Out of the Woods?” It was perfect! The Zoom meeting ended just as my little ones were waking up from their naps. I was content with my decision to take a behind-the-scenes role, thrilled that we had the title in place, and felt confident our committee was going to do a great job.
And then the phone rang.
To read the rest of the behind-the-scenes story, visit www.londonwriterssociety.ca and learn how a seed of an idea turned into Out of the Woods: Voices from the Forest City, an anthology curated by Emma Donoghue that the Globe and Mail selected as “a Hot New Read.”
