A funny thing happened to me on the way to this website. When I left for my assignment in South Sudan, this site was well on its way to being complete. When I returned, after six days of touring refugee camps and interviewing the people whose lives have been torn apart by a conflict they didn’t make or choose, I lost the ability to write pithy descriptions of the work I do as a writer.
This week, I am off on a writing assignment like I have never had before.
I have accepted an invitation to travel to two refugee camps in South Sudan with Samaritan’s Purse, a charity probably best known for encouraging ordinary Canadians to fill shoe-boxes at Christmas for children in need around the world.
I’m certain that it is unprofessional to break down and start crying during an interview for a magazine story — especially when you’re the one doing the interviewing. But that’s what I did near the end of a gruelling hour-and a-half long conversation with Katarina MacLeod.
Recently, an Indigo flyer caught my eye, and then my scissors.
It came for Mother’s Day and was an advertisement for the books Mom would love.
But what I loved was its collection of quotes about books and writers. Quotes that I cut out and taped around my writing desk, to make things just that much messier — and that much more inspiring.
