By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
For the proprietors of two “bookstores and more,” a serendipitous intersection of interests has led to Osoyoos’ first writing competition sprinkled around town.
It was a conversation which led to a spitballing session which ultimately led to the “Winter in Osoyoos” Writing Competition.
In so doing it fulfilled the creative desires of Lindsay Bayford of The Happy Paper Parlor and the more utilitarian desire of Dan Williams from Wayside Select Books & Art to increase foot traffic in local businesses during the quiet winter season.
“I am a self-published writer and I am inspired to write more. I’ve always wanted to hold a writing contest as a means to inspire people who write, to be writing because I think we have a lot of very talented people locally,” Bayford says.
On the other hand, she says Williams, like most Main Street businesses, was faced with the issue of getting more traffic into his store in the winter season which then kicked off the creative process.
“We had no idea actually how this was going to come to fruition because we didn’t know how many people would actually submit writing,” she chuckles, calling it an “experiment.” In the end they were pleasantly surprised to receive 19 submissions.
Any topic was fair game with some choosing “winter in Osoyoos” as their muse, the only stipulations being that each piece of writing had to be one page in length and unpublished. The writers themselves spanned the ages from 12 to 80-something and included two Osoyoos Secondary students.
The plan was largely shaped with each step forward and eventually pivoted around Main Street businesses participating by posting one of the submitted stories in their business or in their window.
She says the reaction from businesses was “a bit uncertain” in the beginning but overall it was very positive with a total of 14 participating.
The aim was three-fold: as a means to get local writers writing; providing something for both tourists and locals to do in the winter; and hopefully get some more foot traffic into the participating businesses.
“It’s kind of free advertising for them, we’re not charging anything and we put a map together and people can go through and read the piece of writing at each location and then while they’re in the business they might say, ‘oh, I’ve never been in this store before!’” she says.
The Winter in Osoyoos Writing Contest map shows the locations of the participating businesses and indicates the writer with a number corresponding to their name on the back of the map which also contains the judging form.
At each location, there is a piece of writing, and on the back of the map is a judging form where participants are encouraged to score the writing and then enter their form to win a prize as well.
The prize consists of one $25 gift certificate each from The Happy Paper Parlor and Wayside Select Books & Art.
Bayford says the top three writers based on the judging will receive a prize, “but we haven’t exactly nailed down how we want to reward the writers yet,” she laughs, admitting some of the plans are still a work in progress.
“It’s fun and we did get some very talented writers,” she says, adding that she’s thrilled to have provided an opportunity to inspire local writers. The duo have already thought about doing this every winter, but have reminded themselves that this first “experiment” isn’t over yet.
That dose of reality is not enough, however, to dampen Bayford’s enthusiasm as she says: “I think the next step is a local group for writers, we need to keep moving in that direction,” she says enthusiastically.
The contest runs until March 25 with an event to be held at Wayside Books on Sat. April 1, where the winners will be awarded along with readings of the winning pieces and “a little bit of a celebration,” Bayford grins.
