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Guest speaker thrills young readers

Young authors were encouraged to tackle new adventures by a novelist, a Turner Valley native, who had experiences that blew them away. Jacqueline Guest was in St.
Jacqueline Guest, a young readers novelist from the Bragg Creek-Turner Valley area, encourages budding writers to read and seek adventure. Guest was the keynote speaker at
Jacqueline Guest, a young readers novelist from the Bragg Creek-Turner Valley area, encourages budding writers to read and seek adventure. Guest was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Foothills Young Authors’ Conference in High River on April 16.

Young authors were encouraged to tackle new adventures by a novelist, a Turner Valley native, who had experiences that blew them away.

Jacqueline Guest was in St. John’s, Newfoundland where she surreptitiously did some research for her award-winning historical fiction book Ghost Messages. That’s when a hurricane struck.

“I had never been in winds and rains like that before,” Guest told about 570 Grade 4-9 students on April 16. “Being a prairie girl, I didn’t have much experience with hurricanes so I asked myself: ‘What would be really memorable and really crazy to do in those wild winds?’

“It came to me in a heartbeat… I flew a kite in a hurricane.”

Guest, who has written 19 books, was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Foothills Young Authors’ Conference at Highwood High School in High River Saturday. Students from across the Foothills attended the event.

Guest told the students to push their personal envelopes to improve their writing.

For her those adventures included walking across 100-foot high bridge with a river below in Ireland, despite her fear of heights.

She also was among lions in Tanzania when a swarm of hornets decided to show up. These are experiences she can now connect to her future writing.

However, one of the best ways to improve writing is something students can do at home — read and then maybe read some more.

“Growing up in Turner Valley being an author was always a secret dream,” Guest said. “It was reading that taught me more about writing than any university course. By reading great books, I learned about plot lines, sentence structure, dialogues, building great characters and what really goes into a great book.”

She told the students to take advantage of their local libraries — the great Sheep River library wasn’t available when she grew up in Turner Valley.

“I had just two books, The Child’s Book of Bible Verse which taught me right from wrong and Alice In Wonderland, which showed me that books can take you to fantastic places — where caterpillars smoke, and cats disappear and rabbits have trouble keeping appointments — that book showed me the power of the imagination.”

She stressed the students should write about what they enjoy, even it is bit different.

“Follow your passion, not your fashion,” Guest said. “As a writer, you can choose what you write about which is a real perk to the job.”

In her book Hat Trick, about a girl who has to play on an all boys team, she turns things around in the sequel, Rookie Season. This book sees “one lonely boy playing on a girls team…

“If your teacher tells you to write a paragraph about buying a new pair of shoes, how about telling it about the new shoes point of view.”

Of course, you also have to be willing to take chances when you take writing up professional.

Her first paid gig was a brazen assignment when she was in just Grade 5 in Turner Valley School. Her older brother paid her a quarter to write a school essay for him.

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