Delanie Neville treads lightly and stops often, unwilling to miss any of the everyday moments that make up her world.
With a young family, two children aged 3 and 4, Neville is happy for the time she spends with her recent passion – writing.
She says she just started exploring the world of words since her children were born. Neville decided to stay home with her children which allows her the freedom to write.
Recently, Neville’s short story was selected by a panel of expert judges as the winner of the Central Interior Regional Arts Council 2011 Writing Contest.
The contest was open to any resident of the Central Interior region of B.C.
Entries were to be a fiction (short story) or non-fiction (memoir or essay) piece less than 3,000 words and not previously published.
Neville’s prize package includes an all-fees-paid entrance to the Island Mountain Arts “Writing without Borders” course run by author Susan Musgrave in Wells, July 16 – 19, accommodations included.
“I was surprised and happy to learn I had won,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what Susan Musgrave have to offer the students.”
The judges provided comments on her story and suggested improvements.
“I love the feedback they gave me,” Neville said.
“I can now develop the story further into a longer piece.”
One judge described her story as a haunting exploration of identity on the verge of vanishing into a moment by moment consciousness and hanging on to a sense of self in the observation of others.
Her story, Had that Not, provides two perspectives on an ordinary distant encounter between two women, one in a vehicle with her children, the other walking down the road.
Each has a perception of the other, neither reflecting the true situation.
“I like to take common everyday scenarios and wrap it around a character idea,” Neville said.
In developing her own narrative style, the 32-year-old Quesnel resident has taken several writing workshops and recently delved into poetry.
“I took a workshop in Wells last year and have been developing a feel for the medium,” she said.
Neville also has a non-fiction side to her creative work and writes for the natural health industry including a blog on local health food store Karin’s Deli website.
You can view her writing at karins.ca.
Neville would like to publish her work one day, but for now she balances the demands of a young family and her passion for creative writing.
“I enjoy reading and writing about everyday observations, things that could happen to anyone,” she said.