Details are on my Facebook page, Donna Barker Writes. And, while you’re [...]]]> If you’re in the Vancouver area on Sunday June 3rd, please join me and a small group of new writers and our published author mentors as we read from our manuscripts. I, of course, will be sharing something from Drinking Scotch with Strangers.

Details are on my Facebook page, Donna Barker Writes. And, while you’re there, please like my page and leave a comment if you feel inclined.

So, if this image were to represent my novel, Drinking Scotch with Strangers, and the woman was my main character, Rebecca, while the man was one of the 24 strangers she found herself drinking scotch with… what would they be saying to each other?

A free copy of the book (or ebook) to [...]]]>

So, if this image were to represent my novel, Drinking Scotch with Strangers, and the woman was my main character, Rebecca, while the man was one of the 24 strangers she found herself drinking scotch with… what would they be saying to each other?

A free copy of the book (or ebook) to the person with the best answer. I promise!

To get an idea about Rebecca’s personality and situation, go to my Facebook Author Page, Donna Barker Writes.

NOTE: Depending on [...]]]> On this page you’ll find the archives of my first personal blog where I wrote about health reporting and how big pharma manipulates media. I’ve moved 76 of the posts from the original blogsite. Sadly, I couldn’t copy the reader’s comments. I did keep the original post dates to provide better context.

NOTE: Depending on where you’re reading this specific post, you may need to click on Category: Health Blog to access the archive.

As a teenager I had it in my head that I would become an RCMP officer. I loved the idea of upholding the law and riding horses and having a gun. I didn’t get far down that [...]]]> When I was a kid I had a few different career aspirations. I remember two of them quite clearly:

As a teenager I had it in my head that I would become an RCMP officer. I loved the idea of upholding the law and riding horses and having a gun. I didn’t get far down that path, however. I did learn to shoot a rifle, but an astute career counselor and a battery of personality tests directed me away from any career that would require me to follow rules. Apparently, I believe in following the law, but boy do I despise rules!

The other career I recall wanting to follow was when I was much younger. Some age in elementary school. I wanted to be a nun. It didn’t worry me that I wasn’t being raised Catholic. Nor did it worry my grandmother, Nonny.

Nonny came from a long line of Anglican ministers – starting back in 1845. Her brother was an Arch-Deacon and a good friend of the Reverend Billy Graham (the only TV evangelist she watched). My dad’s generation was the first in over 100 years that failed to provide the family with their Reverend… so I guess she thought that making up for that lapse with a wee little nun wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I’d forgotten all about that goal… And about the time I came home from Bible Camp and tried to secretly convert my 3-year-old brother to a born-again Christian life. (Oddly, my parents didn’t send me back to that camp the following summer…).

But two weeks ago these old lives of mine came flooding back (I’m sure if I thought hard I could come up with a clever Biblical pun, but those really are old lives). What happened two weeks ago? I had a past life reading and guess what? Several hundred years, but only two lives ago, I was … a nun!

It’s true. I lived in Rome. I was very devout and I never sinned. But – and this is the information that has me convinced that the reading is accurate – I was a nun who challenged certain rules of my Church.

Apparently, I could not reconcile the fact that, as a woman of God, I could only show my devotion with my spirit. I wanted to use my body as well. I was one of those progressive nuns who believed that we should be able to serve God and be allowed to experience not just spiritual but bodily ecstasy as well.

It may have been several hundred years and two lifetimes ago, but I still hold that same belief… why have the ability to feel spiritual, emotional and physical pleasure (and pain, of course) and not explore all of these as fully as we can?

I think I’ll get a piercing or a tattoo tomorrow…

(NOTE: I originally wrote this post in 2007. I still haven’t gotten that piercing or a tattoo. But I know what tattoo I will get one day: a fleur de lys, just like the ones that border my webpages! My only worry now, at age 46, is where to have the ink done… I’m too old for the sexy spots, and too conservative for the cool places on my body. Over my heart? Peut etre.

The first two contributing writers are Steve Sears and Jane Alexander.

Steve’s story, An Apology to Stefani, is a beautiful, public letter [...]]]> I created a new blog on the weekend. It’s called My Embellished Life. It’s a site for first-person writers, like myself, to post stories, preferably embellished, the way my dad tells his stories!

The first two contributing writers are Steve Sears and Jane Alexander.

Steve’s story, An Apology to Stefani, is a beautiful, public letter to his twenty-year old daughter. I don’t think there’s a parent of teens who won’t feel like they, too could have written a letter like this to one of their kids.

Jane’s story, Labyrinth of Love, will take you on a meandering stroll through her mind as she considers love and life and change.

And then there’s my own first story, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, in which I consider the value of astrology in helping understand (or predict the outcome of) love relationships. This story is in the true spirit of My Embellished Life, a factual story with several creative ‘remembrances.’

In 2012, I’ll be publishing my first novel, Drinking Scotch with Strangers. Writing my first novel has been great fun. The research wasn’t bad, either, spending a year dating as many men as I could.  The blog I maintained while I was dating was also a blast to write and it’s called My [...]]]> For fun:

In 2012, I’ll be publishing my first novel, Drinking Scotch with Strangers. Writing my first novel has been great fun. The research wasn’t bad, either, spending a year dating as many men as I could.  The blog I maintained while I was dating was also a blast to write and it’s called My Lava Life. I recently started a new blog called My Embellished Life. This is a community-oriented project where anyone can post their own, preferably embellished, first-person stories. Here’s how and where to join the Embellished Life community.

Read more about my creative writing.

For hire:

I help non-profits and socially responsible businesses tell their stories more effectively. I’ve been doing this kind of work since 1992.

Here’s a list of my recent clients (feel free to contact any of them for a reference); a few client testimonials; some of the client stories I’ve written; and the first-person health and wellness stories I wrote for my sharedVISION column (in which I shared more than most people ever really need to know about my poor bladder control, lack-luster libido, seasonal weight fluctuations, and many other personal subjects).

Read more about my consulting work.

Vancity supports the work that Fraserside Community Services Society and the South Fraser Women Services Society do in promoting balcony gardens for low-income families in New Westminster and White Rock. 

The Biggest Little Garden in [...]]]> This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work that Fraserside Community Services Society and the South Fraser Women Services Society do in promoting balcony gardens for low-income families in New Westminster and White Rock. 

The Biggest Little Garden in Town just might well be one of the biggest little ideas in Canada.

In 2007, Diane Cairns, the Director of Living Well Programs at Fraserside Community Services Society had a vision: in ten years vegetables would be growing in every nook and cranny of New Westminster, and that the city would be renowned as the biggest urban garden in the world.

She imagined walking down streets and through parking lots lined with vegetable planters. She pictured fresh vegetables growing in every public space, from parks and alleys to courtyards and school yards. She breathed in the smell of the fruit trees that would surround every public building, from City Hall to hospitals to libraries.

“I came up with the idea of providing balcony, container gardens to people living on a low-income in apartments when the local food bank told me that they were having trouble getting donations of fresh fruit and vegetables,” recounts Diane.

So, Diane and Laurie Clarke, the Program Coordinator, built two prototype gardens themselves. They put the containers outside their office building, in a space, Diane says, where green can’t be seen for miles. As the seeds sprouted, people in the neighbourhood changed their walking routes so they could watch the gardens grow, help water them, keep them clean and, when needed, protect the bounty when it ripened.

Diane was amazed, “We thought we’d start with a pilot project of eight or ten gardens. We gave away 54 garden containers that first summer. In our second year, we didn’t need to promote the program at all since had a wait list. Last summer we distributed 80 balcony gardens and 62 more people had to wait until summer 2010 to get theirs.”

In New Westminster, a city where fully half of all residents live in apartment buildings, what difference can having 180 balcony gardens make? A great deal if you ask the elderly woman who, last summer during a two-week heat wave, was unable to manage the walk to the grocery store but still ate well, picking and eating her own fresh vegetables. Or the woman who had never introduced herself to anyone else living in her building, but, when her own garden produced more vegetables than she could eat, knocked on a neighbour’s door to share her harvest and made a new friend. Or the three seniors who, all living on different sides of the same building, became friends as they worked together to grow and share vegetables most appropriate to the sun and shade conditions on their respective balconies.

Of course, people could buy or build their own balcony garden containers but the Biggest Little Garden in Town provides much more than just a cedar box, some soil and seeds to members.

“Vancity’s support allows us to personally deliver and help set-up each and every garden. This personal connection between the new gardeners and Laurie, our experienced gardener, is key to everyone’s success. The relationships that have developed are creating a true community of gardeners – people who without even knowing it, are food security and climate change activists,” says Diane.

By supporting these neighbourhood projects, Vancity shows its commitment to food security and finding solutions to climate change.   The Vancity Community Project Grants are focused on communities making a difference in protecting our environment and addressing issues of poverty.  The Biggest Little Garden project is an example of the power of local action.

And the project has grown to other communities.  At a Vancity event, Fraserside Community Services Society talked about their initiative with a group in White Rock.  The South Fraser Women Services Society learned from the experience of the New Westminster group and has now launched their project with Vancity support.

With communities across British Columbia and around the world asking how they can create Biggest Little Gardens in their own town, Diane’s vision has expanded. She would like to see space on balconies, rooftops, parking lots – to be used for vegetable gardens.

Vancity supports the work of the Better Environmentally Sound Transportation Society, providing convenient and secure bicycle parking at festivals and special events.

It’s a sunny summer day in Vancouver. A perfect day to hop on [...]]]> This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work of the Better Environmentally Sound Transportation Society, providing convenient and secure bicycle parking at festivals and special events.

It’s a sunny summer day in Vancouver. A perfect day to hop on your bike and head over to the Trout Lake Farmer’s Market. But, since it is such a beautful day, you worry that once you reach the market, you won’t find anywhere to safely lock your bike. Fear not! The BEST Bicycle Valet is there to save the day – and protect your wheels, seat and the contents of your panniers.

Geoffrey Vincent, the BEST Bicycle Valet project manager says that while many community events have started to encourage participants to use environmentally friendly and sustainable ways to get to the events, parking bikes is often a challenge in Vancouver.

“BEST encourages people to get out of their cars and to pursue sustainable, active and healthy transportation. But getting people on their bikes is just one piece of the puzzle. Giving people a safe place to lock their bikes so that they feel confident that when they get back to their bike everything will still be there is important. And at community events, where there are lots of people and not many bike racks, we realized that having a valet service might encourage more people to ride.”

By supporting this project through our community project grants, Vancity shows its commitment to supporting sustainable transportation and finding solutions to climate change.  Cycling, public transit, walking and car pools are all important to get us out of our cars and reduce our environmental impact.

The Trout Lake Farmer’s Market was an obvious partner for the bike valet service, says Roberta LaQuaglia, Operations Manager of Vancouver Farmer’s Markets.

“The two organizations have a long-time relationship promoting “Bike to Market” month and both bike and car parking at Trout Lake is in short supply.  Since Vancity provided a subsidy to help us offer the service all summer long, we saw more and more familes ride to market each weekend.”

In 2008, its first summer of operation, BEST’s Bicyle Valet parked 1,100 bikes. In 2009, the team worked with 38 events and parked over 7,300 bikes. BEST estimates that approximately 2,500 riders – or one-third of the bikes they parked – would not have ridden without having the confidence of knowing their bikes were safe.

With a goal of making bike parking as common as car parking at events, not just in Vancouver but in cities around British Columbia and ultimately across Canada, the BEST Bicycle Valet encourages us to get out of cars and ride to community festivals and events.  Vancity is proud to be supporting BEST and the many community events that promote an environmentally friendly alternative that will help us find solutions to climate change.