Event / Language & Editing

On January 25, 2020, the Chinese lunar calendar will turn over once again. In preparation for this year’s Spring Festival, I did some research, and prepared a brief history of this important annual event. The Chinese calendar is a complicated and storied institution with uncertain origins, but key points to remember are that years, months, days, and even hours are associated with animal and elemental symbols. These...

Event

It’s the holiday season, and nothing gets party guests feeling as festive as a delicious cocktail! In this quick blog, we’ll share some great recipes for you to try.   First up, TEC blogger Michael shares two of his picks for seasonal cocktails, both using ingredients you might not have tried before: advocaat (an eggy Dutch liqueur) and Lillet (a wine-based aperitif).   “Despite Jack Torrance's appreciation of bourbon and advocaat in The...

Event

The holidays are fast approaching, and recently we started talking about what would be on our “pie in the sky, dreaming big” editorial wish list — what we would ask for if money was no object! Check out what TEC editors are dreaming of this holiday season!     Molly’s Ideal Office Reno If I could ask for anything as an editor, it would be an all-expenses-paid office renovation. I’d have bookcases built into...

Event

Days get shorter, nights get longer, and festive winter holiday markets start popping up everywhere. Some holiday markets are understated, and others sprawl down streets, taking over entire city blocks. One doesn’t have to look hard to find holiday markets cropping up. In fact, on November 17th I attended the first one I’ve been to this year.     Christmas Market in the Creek   Christmas Market in the Creek, hosted...

Event / Editing & Marketing / Language & Editing

On June 18, 2019, we attended Book Summit 2019 at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. It was a gorgeous day to be on the waterfront — breezy, warm, and not a cloud in the sky. At last, the first hint of summer weather. Such a great setting for this annual event celebrating Canadian book publishing. In this blog, we cover the key points (and more) about the sessions...

Publishing / Event / Language & Editing

On June 7, a perfect, sunny, 20 degree day, I arrived in Halifax. I breathed in the sea air after many months of life in Toronto, headed straight to the waterfront to say hello to my favourite ocean, and then prepared for the actual reason I’d arrived — the Editors Canada 40th Anniversary Conference.   Each year, the Editors’ Association of Canada (or Editors Canada, for short) hosts a conference...

Editing / Editor/writer / Event

Editors Canada’s website describes its mission statement thus, “Editors Canada promotes professional editing as a key in producing effective communication. ” This admirably concise mandate describes well the Association’s ongoing efforts to promote the fine art of editing. This 1,300-member professional editorial membership group didn’t spring up overnight, though.   What started in 1979 as a loosely knit but fiercely dedicated group of 50 or so Toronto-area editors has evolved...

Event / Books And Reading

Whether the instigating factor in a book-banning campaign is religion, sexual expression, “anti-establishment attitudes,” or some other vague concern, books may as well be picked at random for all of the consistency with which campaigns to ban them are approached.   Freedom to Read Week (February 24 to March 2, 2019) continues its 35-year fight against book-banning campaigns by reminding the book-buying public that the censors are still at work, even...

Event / Books & Libraries

Cities across Canada are celebrating #BlackHistoryMonth with film screenings, gallery exhibitions, dance parties, and galas. If you’re wondering what kind of events are happening in your city, we’ve helpfully compiled a list of some of the events you can attend this month.     VANCOUVER Vancouver offers a diverse array of events for all kinds of interests. Starting on February 5th, The Vancouver Film Festival is showcasing a series of...

Event

If you're looking for an intimate one-person show, a Mirvish-level musical, or a production somewhere between the two, Toronto is a great place to catch any kind of show. With a number of different venues and theatre companies to choose from, it can be difficult to see even half of the productions on offer each year.   The Big Names However, quality live theatre isn't confined by the boundaries of the...

Event

    With April's end, we draw ever closer to Editors Canada's 2017 conference, entitled "Guardians of the Lexicons. " With just over a month until the conference's start (the conference runs from June 9 to June 11), panelists and presenters are likely busy working out the kinks in their presentations and finalizing their travel arrangements for their trip to Gatineau, Quebec, where the conference will be held.   But what will the...

Event

  If you haven't looked at a calendar yet today, you might not know that today, March 15, is actually the Ides of March. I'm sure you've heard of it before, but what exactly is this special day all about?   History of the Ides of March The origin story of the Ides of March is actually pretty nondescript. Ides was one of the ancient markers used to reference dates in relation...

Event

Next week, from February 26 to March 4, we will be observing a very important event in Canadian culture: Freedom to Read Week. Freedom to Read Week is a project run by the Book and Periodical Council (BPC), which is an umbrella organization for Canadian associations that are or whose members are primarily involved with the writing, editing, translating publishing, producing, distributing, lending, marketing, reading, and selling of written words.   More...

Event

  Recently The Editing Company team participated in the "How to Meet People in a Room Full of Strangers" webinar hosted by Editors Canada. Cheryl Scoffield, the presenter, is a networking coach who shared tips on a number of different strategies by which to meet and follow up with clients and business contacts. Her key piece of advice: "Take action!"   Attending the Networking Event This call to action refers to, among...

Event

What does an editor do?   We can be correctors, arbiters, hand-holders. We can correct spelling errors or rearrange whole chapters, fix dangling modifiers or eliminate a subplot. It is said that legendary literary editor Maxwell Perkins once cut 90,000 words from a draft of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel – words which, presumably, sank without a trace and were never missed by anyone (except perhaps Mr. Wolfe).   With...

Event

    No Canadian poets were mentioned in any of my high school English classes, and I’m certain that most of my hometown friends would be hard-pressed to rattle off the names of even two or three. They are not, however, entirely to blame: Their interests lie elsewhere, perhaps as a result of our shared high school experience, which did little to foster the consumption of Canadian literature, let alone Canadian...

Event

On Sunday September 27 at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, the 26th edition of The Word On The Street once again brought together the people who create books and the people who love to read them. AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE WRITTEN WORD More than just a book fair, WOTS is a countrywide celebration of the written word in all its forms: reading, writing, publishing, editing, and even book-binding. Parallel...

Event

The 16th Berkshire Conference of Women Historians was held in Toronto this past week. It was the first time in its 70-year history that the conference was held outside the United States. The host institution was University College on the University of Toronto campus. Over a four-day period — Thursday to Sunday — 2,000 delegates from around the world met to discuss and explore the dynamic history...

Event

This Sunday, September 22, the streets around Queen’s Park will turn into a paradise for book lovers. Writers, book publishers, literacy organizations, bookstores, magazine publishers, and readers of all ages will gather for Word On The Street, Toronto’s annual celebration of words and the people who love them.   Of course, with hundreds of exhibitors and dozens of readings and signings, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, plunk yourself onto a...

Event

Recently, a couple of us from The Editing Co. Team descended on the Communications building at Ryerson University for a one-day conference on all things bookish, entitled BookCampTO. This year’s iteration featured a distinct choose-your-own-adventure format in which attendees were expected to be both presenters and participants. No topics were pre-selected, and none scheduled in advance. The result: a pleasantly unconstrained learning and networking environment that,...

Event

Okay, maybe I should’ve stayed out of it. But he caught my attention, and I wanted to see what he’d do.     This morning, at 9:22 to be precise, I was coming up from the College St. subway stop and there, at the turnstiles, was a tall young guy. He made an attempt to jump over, with one eye on the TTC collectors’ booth. He hesitated and...

Event

Has this happened to you? You set up a coffee date with a friend for a Sunday afternoon, feeling quite certain the name of that particular coffee shop is Starbucks.   You know the one? you say. Next to The Carrot Common?   Sure, responds your friend. See you then.   This is how it started. My friend and I finally found an hour that we could share together. I...

Event

Another very busy and successful Word On The Street (WOTS) came and went in Toronto this past weekend on Sunday, September 26, 2010.  The festival celebrating literacy and the written word is held yearly in Vancouver, Saskatoon, Toronto, Kitchener, and Halifax on the last Sunday in September. Toronto’s event included several stages and hundreds of vendors in the marketplace, and staff from TEC were there as well! Beth worked...

Event

Autumn is almost upon us and, as the seasons change, it’s always nice to reflect on what we’ve done and look ahead to the future.   Camile Isaacs, our Assistant Manager and the newest member of TEC, has written two great blog entries for us – one on the art of proofreading as problem-solving, and another on the wonders of language through her experiences in raising her two-year-old son. We...