Jamie Lewis, one of Alberta's great young writers, swung by the insanity that is RIO this past Monday to teach us a new game that helps in the creation of novels and stories. The kids had an amazing time writing both individually and in a group. Jamie, in case you don't already know her, is part of the group APCWW (A Place Called Words Worth) another youth writing club that gets together for social events, has a writer in residence who the members can ask questions of, and holds readings for youth to take part in. This group is a wonderful counterpart to our RIO club. Calgary certainly has a lot of great places for young writers. Check out APCWW by going to http://www.apcww.com/
Jamie still had a lot more to teach - so hopefully well see her back at RIO some time in the future. Thanks again, Jamie!

RIO and the Alexandra Centre Society have partnered up once more to bring the world Dramantics - the ONLY child directed theatre camp. It's true that other theatre programs say that the kids will help write a play, but what they really mean is that the kids will write dialogue in the structure of a play they have already devised. In our theatre camp the kids actually come up with all the ideas for the play, the dialogue, the set, the costumes, and write the songs. It is really child led. If you are a kid who wants to have this experience or if you are a parent who would love to see your child in a camp that honors their creative side - then join us this Spring break or even for our Summer camp and see what we can do! Just click here to learn more.

I luff. You luff. We all luff - at RIO. Yes it was a meeting full of luff (or love) last night as the RIOites celebrated the art of romance writing. We started by creating a group poem - trying to rhyme the darn thing. No easy task. Just ask Lance and his pet ants. Then we continued creating romantic stories starting with randomly drawn phrases. We had an English football bromance, a Romeo and Juliette type story with a handgun, and dragon luff in a far off land. So romantic. If you want to see all these amazing stories and the poem, check out the March E-zine, due out March 1st (in case you didn't guess that). Until next time - spread the luff.

We are a talented bunch a RIO. We have a horror movie maker, a documentary movie maker, a tech - working on our five second movies (the loading bar inspired a spy shoot out during our poetry session - all recorded on film), essayists, poets, short story writers, novelists, comic creaters, and more and more and more. It's amazing what you get when you set up a no fail environment that invites kids to play with their words.