Helena Smrcek

When our Gr.5 teacher handed us sheets of lined paper and assigned a topic, I was the only student frustrated because she only gave us one sheet each. I loved to write.

Our family immigrated to Canada in 1988.  I still held onto my journalism dreams. My high school teachers encouraged me, but the reality of our situation quickly set in. I started to work as a waitress at Olive Garden and then found an office job at a leasing company.

Five years after I married Martin, our son arrived. Two years later we had a beautiful baby girl. Busy with kids, my writing dreams almost disappeared - that is until I met Lorna Dueck.

A friend invited me to a broadcast of 100 Huntley Street. There I met Lorna. I couldn’t believe that she would suggest we get together for lunch.  We met a few weeks later, sometime in September of 1999. As we chatted over lunch, I shared my long lost dream of writing. She asked a simple question. “So, why don’t you write?” She told me about her  own journey; I saw a glimmer of hope.

I set out to find out how to get started. The library and Internet became my primary sources of information.  Equipped with basic knowledge, I searched for a good story.

While driving home from a grocery store with the kids in their car seats one day, a radio news story captured my attention. I called the station as soon as I got home and was shocked when the front desk transferred me directly to the news announcer. He was kind and very helpful and shared all the information I needed.

I found an angle. I pitched it to Christian Week, a Canadian national paper – and it was accepted. I was a nervous wreck conducting my first interview and crafting the story, but seeing my work in print was thrilling.

Over the next three years my free lance writing took off and I have published close to one hundred articles. I had written about social, religious, political issues and family life.  I soon discovered that my passion is personal experience stories that carry a message of hope.

Since that first story, my work has been published in Canada, USA, Bermuda, New Zealand and Australia.

In 2000 I attended Write!Canada, a wonderful Christian writers conference, for the first time. I remember the first workshop I took with Denyse O’Leary. I was in way over my head. I loved the teaching, but most of all I loved the feel of the conference. I was finally home, among my own kind – among people who understood me.

From 2002 -2004 I worked at Listen Up TV and learned about broadcasting, fundraising, non-profit organizations and office management, while maintaining a number of  volunteer positions at our church.

In 2001 I started to voluneteer with  a new association of Christian writers and editors in Canada – The Word Guild. My life  changed that year.

I met Cec Murphey at Write!Canada. For the first time admitted that I would love to write fiction. Under Cec’s mentorship, I set out to work on my first novel and I loved every moment of it.