JENNI BLACKMORE writes poems, stories and scripts for everyone. Some of her books, such as The Fisherman and His Wife and Gully Goes to Halifax appeal more to children, whereas her most recent collection of short stories and poetry, Counting Crows, is directed more toward adults. Jenni also illustrates books, including her own; makes puppets; paint murals and movie sets. She loves working on projects which combine words with other arts forms such as dance and music and often visits shcools as a writer/artist to coordinate such events.

For many years Jenni has worked with the Writer-in-the-Schools program, sponsored by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, where she feels "like a sorcerer's apprentice who has released an unstoppable flow, a magical river of words." Even though these visits to schools are a regular part of her life she never ceases to be amazed by the brilliant ideas that pop like mushrooms from the mysterious place of the imagination. One of the things she likes best about being with WiER is that she really gets to know the writers by having the opportunity to read several pieces of their work.

Presently Jenni coordinates the ArtSmarts (www.artsmarts.ca) program which introduces artists, writers, dancers and musicians to teachers and students so that together they can explore some really creative ways to learn.

Jenni also teaches art to young people who are living with mental illness. In these classes everyone is encouraged to go exactly where their muse wants to take them because "Learning to trust your imagination is the most important part of any creative process".

The Moon Egg, which at present is only in digital form, is Jenni's latest book and she is very interested to hear what readers think of it; not only what they like, but what they don't like. This insight will be enormously useful to her and perhaps it will help student writers to see that nobody gets it right the first time. Re-writes are always part of the writer's life!

Jenni is looking forward to her term as a WiER Writer because she knows from past experience that every morning when she turns her computer on she will be transported from her quiet house on a little island in Nova Scotia to magical places, perhaps not yet even discovered in the imaginations of all the new writers she will become friends with. What an exciting way to begin any day!

To see some of Jenni's work you might like to visit http://users.eastlink.ca/~jenniblackmore/