The 28th annual Festival of the Written Arts offered good advice to fellow writers, food for thought to readers and a lot of zingy one-liners to make us all laugh.

Mystery author Louise Penny told how safe it was for her in her writing group and talked about the healing power of words.

Jack Whyte, practically a Festival regular, exploded the myth of inspiration: 95 per cent of writing is hard work, he said.

Shani Mootoo explored the richness of small spaces when she read from her book Cereus Blooms at Night.

“Writing is a solitary profession, but every so often we get together with the other monks and nuns,” Mootoo said.

On Saturday, the poets took to the stage, giving the audience lots to think about.

Joe Denham talked of listening to David Suzuki predict 12 years ago the extinction of many ocean creatures, and in Denham’s job as a fisherman, he’s been watching ever since how we pollute the oceans. “I’ve been trying to fathom this, but it’s unfathomable,” he said before reading the last third of his poetry book Windstorm.

Elizabeth Bachinsky writes accessible poetry — about the Expo line, about smoking, about her Ukrainian heritage. Her poem, Tips on Performing From My Mother, was hilarious. It was the third poet to read at that session, Gregory Scofield, who reminded us of the power of language when he sang and chanted his Prayer Song that began in the aboriginal language of his ancestors and dropped into the accents of a Métis elder, his aunt.

Former Global TV broadcaster Tony Parsons, now 71, who can still be see nightly on CHEK and CBC, brought his little dog, Jack, on stage with him. How can you not love that?

Parsons recapped his career as described in his book, A Life in the News, that began as “the worst deejay in Stratford, Ontario.”

Parsons elaborated on the role of technology in gathering the news. Skype is a wonderful connection in that we can get to people and places we’ve never been able to before, he said, but he also admitted: “I have a phone, an iPad, a BlackBerry and a Kindle — and I can’t work any of them.”

Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean, a novel about the teachings of Aristotle, demonstrated her rigorous research in achieving an award-winning best seller. Her innate intelligence and knowledge of her subject shines through in her description of this towering figure of his time.

Senator Larry Campbell’s facility in delivering short, snappy thoughts to ponder was revealed in the first 10 minutes of the annual Bruce Hutchison lecture that captures the spirit of Canada.

“My Canada has no right or left,” he said to a very full Rockwood pavilion. “My Canada revels in diversity. It understands that addictions are an illness. My Canada loves other cultures, loves literature — and supports the arts at the same level as buying new, shiny warplanes.”

He drew tumultuous applause, then switched topics entirely to an account of how he entered a dog sled race in the Yukon and what it felt like to consider giving up all his former professions — RCMP officer, coroner, mayor of Vancouver and now senator — to become a dog driver. The story was hilarious and told us that at least one politician in the senate has a sense of humour.

But judging by the audience’s questions, listeners wanted to hear more about meatier issues than dog sled races.

One audience member asked: “How do we get from where we are to your Canada?” The answer rang true: “We can start by going out and voting. We have to engage people from the age of 18 up,” Campbell added. “You can’t moan unless you’re engaged.”

One of the most pleasant surprises of this year’s festival was the appearance of Vancouver Island author Jack Hodgins. He was the featured speaker at the inaugural festival. Why it took 28 years to hear him again is still not clear.

Hodgins has received “pretty well every award available to a Canadian author,” as his introducer Dick Harrison said, yet he proved to be unpretentious and genuinely surprised that so many would turn out on a Sunday afternoon to hear him. There were no snappy one-liners. He simply read from his latest novel, The Master of Happy Endings, thrilling the audience with the power of a good story peopled by complex characters.