The Team: Jeff and Renée » Send The Write Message

Life sometimes points us in a direction and we don’t even realize it. We just need to show up for the ride and embrace the magic when it happens. We live by that theme.

While putting together Phoenix, a magazine for a nationally renowned addictions treatment centre, Jeff and Renée collaborated for the first time. Jeff wrote the stories; Renée edited and polished them for print and proofed the final layouts. From the beginning, we discovered a synergy between us. A groove.

Over the five years working on the magazine together, readers regularly approached us, sharing that our stories affected them on deep, heartfelt, cellular levels. We were amazed to discover the impact our teamwork could make.

In the spirit of service to our communities, we were inspired to harness that impact and merge the direction of our careers. Our plan unfolded.

SendTheWriteMessage.com was born.

Jeff Vircoe, Editor
Renée LeBlanc, Assistant Editor
Phoenix Magazine 2013-2018

Jeff Vircoe

journalist
storyteller
historian

Jeff is an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience as a reporter and editor of several community newspapers, tourism and business publications. He also spearheaded the production of a national addictions-focused magazine for the Edgewood Health Network.

He has excelled at three careers: nine years service in the Canadian Armed Forces, decades as a newspaper and magazine journalist and editor, and five years as an addictions counsellor.

A traditionally trained journalist, Jeff researches and develops all sides of an issue with multiple sources and finds the best angles. More than just sourcing out answers to the five Ws with facts, figures and quotes, he gets to the heart of the truth with a keen sense of curiosity.

As a reporter and editor, Jeff has covered beats including health, crime, politics, education and sports. He has excelled in profiles and editorials, and has also written extensively about addiction medicine.

Jeff has won several national and provincial awards over 30 years. His editorials, news stories and photography in the newspapers for which he worked earned multiple BCYCNA writing and photography awards.

Besides being a history and political buff, Jeff has always been athletic. He played and coached ice hockey much of his life and is a lifelong Boston Bruins fan. However, his true sporting passion is golf, which he continues to play at least once a week.

Renée about Jeff

I'm endlessly impressed by Jeff's ability to see the stories beneath the stories, to dig in and uncover the most fascinating details. And then write them in such a captivating, expressive way. He doesn't just get one creative idea; he's a fountain of story inspiration. It’s an honour to work together, each of us helping shape the words into stories we're proud to offer to the world.

Renée LeBlanc

creative consultant
coordinator
wordsmith

Renée is primarily a creative consultant and coordinator with expertise as a web consultant and freelance writer with two and a half decades of experience in website design and development, writing for web and print, graphic design, marketing and promotions.

She has headed up several companies from food to the music industry, from graphic design and website development to self-care groups, retreats and workshops.

Renée's experiential voice and warmer tone lends itself well to contemporary business writing. With exceptional organizational abilities for business, she blends that tone with practical writing to make technical, instructional writing more effective.

Renée has personal and professional experience in writing about self-care, mindfulness, addiction recovery, and personal wellness. As a consultant, she offers business process and web consulting, organization and planning to small and startup businesses.

Renée has been facilitating self-care, mindfulness and spirituality-based groups and retreats for women and men, in recovery and out, from Alberta to Texas and on Vancouver Island since the late 1990s.

Her passions are for the deep peace and physical challenge of kayaking, the natural connection of sleeping under the stars, and the curiosity of offroad adventuring. What's around the next corner?

Jeff about Renée

It's definitely a Ying and Yang thing. In the creative process, I can be scattered, while she is meticulous in organization. She has this knack of tying things together. She is one to not let things slide until they're complete. Renée is a great writer as well, one who notices the little things that make all the difference. She excels at polishing decent content into brilliant prose.