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May 19, 2023Sandra V. Feder & Rahele Jomepour Bell on Creating a Picture Book that Celebrates Finding Peace Within
Anyone who spends time with children knows that when it comes to kids, the feelings are big. Happiness, sadness, anger – it's all magnified, and it's not always easy to navigate. Writer Sandra V. ...
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June 17, 2020On Reclaiming Brokenness and Refusing the Violence of ‘Recovery Narratives’
I’m working on this essay when a friend texts me. His therapist suggested he write a list of things that he likes about himself but the picture that shows up on my phone is just a blank page.“Having ...
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January 05, 2017Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Writer Says He Can
Holy Christmas miracle, Spider-Man! A true miracle from the Ghost of Jack Kirby! I don't believe in God but I do believe in the cigar smoking Ghost of Jack Kirby. Around Christmas, Facebook suggested ...
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September 19, 2018Talk to Me
My little sunroom office at home (which is also our dining room) faces a fairly busy street, so when the weather’s good and our windows are open, bits and pieces of random conversations drift up to ...
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September 02, 2018Show Me the (Writing-Grant) Money!
Hello, and Happy September! Thanks to the excellent folks at Open Book for inviting me here, and thanks to you for tuning in, lovely readers-who-I’m-guessing-are-mostly-also-writers.All right, let’s ...
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September 27, 2018You’re Going the Right Way. It’s Just a Really, Really Long Way.
I’m often asked by aspiring writers, “How did you become an author?” or “How did you get into the publishing world?”I used to think this was a really tough question. Because of course there’s ...
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September 12, 2018Notes on My Futile Attempts to Evade the Creeping Tendrils of Inescapable Progress
The other day, my six-year-old daughter told me that I’m on my phone too much.This was right after I’d grinned at a parking attendant and told him how thrilled I was to see a person at the gate instead ...
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September 16, 2018Schmoozing for Introverts
It’s that time of year again, when students return to school, the leaves change colour, and Fall Book Season begins.The brilliant Sarah Selecky has already written this excellent antidote to those icky ...
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September 10, 2018On Kindness, and Generosity
The Toronto literary community has recently lost two very bright lights, mourning the deaths of Priscila Uppal and Ann Ireland.Though I didn’t know either Ann or Priscila all that well, I feel fortunate ...
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May 11, 2020Goals from another time.
I found this piece of paper recently. I’d made it many years back and stuck it to my wall when I was trying to get organized with my linked short story collection, Coconut Dreams.Some observations:I’d ...