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March 09, 2020On Book Collecting
My favourite place to write is lying on an overstuffed grey sofa, in what was once our attic. My propped-up knees, with a firm cushion over top, form a kind of makeshift desk, on which my notebook perches. ...
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March 05, 2020Read an Excerpt from Shani Mootoo's Chilling 'Polar Vortex'
Relationships are exciting. As two people begin to bond, walls are brought down, and vulnerabilities are shown. We invite a person into the sanctum of our private life, developing a sense of security ...
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March 05, 2020Book Therapy: Shani Mootoo’s Polar Vortex
“The body is always in the moment. It doesn’t care if it was warmer or colder any other time. It’s concerned—a matter of survival, naturally—only with how it is in the present.”—Shani Mootoo, ...
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March 05, 2020On Illness
When I was eleven, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. It was my ballet teacher who first noticed that something was amiss; I could see it in the curiosity and concern that splashed ...
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March 04, 2020The Dirty Dozen: 'Violet Shrink' Author Christine Baldacchino Talks Anime, Blanket Forts, and Bad Movies
Violet, the title character in author Christine Baldacchino's delightful new picture book Violet Shrink (Groundwood), feels uncomfortable and anxious in large groups. While the rest of her outgoing family ...
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March 03, 2020Read an Excerpt From Dayle Furlong's Powerful New Collection, Lake Effect
Set in the Great Lakes region, the stories of Toronto-based author Dayle Furlong's new collection Lake Effect (Cormorant Books) follows those on both sides of the border as they struggle with love, fear, ...
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March 01, 2020
Blogpost #8: TRENDING CURRENTLY: Top 8 Diverse Middle Grade and Young Adult Themes I’ve Observed
Dear Reader:This is my final post as the February 2020 Open Book Writer In Residence. (And, did you catch that this is the 8th blogpost and I am listing 8 middle grade and young adult themes? Didn’t ...
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February 27, 2020Making Time: How Ondaatje Taught Me To Show Up For Myself, or Plotting vs. Pantsing
There are some books whose images stay with us long after we’ve read them, far more than the stories or the characters themselves. An image that has stayed with me over the years is from The English ...
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February 27, 2020The Entitled Interview: March 2020 Writer-in-Residence Leslie Shimotakahara Finds Inspiration Through Family
Reading Toronto-based author Leslie Shimotakahara, you get the sense that family, and history, have always been important to her work.Her first book, the Canada-Japan Literary Prize-winning The Reading ...
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February 27, 2020
Blogpost #7: DOES WRITING KID’S BOOKS MAKE CENT$? Part 2 Financing your Writing
Since 2015, I have been a published author of books for young people and present my stories to hundreds of children each year. Some of the most common questions I am asked by this audience are ...