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February 26, 2021Grinding Out a New Novel
Writing a novel is a grind. It’s an arduous, meticulous, and often repetitive process that can take years. There’s the actual typing of words onto the page, and then come the edits and rewrites, which ...
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January 29, 2020Read an Excerpt From Teva Harrison's Gorgeously Devastating 'Not One of These Poems Is About You'
In April of last year, the Canadian literary community suffered a profound loss at the passing of celebrated author and illustrator Teva Harrison after a lengthy battle with metastatic breast cancer. ...
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March 28, 2022What's Beyond: Writing as an Actor, Part 2
One of the important exercises we do in theatre is called “What’s Beyond.” It’s a Viola Spolin exercise to help actors understand the full, inner life of their characters. Viola Spolin is credited ...
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April 26, 2023Read an Excerpt from Rocco de Giacomo's Casting Out, a Poetic Memoir of Leaving Evangelical Life
Rocco de Giacomo's childhood was filled with TV faith healers, tense and frequent predictions of the rapture, and the dramatic and sometimes problematic practices of the extreme Pentecostal religious ...
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October 28, 2020In good company
So, you finished your novel and sent it off anticipating it’s publication. Bravo! If you get a “No thanks, this isn’t for us” note, then consider yourself in good company. Many an author’s ...
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October 17, 2020Fertile ground
Sometimes story ideas seem to come from out of the blue.“I don't know myself where the ideas really come from, what makes them come, or whether one day they'll stop. I used to tell people the not very ...
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September 18, 2025In Defense of Procrastination
The procrastinating author is a time-honoured trope. For me personally, I’m at my most productive with other tasks (vacuuming, crocheting, washing dishes, doing laundry, clearing up clutter) when I ...
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June 03, 2022On Becoming an Acquiring Editor
For thirty years I was on the other side of the desk: submitting books to editors who didn’t reply or who took six months to reply, who replied with no-thank-you formulae, or who replied with suggestions ...
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August 24, 2022"I Want Children To Be Proud of Who They Are" Kuljinder Kaur Brar on Her Debut Picture Book
What's in a name? A lot, especially if people don't get it right. When Saajin starts his first day of school in Kuljinder Kaur Brar's My Name Is Saajin Singh (Annick Press, illustrated by Samrath ...
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January 16, 2026A Young Girl Faces Her Fears to Reconnect with Sound in WHEN BRYN'S EAR WENT QUIET
Open Book will be publishing a few special previews of upcoming titles this season, and today we're featuring When Bryn's Ear Went Quiet (Owlkids Books), an evocative new picture book from celebrated ...
