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March 01, 2020
On Photography
Writing, for me, often begins with an image. By this, I mean not an imaginary image that appears in the mind’s eye, but rather an actual photograph I stumble across in my daily life. A certain picture ...
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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, 2020
Making 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, 2020
The 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 ...
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February 26, 2020
My Story: Prudence Emery On Writing Her Memoir, Making New Discoveries, and Looking Back
Saying Prudence Emery has had a unique ride through life would be an understatement. Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, she left behind her family and their expectations to attend art school in London, ...
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February 25, 2020
A Love Letter to Scarborough Writers
To busy writers, penning poems on the back of receipts, scribbling into notebooks on Line 3 — this is for you.I rarely find time to sit down and write anymore. Instead, I create fragments wherever I ...
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February 25, 2020
Read an Excerpt From Paddy Scott's Darkly Funny Debut 'The Union of Smokers'
Kaspar Pine, the irreverent and foul-mouthed twelve year-old protagonist of Paddy Scott's debut novel The Union of Smokers (Invisible Publishing), tells you right away that he is going to die today. What ...
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February 24, 2020
Blogpost 6: DOES WRITING KID’S BOOKS MAKE SENSE? Part 1 Getting Wise about the Why?
This blogpost is part of a two-part series— DOES WRITING KID’S BOOKS MAKE SENSE/CENTS? In 2018, The Writers’ Union of Canada published the results of a study showing that not only do Canadian ...
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February 21, 2020
On Trying Not To Fly By the Seat of My Pants
I’m a writer who regularly finishes projects, but I wouldn’t describe myself as a writer with a regular practice. This is something I feel I should be able to correct and yet somehow writing continues ...