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March 05, 2019Writer at Work: Reading Tarot for Story
You do not have to believe there is a divine order to read the Tarot. You do not have to believe that your future can be read to read the Tarot. You do not have to be spiritual to read the Tarot. You ...
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February 14, 2019"I am a Fighter" Nilofar Shidmehr on Writing Iranian Women's Stories in Her Powerful Collection Divided Loyalties
Nilofar Shidmehr is known for her powerful poetry collections, but her newest book sees her working in a different genre: short fiction. Her voice is just as arresting in the short stories of Divided ...
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February 05, 2019Who I Think About When I Write … It’s Probably You: A List of Questions to Ask Yourself About Audience as You Write
I find it really challenging to write a picture book without imagining its audience. In whose hands will the finished book end up? What will make them pick it up? Will they find my story satisfying? To ...
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January 16, 2019Lynne Golding on Weaving Family History into Her Historical Brampton Saga
In Lynne Golding's The Innocent (Blue Moon Publishers), there's a secret in Jessie's family. For some reason, unlike all their neighbours in turn of the century Brampton, her father won't allow anyone ...
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December 10, 2018"I Need to be Deep Inside Their Hearts and Minds" Fran Kimmel on Building the Fascinating Characters in No Good Asking
Moving with family to an idyllic farmhouse sounds like a charming idea, but in practice, behind the scenes, Ellie and Eric Nyland's family is unravelling.Fran Kimmel's No Good Asking (ECW Press) opens ...
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November 14, 2018On Fairy Tales
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live…[w]e look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition ...
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October 18, 2018"Dreaming of the Day I’d Get to Be on That Stage" Talking Festivals, Writing Tips & Nerves with 3 TIFA Guest Authors
October 18 marks the launch of the 39th edition of the Toronto International Festival of Authors - but in a way, this is also year one for the newly re-branded and re-imagined festival (formerly known ...
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October 15, 2018
Early Influences
Writing has always been my creative outlet. As soon as I learned how to physically draw out words and sentences, I began to put down stories in pencil and crayon for fun. I had an active imagination, ...
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September 14, 2018"I Could Only Find the Answer as I Wrote" Mina Athanassious on His Collection of Coptic Egyptian Coming of Age Stories
Mina Athanassious's A Face Like the Moon (Mosaic Press) gathers eight deeply personal stories of Coptic children growing up in Egypt, including a story set in the largely-Coptic neighbourhood where the ...
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August 21, 2018"The Words Felt Right and Honest" Deep Underwater author Irene Luxbacher on Finding Her Way Through Tough Times with Writing
Irene Luxbacher's Deep Underwater (Groundwood Books) calls out to the wild imagination of young readers, those years when we were sure we could find mermaids, adventures, and secrets, if we could just ...
