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June 04, 2017Finding Your Material -- and This Time, Billie Holiday
The question is, how does a writer recognize what is uniquely her material? Save herself from wrong turns, dead ends, dead writing?The subject has always been central to me—an obsession—and years ...
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September 18, 2020How writing rituals saved me from quitting as a writer
I define my writing ritual as a series of unique actions taken that tells my brain it’s writing and creation time. This is part preparation, part boundary-setting, part protective aura. I know that ...
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November 26, 2020Laurie Ray Hill, Author of Paper Stones, on How to Combine Personal, Interior Storytelling with Page-Turning Tension
In Laurie Ray Hill's novel Paper Stones (Inanna Publications), Rose has one goal: to protect her baby niece, Jenny. In a family haunted by sexual abuse, Rose is determined the horrific pattern will ...
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October 30, 2020Erin Ruddy on Setting a Dark & Mysterious Thriller in the Bliss of Cottage Country
Cottage country — just the phrase conjures up enviably peaceful images of long sunny days and warm nights, a quaint retreat. But in Erin Ruddy's Tell Me My Name (Dundurn Press), a rustic cottage ...
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May 05, 2021"Female Fighters Have Always Embodied the Struggle for Equality" Alison Dean on Combat Sports, Violence, & Memoir
Picture a boxer: Sweating, bruised, determined. Maybe eying an opponent with gritty concentration.Any chance you're picturing a woman? When "you hit like a girl" is still a common criticism, and when ...
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December 15, 2021Robert Rotenberg on His Family's Lost Story of Heroism, A Memorable Opening Line, & Going Back to Chandler
Bestselling crime writer Robert Rotenberg, who is also a prominent criminal lawyer, knows how to craft a good story. But he got a serious surprise when two distant relatives wrote a story he'd never heard ...
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July 21, 2022Camels with Botox, Lizard Overlords, & Salinger as Inspiration: Rod Carley on His Hilarious & Fresh Story Collection, Grin Reaping
CanLit doesn't have a reputation for hilarity, but the third book from North Bay based writer Rod Carley, Grin Reaping (Latitude 46 Publishing), is more evidence that our supposedly serious rep needs ...
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July 29, 2022"Histories That are Buried Beneath the Mainstream" Sheila Murray on Telling the Stories of Two Mixed Race Men in Her New Novel
Nearly 100 years of history separate Cyril and Edward, two mixed race Black men who made Toronto their home in Sheila Murray's Finding Edward (Cormorant Books). When Cyril arrives from Jamaica in 2012, ...
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September 26, 2013Special Feature: How to Read Like Bowie - David Bowie's Top 100 Books
David Bowie Is, the newest exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, is an essential destination for fans of music, fashion and pop culture.But book lovers should pay attention too; the curators of the exhibit, ...
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October 31, 2023Friday Night Fright Club
I didn’t vote for this. Remote viewing a friend’s funeral was not how I expected two years of reading Goosebumps live on the internet to end, but sitting next to my partner Emma in my office and staring ...
