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January 14, 2017Valentine's Shadow
The terrible weight of Valentine's Day is exactly one month away. What better way to celebrate its inexorable gravity than to discuss one of those topics rarely discussed in relation to the writing ...
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June 18, 2010Nights Below Front Street East
This article is a part of rob's personal essay series, "Sleeping in Toronto." Leader Lane leads south to Wellington and across Berzcy Park to Front Street East. For most of the 19th c. Front ...
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January 10, 2017Found in Translation
Kumar Sivasubramanian has lived stretches of his life on at least three different continents. We met through a closed Facebook group (before I was kicked off by a sour-faced Dubliner) that effectively ...
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November 05, 2018
The Writing Process (For Me, Anyway)
I mentioned in my first post that most people feel they have at least one or two good novels in them. This is something you hear all the time, even more so if you've put out a book and talk to people ...
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November 08, 2018
The Persistence Needed to Publish
In my first post I talked about finding the motivation to write. The second post was about having the patience needed to get through the writing process. If you managed all of that and are now thinking ...
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November 22, 2018
Inspiration is Inconvenient
I’ve been talking about writing, publishing, YA, comics, and all of these other aspects of being involved in the writing world. Now I’m going to interrupt all of this to talk about inspiration. It’s ...
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September 08, 2020Picture Book Magic
People are often surprised to learn that a picture book begins with the words. But every children’s book editor I’ve met has preferred to read a picture-book manuscript without any images. A good ...
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October 13, 2022
The Legend of Howard Stroud
Sometimes when I’m feeling sad or needing inspiration I think of Howard. I met Howard in 2016 when I travelled out west to research the family homestead and to walk the same land my mother did as ...
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October 20, 2022
Sharon's Bench
I met Sharon shortly after I started building my home on Green Lake. In the early times we were more like acquaintances than friends, the kind to say ‘hi’ and exchange a few words than to sit ...
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October 24, 2022
Rusted Development
For decades I’ve been cruising antique haunts and farm fields, stopping at those laden with dormant pieces of rusted equipment - harrows, cultivators, thrashers, sickle bars among them. I’m drawn ...
