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September 24, 2019
The Art of the Deadline
Every word I’m typing right now is late. Not a month late, or even a week late, but three days late. And with every tap, tap, tap on my keyboard, I feel a pang. Anxiety. Guilt. Racing thoughts. Why ...
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December 23, 2019
How You Get Paid Writing Children’s Books or: Math is Fun!
One question I rarely get asked is how you get paid when you write and/or illustrate children’s books. I know people have a lot of questions regarding how much they might get paid, but how does the ...
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August 27, 2018
An Open Letter to the Stranger Who Asked Me, “How Did You Write That Book for Children If You Don't Have Children?”
Dear Stranger,I realize that writing a book is kind of a self-important undertaking. When I write, I sometimes imagine that there are people out there who might actually enjoy reading my words and letting ...
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April 22, 2020
All of this listening
It was hard to write this column. Like everyone else, I’m all for trying to grasp at normalcy where I can, but I don’t have many writing tips to share right now. (Actually, I do have one writing tip: ...
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April 08, 2024
Marc Perez Follows the Paths of Strangers and Wanderers in Dayo
Identity, language, and self are all at play in Dayo (Brick Books), the new collection of poetry from Marc Perez. It's a striking debut from the author, and one that explores what it truly means to ...
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May 31, 2016
Writing What’s Closest to Home
Last year, when I turned in the first draft of a memoir on rape trauma, my editor had a pretty reasonable observation. Despite divulging various details of violation, illness, and the path to getting ...
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April 12, 2016
Why Don’t We Take Sports Writing Seriously?
In February of last year, Canadian Notes and Queries publisher Dan Wells kindly approached me with a question. “Brainstorming a games issue of CNQ,” he wrote in an email. “Wondered if you might ...
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November 25, 2019
Special Feature: Book*hug Press
On November 2, 2019, a throng of enthusiastic word nerds gathered at Harbourfront Centre to toast Book*hug Press on its fifteenth anniversary. It was an appropriate venue in which to celebrate, given ...
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October 25, 2021
Contest: Win the First Five Titles from Dundurn's New Rare Machines Imprint
We've raved about the new Rare Machines imprint at Dundurn Press, an essential new list in the CanLit landscape featuring diverse, innovative literary voices and headed up by acclaimed writers Julie ...
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May 17, 2021
Book Therapy: The Quiet is Loud
“The more people we can have around us that who we can trust, the more we can work on finding ways to thrive in this world we live in.The one that sometimes hates us.”—Samantha Garner, The Quiet ...