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July 31, 2019
Why you should re-read books
I am a big reader, but I am an even bigger re-reader. Yes, I have a mountainous stack of to be read books, but I believe that it’s important to my writing practice—and to my basic existence—to dive ...
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December 12, 2018
Beyond the Possible: On World Building
Sometimes, I think about what would have happened to Frodo and Sam if, during their journey across the land to Mordor, Frodo had fallen down a jagged slope of rocks and broken his leg.Would Frodo, delirious ...
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August 14, 2024
Author Sita MacMillan Begins an Essential Series Starring Sarah Ponakey, Storycatcher
It's often the case with young readers, and writers, that they simply do not see the stories that they would like to read and write being published with frequency. This is a distinct problem in CanLit ...
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November 18, 2021
Author & Illustrator Team Jo Ellen Bogart and Maja Kastelic Launch Our New KidLit Convos Series of Chats Between Literary Co-Creators
It's always fascinating to learn about how writers and illustrators create the magical children's books we all love. But for author Jo Ellen Bogart and illustrator Maja Kastelic, there was a twist to ...
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May 05, 2015
Writers on TV Survey: Kathryn Mockler
As part of our Books and TV theme, I invited Toronto authors, editors, agents and others to tell us a bit about their personal reading and viewing habits. First up, poet, screenwriter and The Rusty Toque ...
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May 14, 2020
Bring Back the Good ‘Ol Days of Getting Lost in Fiction
“The anonymous woman in bed beside me adamantly shakes my shoulder.”—Amber Dawn, Sodom Road Exit“Sometimes we would hide in the closet when the drunks came home from the bar.”—Tanya Tagaq, ...
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February 03, 2020
Blogpost #1: Meet Nadia L. Hohn, or selected musings of a Black-Canadian djeli
Here ye! Here ye! My name is Nadia L. Hohn and I am proud to be the February 2020 Open Book writer-in-residence. Not only do you get to read my posts about writing, #kidlit, and Canadian publishing ...
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November 24, 2015
On Writing Violence - An Addendum
I’ve been receiving a lot of positive feedback and some questions about one of my first posts for Open Book, “On Writing Violence.” One reader, Susan, asked me in the comments about how this all ...
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February 23, 2023
5 Questions with an Established and Emerging Writer
Authors Chelene Knight and Sophie Jai explore novel writing, community, and social media in the respective stages of their differing careers.Chelene Knight is the author of Junie (2022), Dear Current ...
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March 25, 2014
If not DRM, What Then? (Part I)
Over the next few days, I’m going to discuss DRM – Digital Rights Management – a way of “locking” a digital product, such as an ebook, to control its distribution. This has become a controversial ...