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June 26, 2018Read an Excerpt from David Goudreault's Raw, Powerful, Darkly Funny Mama's Boy
Content warning: suicide, self-harmIn its original French edition, Mama's Boy (Book*hug) by David Goudreault (translated by JC Sutcliffe) was a smash hit - a bestseller, winner of the 2016 Grand Prix ...
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June 30, 2023Adapting an Adult Book Into a Book for Young Readers
I know that young people are reading my 2019 book, because they’ve written me e-mails and messaged me on various social media platforms to tell me where they got it (thank you, libraries) and who they’re ...
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May 29, 2018What I Wish Every Aspiring Children’s Author Knew About Publishing
It seems like book publishing is a mysterious, captivating industry to many people. It barely gets represented in pop culture and when it does get featured (Elf and Fatal Attraction come to mind), ...
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November 27, 2020
Some Ways To Deal With Writer's Block
I used to think that writer’s block just meant not having any inspiration or ideas. If only it was just that! Now I know it’s many things - and for me, it’s mostly anxiety caused by both lack of ...
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February 12, 2025Tea Gerbeza Challenges Ableist Perceptions of Normalcy in How I Bend Into More
Among the many complex themes in Tea Gerbeza's work, reclaiming disabled identity, disability justice, and disabled and queer joy are just a sampling. These concerns and more find their way onto the ...
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August 31, 2016The Lower Reaches of Pulp
It’s rare for me to be disturbed by a book: usually, I enjoy being scared or pushed to an extreme emotion within the safety of a page. But I was badly bothered by a pulp novel from the 1980s that I ...
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June 25, 2019A Few Key Things Every Newly Published Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Should Know!
The title says it all, guys! Here’s a roundup of a bunch of things that newly published authors and illustrators should know. Whether it’s resources on negotiating contracts or where to do research ...
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May 04, 2009
It’s About Time
I once told my next door neighbour that I was eighty-seven.It was meant to be a joke.“No…” said she, unbelieving. “You couldn’t be…”“No,” said I. “I’m really not!” And we both ...
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November 30, 2020
Playlist for How Do I Look?
To wrap up my Open Book Residency, and to lead us into December, I thought I’d leave with a little goodbye present: a good ‘ol playlist! I don’t ever listen to music while I write - I get distracted ...
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April 05, 2023Vera Constantineau on the Haibun Form & Finding Poetry in Buddhism's 108 Defilements
While Catholicism has its seven deadly sins, Buddhism gets a lot more specific, with a whopping 108 temptations that practitioners seek to avoid. Alternatively translated as impurities, vexations, or ...
