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November 02, 2015Hello, Open Book Readers. I'm Happy to Be Here...
Hello readers. As you might have gathered, I am the incoming Writer-in-Residence for Open Book Toronto, and will be with you through the entire month of November. I’m happy to be here for the month, ...
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November 20, 2015Taking Your Medicine in the Editing Room
In previous posts I’ve talked about the hard road to getting a book published, and even a bit about the effort that goes into just getting those first few stories done. I’ve talked about submitting ...
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August 13, 2018Defending your writing
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. As a kid, I read everything in my library from A – Z. I was the secretary of the Library Club and loved my after-school gig of sorting the books according ...
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May 18, 2022"There’s What You See and What You Don’t" Read an Excerpt from Didier Leclair's Trillium-Winning Novel, Toronto, I Love You
In Toronto, I Love You by Didier Leclair (Mawenzi House, translated by Elaine Kennedy) Raymond Dossougbé thinks, at first, that he's found a sanctuary in Toronto.After fleeing corruption and violence ...
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March 14, 2023Don't Bother Saving The Cat
When it comes to books about memoir writing, there are a select few that I would recommend an aspiring author read, including BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott and THE ART OF MEMOIR by Mary Karr. But when I ...
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November 14, 2015On Navigating the Literary Landscape - Part 2
Hey. Thanks for coming back for Part 2 of this discussion about various aspects of navigating our literary scene. Good to see you again...Engaging with the literary community – Social mediaI’ve said ...
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February 12, 2021
LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: The writing process Part 4 of 9
The creation of tension and suspense and mood shifts to me are just as important as creating characters and the plot themselves. Tension and suspense is what makes the story come alive. For the short ...
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June 10, 2021GG Winning Poet Arleen Paré's New Collection Examines the Impact and Legacy of Early Friendships
Arleen Paré's First (Brick Books) appropriately takes us back to the beginning: both the beginning of identity and connection in the search for a friend from long ago (the first one she ever made), and ...
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July 07, 2023"Reality is Messier...It’s Vital that Books Reflect That" Kate Blair on Crafting Honest Young Adult Literature
It's often been said that every good story opens in the same way: when something changes. And one of the most enduring and universal story structures is that of "a stranger arrived".Kate Blair puts her ...
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February 28, 2021
LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: The writing process Part 9 of 9
One thing about the pandemic is that it has changed how we socialize and interact with other humans. Even before the pandemic people seemed to be becoming more engaged online and less actually connected. ...