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December 29, 2023
When Life Influences Form
What’s the best form for your next writing project? Often, this is decided by the sort of thing you want to write. Your sprawling epic fantasy idea likely won’t work as a short story, for example. ...
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February 21, 2022
*Well, excuuuse me, Princess
Welcome back, Open Book reader. Lovely to see you again, hope you’re doing well. As promised, I’m going to give some insight into what fuels all this nerdiness I’m brimming with. The relatively ...
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February 07, 2020
Blogpost #2: My Top 5 Picture Book Trends (that are Here to Stay)
Five years ago, I became an author. My first two books, Music and Media, were published as part of the Sankofa: Black Heritage Collection series by Rubicon Publishing (2015). I was ecstatic ...
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September 28, 2023
Excerpt: Laurence Beaudoin-Masse Skewers Influencer & Wellness Culture in Her Brilliant YA Sequel
Laurence Beaudoin-Masse's debut novel, Suck it In and Smile was published to wide acclaim in 2022. Exploring our social media-influenced obsession with perfection and appearance, the young adult novel ...
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October 22, 2015
Finding Inspiration in Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol is arguably one of the most quotable artists to have lived.And although much mystery and controversy surrounds his powerful legacy, there is so much inspiration that can be drawn from his ...
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May 14, 2009
More Duppy Business?
Many years ago I read a book called HEALING THE FAMILY TREE by a psychiatrist, Dr. Kenneth McAll. I won’t go into the theories he presents in the book (it’s still available, for anyone who’s interested) ...
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June 28, 2023
The Benefits of Being an Imposter
Like most writers, I’ve had a lot of rent jobs. When I was lucky, I worked in my chosen fields of editing and education. When I wasn’t so lucky, I worked in an institutional kitchen, as an ad mail ...
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February 28, 2022
七転び八起き ("Fall down seven, get up eight")
Hey there, Open Book reader! Let me start off by saying how honoured I am that you stopped by at any or all points in time this month. It’s been a blast delving into all my weirdness, and I’m so grateful ...
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November 30, 2023
7 Ways to Develop Secondary Characters
Many authors do a good job at developing their protagonist or POV characters. After all, readers will be in these characters’ heads throughout an entire book. But as many readers can attest to, sometimes ...
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October 30, 2017
The Wonderfully Weird World of November writer-in-residence Lisa de Nikolits
Lisa de Nikolits is the author of an impressive seven novels, each of them marked by her wild creativity and memorable characters. Her latest offering is No Fury Like That (Inanna Publications), a genre ...