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May 21, 2018
In Praise of … Performing Your Work
A passion for public speaking, for public performance, has been with me even longer than the passion for writing. I trace it back to when I won a public speaking competition as an elementary school student ...
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May 07, 2018
In Praise of … Book Reviewing
I still remember where and when I got into the book-reviewing racket. It was the late 1990s in Halifax, about a year after I graduated with my journalism degree from the University of King’s College. ...
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May 17, 2018
In Praise of … Writing Manuals
Writing cannot be taught. It’s a phrase I hear a lot, and I totally get the sentiment. Writers sometimes want to believe that what they do on the page is pure magic, and some people have the gift and ...
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March 28, 2014
If Not DRM, What Then? (Part II)
A few people, some of them writers, have written to me, wondering about the fuss surrounding DRM. They very much want their work protected from copying, and didn’t realize a kind of hysteria exists ...
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March 30, 2014
If Not DRM, What Then? (Part III)
Just a last few words and thoughts on DRM.DRM Can WorkOne hallmark of the anti-DRM argument is that DRM doesn't and cannot work. Doctorow lays out the reasons in the first part of his talk to the Microsoft ...
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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 ...
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March 03, 2014
Standing in the Light
Well hi. This is me standing nervously in the spotlight, governing my nerves. The light is blinding, I cannot see you out there, but in this bath of white energy I see dust motes floating, falling slowly, ...
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June 02, 2016
On Writing, with Nadia Bozak
Nadia Bozak's gorgeous collection of linked short stories, Thirteen Shells (House of Anansi), is drawing tons of praise, including comparisons to Alice Munro, for its deft rendering of a young girl coming ...
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August 22, 2023
Marie-Louise Gay on Getting Personal about Tough Childhood Moments in Her Magical New Picture Book
For a kid, moving to a new house and finding friends in a new school can be extremely tough. In iconic KidLit creator Marie-Louise Gay's new picture book, Hopscotch (Groundwood Books), Ophelia uses ...
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February 14, 2022
Valentine's Day! (and one or two other things I don't really like)
Hello, Open Book reader. Glad to have you back. So…remember that promise I made early on to curb the sass mouth? Well, apologies in advance because I’m breaking that promise today. Originally, I wasn’t ...