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September 18, 2014Q&A with Lorie and Robert Wright, Co-Owners of the Tamworth Book Shop
Coordinates: 44.4667° N, 76.9833° W“Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes ...
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March 10, 2014Travelling for Research
Travelling for writing research is an exciting way to make your work genuine and also justify a vacation, but the timing of such travel can be difficult to determine: when in the writing process should ...
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June 29, 2021"It’s a Real-Life, Present Day Dystopia" Ed O'Loughlin on His Chilling New Fin Tech-Inspired Thriller
In his fourth novel, This Eden, Irish Canadian writer Ed O'Loughlin goes big: a tech-driven thriller with global stakes, This Eden is wonderfully creepy and just a little too believable for comfort. ...
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November 24, 2015On 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 22, 2016
Read Around The World: Part Two of The Extravagant JT Reading Program That Will Never Be Started or Finished
In my last post, I discussed why I think we all (or at least me in particular) live, read, and write: to develop mutual understanding with other people. I’m someone who has often felt alienated, and ...
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November 13, 2015On Navigating the Literary Landscape - Part 1
Over the past few years, in order to buy peanut butter and bread and pay rent, I’ve taken on a number of manuscript assessments for various readers. I was first put on to them by my friend Michelle ...
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February 24, 2014
Multimedium Publishing and the Future of the Literary Press (Part 1)
It's 5:30 AM and I haven't been able to sleep, so I've decided to begin posting my final series of the month. Personally, I blame my buddy Andrew -- a DJ and record producer based in Germany. Due to time ...
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September 23, 2016For All the Men...A Playlist
Hi Open Book Readers,Music has always been a huge part of my writing process.It helps me tremendously when it comes to entering the mind of a character, or an experience, and staying there for as long ...
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September 01, 2020When Your Father is Your Biggest Fan
I don’t believe that any father was more proud of having a son for a writer than my own dad. Whenever I met somebody who knew him—it might be a waiter in a restaurant—the person would say, “Oh, ...
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January 26, 2021Lorna Poplak on the Notorious History of The Don Jail & How It Failed Its Hopeful, Progressive Roots
An imposing but externally beautiful building on the east bank of the Don River, the Don Jail—invariably known simply as "The Don" to Torontonians—has a long and troubled history. From its opening ...