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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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March 05, 2021
Writing Time
When it comes to writing, I have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the basics—namely space and time. I find it easy to imagine myself into a character’s head—to project myself into a character’s ...
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June 19, 2020
To Pre-read, or Not to Pre-read?
Should you be vetting your kids’ reading material? For many, the answer seems so obvious, you don’t even need to ask the question. To make sure kids are choosing books that meet their approval, ...
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May 30, 2016The Burden of Positivity
As a writer, reader and reality TV watcher, Canada Reads masterfully combines some of my favourite practices and past-times in a nation-wide, televised battle of the books. And while I enjoyed the 2016 ...
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April 09, 2019Read an Excerpt from the Late Joe Rosenblatt's Final Collection, Bite Me!
Joe Rosenblatt's final book, Bite Me! Musing on Monsters and Mayhem (Porcupine's Quill), published shortly before he passed away in March 2019, is a delight of Rosenblatt's fantastical imagination. Born ...
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February 14, 2016Something Totally New: Part One of Stephen Thomas in Conversation
I first came across Stephen Thomas on Twitter. It was 2012 and I’d started doing this embarrassing YouTube show no one watched called A Chat With Jess. Steve was doing something similar while doing ...
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August 19, 2020Dirty Dozen: Sarah Howden on Thunderstorms, Dairy-Free Sweets, and Bad Jokes
Author Sarah Howden's debut picture book, Cone Cat (Owlkids), is all about adapting to new situations.Jeremy the cat wakes up in the vet's office feeling a little off. It doesn't take him long to figure ...
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April 18, 2017The In Character Interview, with Leslie Shimotakahara
Leslie Shimotakahara's After the Bloom (Dundurn Press) has been praised as "personal and entrancing, unflinchingly shining a light on [a] difficult part of history" and "a sweeping page turner". The ...
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April 19, 2021Play to your strengths: a short guide to arts admin for emerging artists
And we're back! As promised, these last two weeks of Careful Inventory are a bit lighter, more directly applicable in the pandemic—thanks for sticking with me so far! We’ve covered online safety, ...
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November 04, 2021‘AMELIA THANK YOUS.docx’: The single Word document that kept me going
The first thing I do when I start reading a book is read the acknowledgments. I like to know where the book I’m about to read came from, and all the people who helped the author along the way. I love ...
