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March 12, 2020What Wolves Are You Missing? How Writing Communities Improve Our Writing
“The Yellowstone river is healthier today than it was in 1995. The wild part about this positive ecological trend (which cuts against so many other ecological trends in the world) is that we understand ...
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May 29, 2015What’s Your Vision: Publish or Perish?
Note to self: forget the zeitgeist. Trends are for dolts. What I mean is that when it comes to some writers and their embrace of social media, e-book culture and new audience development there seems to ...
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December 29, 2023When 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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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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November 07, 2019
Where Are You Now? Author Tyler Clark Burke on Working in Publishing and How to Write a Great Book for Kids
"Where does it go?" is one of the most common questions parents are asked by their little ones. Early on, children are fascinated by the disappearance of natural things in their world. Snow covers everything, ...
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February 17, 2022
Where the magic happens...sorta? Kinda? (Sometimes?)
Warning: I fully embrace my nerd status in this one. If I remember correctly there's a Latin term for this...yup, found it:Hey there, Open Book reader. Welcome back! Hope you've been having an awesome ...
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May 09, 2016Where We Do What We Do
The first stories of any quality that I produced were written at an old white melamine desk in the windowless furnace room of my future in-laws' house in suburban Ottawa. The hot water tank clicked and ...
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February 05, 2019Who I Think About When I Write … It’s Probably You: A List of Questions to Ask Yourself About Audience as You Write
I find it really challenging to write a picture book without imagining its audience. In whose hands will the finished book end up? What will make them pick it up? Will they find my story satisfying? To ...
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June 12, 2020
Why are Canadian kids’ books so darn good? (And they are!)
We Canadians are pretty good at downplaying our accomplishments. “Cutting down the tall poppies” and “familiarity breeds contempt” should perhaps be emblazoned on our coins and flag.So it may ...
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March 15, 2022Why Canada Reads Needs Unhappy Narratives
Each year on Canada Reads, five books of fiction and nonfiction are chosen by Canadian celebrities who advocate for their book of choice as one that “all of Canada should read.” One book is voted ...
