ColumnistsTag
-
June 06, 2016
All Roads Lead to Brampton
We’ve been tallying up the responses for surveys from last month’s Festival of Literary Diversity and we’re thrilled by all the feedback – the good and the bad. It’s helpful to know what worked ...
-
June 03, 2016
Author as Musician
I have a healthy respect for multi-disciplinary arts; from dance, literature and film, to visual art, theatre and music. Having dabbled in more than a few of these disciplines myself, in different capacities, ...
-
May 31, 2016
Writing What’s Closest to Home
Last year, when I turned in the first draft of a memoir on rape trauma, my editor had a pretty reasonable observation. Despite divulging various details of violation, illness, and the path to getting ...
-
May 30, 2016
The 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 ...
-
May 25, 2016
How to Get Your Book Published (No, Really)
When I asked friends what they would want to know about the literary world, the consistent response I received was: How does someone get published?A quick Google search reveals that many, many articles ...
-
May 18, 2016
Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: The Magic, The Wonder - Chatting with YA Fantasy Authors (Part 2)
Today, I continue my conversation about writing fantasy with these four amazingly talented and experienced YA authors: Lena Coakley, Alyxander Harvey, Nicole Luiken, and Arthur Slade. Please feel free ...
-
May 11, 2016
Posthumous Lit: How Do You Capture a Dead Author’s Voice and Intentions?
You all know the saying. It goes something like this. The only three things guaranteed in life are death, taxes, and the Toronto Maple Leafs not making the playoffs. Okay, so I tacked on the latter Leafs ...
-
April 20, 2016
Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: the Magic, the Wonder - Chatting with Ya Fantasy Authors (Part 1)
In my capacity as freelance story coach and manuscript critiquer, I receive many inquiries and, interestingly, I’ve realized that a disproportionately high number of them are from writers working on ...
-
March 09, 2016
Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Sex, and Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Writing Edgy Ya (Part 2)
They’ve written about it all: drugs, gambling, sexual harassment, suicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse, cutting, death, sex, drugs, body image issues, bullying, STDs, abduction...Today I continue my ...
-
February 08, 2016
Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Sex, and Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Writing Edgy YA (Part 1)
Drugs, gambling, sexual harassment, suicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse, cutting, death, sex, drugs, body image issues, bullying, STDs, abduction...between them, YA authors C.K. Kelly Martin, Don Aker ...