Exposure
Less than a month away from the release of my new book, PLACES LIKE THESE, and I’m feelin’ it... those pre-publication jitters. I’ve been sticking pieces of advance praise and promotion up on my single remaining social media feed, and I read one of the stories for the...
On Staring Out Windows
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time daydreaming. During long drives from/to the nearest big city - where we'd go for movies, mall shopping, book stores, and sometimes doctor's appointments - I would stare out at passing fields, forests, the big lake. At night, I...
Finding Focus
This summer, I spent a lot of time in silence. The deep thrumming quiet of Cole Lake (which took seven short portages and two beaver dam pullovers to get to, ugh) and the stillness of Echo Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park, reached via the flooded Winnipeg River and...
Guest Post: Hurtling Down the Page
After a year-long health crisis that took me completely out of the writing game, I'm on my way back. So, imagine my surprise and pleasure when, during one of Lauren's Simply Write sessions a full-blown, post-health-crisis writing manifesto emerged. I hope it inspires...
Hope
Image by Franz Bachinger from Pixabay Last night I had a dream in which the ground was literally falling out from under me. There we were, J. and I, trying to shore up a gravel floor as the stones kept sliding away. Rest assured, dear reader, that my life is all...
A Year In Review (it’s not what you think)
As 2021 comes to a close, I've been seeing a lot of year-end round-ups on my social media feeds. You know the type: "here are all the great things that I did this year." I don't know if it's the return to pandemic lockdown or the frigid Prairie cold, but I'm grumpy....
Languishing
I’ve been using my phone timer a lot lately. Twenty minutes to load the dishwasher. Twenty minutes to work on editing my printed out manuscript. Twenty minutes to walk the cat around the yard. Twenty minutes to learn some French. Answer e-mails. Go on Twitter. Repeat....
Raising the Stakes
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com J. read through the latest draft of my new novel last week. He gave me a lot of notes. My favourite scrawl in the margin: “next couple of chapters don’t feel right – WTF feeling – not in a good way.” This note is my favourite because...
Patience
Early this week, I finished the latest draft of a new novel. When I reached the end, after days and days (and days) of slow, plodding progress, I felt surprised. It was like thinking you've got a couple of hours left to drive then spotting the sign marking the city...

STAY IN TOUCH
Sign up for my newsletter
…and get a free funky infographic called How To Write.


