Be grateful…or John Green will kick your ass

Sometimes when I read about the latest Top Novels being featured by the NY Times and realize mine isn’t listed because oh yeah, it isn’t PUBLISHED I start to feel sorry for myself. And by sometimes, I mean always. John Green would probably call that petty. Talking about the Americans’ access to public education, the […]

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Things that inspire me to write #59: Cindy Crawford

Yes, I will admit it: I used stare at Cindy Crawford’s sand caked bottom regularly–of course, all in the name of getting fit. At fourteen, and pursuing my own modeling career, I was an avid disciple of her Shape Your Body workout. Cindy had thighs, and muscles, and faint but real abdominal muscles. While I took that all that for granted back […]

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Things that inspire me to write #60: this leaf

I have just arrived at my sister’s house  this fine November morning–which is no small feat. From my Vancouver apartment, the drive to her suburban house is almost an hour, and today included several freeway exits, non-stop pelting rain, and a whole lot of fat and gusty wind. And through it all, this little guy […]

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Things that inspire me to write #61: Julia Cameron

I was hit with a quick but potent round of the stomach yesterday and for once, found myself completely unwilling and uninterested in sitting down at the computer. However, in those precious moments between Dora the Explorer episodes when I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, I did get to thinking about writing and pain and […]

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Things that inspire me to write #62: Kate Jacobs

  A constant grey fog hanging overhead, large wooden deer and moose statues on almost every corner, and not a single green emblazoned grande cup in sight. If you ever have been to the Canadian town of Hope, you will know that is a small and sleepy little town—in every sense. In other words, the […]

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Things that inspire me to write #69: Amanda Todd

  It takes a lot of courage to admit there is something wrong—even more to share that pain with others. Amanda did. Faced with increasing cyber assaults, insults and bullying Amanda Todd created a video about her experience which garnered over 20 million hits and has since spurred an entire movement raising awareness about teen […]

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Things that inspire me to write #70: Stephanie Meyer

An agent once told me that most authors don’t get published till their third manuscript. On a blog I was reading the other day, it was four. Now, considering my first manuscript took me about five years to write that would mean, according to this rule of thumb, I can expect to see my name […]

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Things that inspire me to write #71: Rain

The grass has turned a mushy brown, the winds are kicking up, and the sky looks like one big doggy bowl. There is nothing like ugly weather to make sitting at the computer for hours on end that much more inviting— especially so when you are in your mother in law’s fifth wheel trailer and […]

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Things that inspire me to write #73: Fluevog Shoes

  There are cakes, and then there are double chocolate tuxedo cakes. There is coffee and then there are hazelnuts Americanos. There are shoes, and then there are Fluevogs. Curving lines, flared heels, and funky-licious black trim—whenever I put on my maroon Mini Darlings I can’t decide if I feel like going out for lobster […]

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Things that inspire me to write #74: Dear Teen Me

Adolescence—it is a brutal stage of life filled with anxiety and doubt but wonderful highs I could probably only achieve these days with illegal drugs. And it’s for that reason that I am always drawn to that period of life as the setting for my manuscripts. And what better way to truly connect to that […]

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