Be grateful…or John Green will kick your ass

August 26, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

Grandmas, Netflix and other sanity savers for the obsessive writer

April 7, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

My mom is away this week, visiting my sister in Montreal. And though it’s only been four days so far, already I am going a little crazy without someone to sub me off of Toddler-dom and set my fingers free. Yes, I love spending time with my son, but creativity, when not regularly unleashed […]

Writing inspiration: an island cabin

March 18, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I read somewhere once that going somewhere new is a good for the writer’s mind, the unfamiliar surroundings stimulating creativity and fresh ways of seeing. I just got back from an island retreat with my girlfriends and our collective kidlets yesterday, and was happy to discover a pile of plot tweaks nestled among my sand filled socks. Maybe […]

Things that inspire me to write #42: Friends

December 17, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

They laugh at my jokes, even if they are not always funny (it happens). They listen to my doubts and urge me to carry on. They think everything I write is Giller worthy (one of them anyway). They provide alcohol when alcohol is needed, and chocolate when chocolate is needed. I may lose hope of […]

Things that inspire me to write #45: Ellen Hopkins

December 14, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Because, she thinks leaning over the keyboard with a crowbar spine, I never believed, I could get pulled into a novel, Written in verse. Or that it was even possible. So thank you Ellen Hopkins, for disrupting–and expanding–my concept of what a novel can be, you inspire me.

Things that inspire me to write #47: Chocolate Arts

December 13, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

Every year around this time my family and I embark on afternoon of truffle making. It’s a pretty good time–how can anything that involves chocolate, marzipan and liquor filling not be? However, despite all our thermometer watching, ever-so-gentle butter stirring and measured sprinkling–the end results generally resemble very chunky cat-turds. Making chocolates that looks as good as […]

Things that inspire me to write #49: Meg Cabot

December 10, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

It takes a lot of work and time to produce a novel manuscript. At least for me. My very first attempt took almost five years. Granted, the subsequent works have not been quite so painfully long to create, but only marginally so–which is why I am always completely blown away when I see Meg […]