Hello, friends. Did you know that I've been writing this blog since September 2009, and that there are 380 posts in total? No? Me neither! I had to check. I've been looking back because I'm starting to look ahead. I've decided to wind down this blog at the end of 2016, in order to make more time for other kinds of writing. Published posts will stay up and I'm planning to keep in touch with … [Read more...]
An interview with Arushi Raina
Hello, friends. My last post for the History Girls is now live! In it, I interview the wonderful debut author Arushi Raina about When Morning Comes, her novel about the Soweto Uprising of 1976. Please do read it! … [Read more...]
Looking ahead, part 2
Hello, friends. I'm sorry this post is late. I couldn't bring myself to blog yesterday (November 8), with the US election still an open question. And it's taken me some time today to absorb the first implications of the result. There's no joy in being part of a stunned population of international observers. Nick and I talked about the future before work this morning. We felt rattled and … [Read more...]
Looking ahead
Hello, friends. This summer, our 50?-year-old kitchen finally, completely, unequivocally broke beyond any reasonable repair. We decided to renovate it and hey let's divide a bedroom in two so the kids can have their own rooms and while we're at it we should really rectify the plumbing in the bathroom and you know, we may as well turn the stairs around and bring them up to code while we're at it. … [Read more...]
And the winner is…
Warmest congratulations to Martine Leavitt on winning the 2016 Governor General's Award for Young People's Literature (Text category) for her astounding novel, Calvin! Here's our jury citation: In Martine Leavitt’s Calvin, a boy newly diagnosed with schizophrenia makes a pilgrimage across a frozen Lake Erie. Told in spare, beautiful prose, this transcendent exploration of reality and truth … [Read more...]
Momentum
Hello, friends. I've already mentioned this on Twitter and Facebook but my big news this week is that I received a Writers' Works-in-Progress Grant from the Ontario Arts Council! I would be deeply grateful for the OAC's support at any time, but their letter and cheque came at the end of a fortnight when I'd been side-eyeing my ungainly WIP and generally feeling that I'd lost all momentum. As Steph … [Read more...]