As I write this, the radio morning show is doing a “streeter,” talking to people in the ByWard Market as COVID-19 restrictions in Ontario ease. Non-essential businesses are opening again, with limited capacity: stores, restaurants, bars, summer camps and others. People who speak with the radio reporters express relief, even joy at the ability to […]
Creating a world is fun! That’s why I want to bring you, my readers along on this journey into the future. Once again, I am moving into a new genre: near-future dystopian fiction. The working title is either “Fractured States of America” or “The Woman from the Prairie Bank.” The situation In the year 2050, […]
I am the author behind all these books written from a woman’s perspective. Here is the proof.
exercise regularly eat healthy spend less time on social media Yah. Let’s go with that. New Year’s Day is such a cliché as a starting point for new projects so that the short lifespan of new year’s resolutions is a cliché in itself. Even so, I cannot resist the inspiration of resolve and hope that […]
It’s the shortest day of the year, and I find myself expectant. I am looking out the window of my study. I should be writing, or editing, but I feel more like I am waiting. Like the whole world is waiting. For what? Waiting for Christmas, of course. Or other holidays. As we all well […]
One of the best things about being a fiction writer is the ability to set stories literally anywhere on earth, in space, on other worlds and in world that never existed outside of your own imagination. For me, that means I can choose a setting at geographically interesting places. I’ve always loved maps. I must […]
It’s now the—what? 6th?—week of isolation and #covisolation, and I’m used to it. I don’t mind having to stay in, and work from my house. I have a very nice house. I have put a lot of work into it. It looks beautiful. It’s got my wife, my son, and now three cats (I know). […]
A month after I started sheltering in place, I hear a lot of people advocating for life to get back to normal. Leaders talk about reopening the economy, about getting kids back into school. People want to “get back to normal.” No. Normal just isn’t good enough. We have to put health ahead of money. […]
Covid-19 is far from the first pandemic the world has faced. The bubonic plague first emerged in history during the sixth century CE. Called the Plague of Justinian, it spread rapidly around the Mediterranean, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire, killing off an estimated one-third of the population. Some estimates put the death […]
This is one of those times that clarifies the word surreal. To qualify: I’m neither in quarantine nor isolation. I have no symptoms. I have not been near anyone with symptoms. I have not travelled in over a month. The whole family is healthy and safe. But life is certainly different. Driving to the grocery […]