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An adventuresome holiday

  I have had some pretty adventuresome vacations: Banff, where I had my closest encounter with a grizzly bear; whitewater canoeing in Ontario and Quebec; and last year, when we got uncomfortably close to the wine country wildfires. And last month, I encountered a different kind of adventure in Portugal. It’s a wonderful place, and […]

Live blogging at Arts in the Park

11:30: All set up Never open with the weather, said Elmore Leonard. Okay. Now that I’ve opened, I can tell you that it’s a beautiful, clear, sunny and hot day in Stittsville, Ontario. This is my second year at this event, just a few kilometres down the bicycle trail from my home in Kanata. No, […]

Indonesia family bombings: Books never reach this level of evil

Real evil reaches depths that most writers who want to appear credible would never dream of—not if they wanted to be taken seriously. Last weekend, families carried out two terrorist bombings in Indonesia. Parents and children. On Saturday, May 12, a family of six suicide-bombed three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city. Dad drove a […]

Why do I like writing?

Why do I like writing? Some people I know say “I don’t like writing; I like having written.“ To an extent, I can understand that. I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes when I complete a piece of writing, whether it’s an article for a magazine, a book, a story or even a blog post. […]