Writing craft

To my U.S. friends: Buying prescriptions in Canada will make you worse off

  From what I have heard on the news, I know I speak for a lot of Canadians on this following. While we are happy to share what we have, please don’t think that buying the prescription medications in Canada, or in any other country, is a solution to the high drug prices you pay […]

You have nothing to fear but ... yourself

This is a guest post that originally appeared on my former Blogspot blog. It was written by Scott Morgan, who at the time owned the Write Hook: Writing for the jugular blog and was the author of Character Development From the Inside Out and Short Stack.  It seems that Scott has since quit the writing […]

Why I love to meet readers

I love book signings, sales and other events where I can talk with readers directly. Last year, I did a bunch of events. Some were terrific, with lots of traffic and interaction. Some were … not so much, where I sold one or two books. But still, the experience was positive enough that I have […]

The best and worst of DG Torrens

This instalment of “the best and worst” is by mother, author and blogger DG Torrens. Her blog, My Books and I, covers the writer’s experience as well as book reviews and previews of her own book (kind of like this one). I have also contributed a guest post on her blog. But read this one […]

Speedbumps on the road to writing

Sometimes when writing, I feel like I’m just rolling nicely. The word count climbs, I describe setting and action, important events flow onto the pages and then, WHAM! I’m stopped by some tiny detail that I need to research. I like the fiction I write to contain as much fact as possible, whether it’s a […]

(Almost) live blogging from the Ottawa Authors' Market

This was intended to be a live blog from the Authors’ Market in front of the ByWard Market in Ottawa. But I found the limits of my iPad and wi-fi. Yesterday was my fifth live book selling and signing event so far this summer.  And as you can see in the picture, I had something […]

Writing can go fast, and then you run headfirst into a wall: how did ancient people live? What did they eat? What kind of clothes did they wear? What were their houses like? This gets more challenging the more obscure you get, particularly when you’re dealing with pre-literary cultures. I’m deep into writing The Triumph […]

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 […]

How well do you know the Dark Age?

I’ve been working on The Triumph of the Sky, the sequel to my first-published novel, The Bones of the Earth. Both books are set around the turn of the fifth to the six century, the darkest part of the Dark Age. I thought I should familiarize you with this fantastic, yet historical universe so you’re […]