One film I liked a lot at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was Kuessipan, the story of two young women growing up in a Quebec Innu community. It’s a deep look at female friendship and the hard questions of leaving a community or staying there; about racism and colonialism and the bright joys of being […]
Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel, Unsheltered, is a worried book. It’s worried about climate change, worried about the American economy, about health care in the U.S. (or the lack of access to it), about the American middle class withering away. Kingsolver was worried when she published the book last year, and I would bet she’s even more […]
I’ve been trying to write one of these posts for a while. But what happens when you lose interest in marketing? Because no one’s really fooled about social media, are we? The tech giants use it to gather our data while we use it to market and brand ourselves, posting images of our flawless lives (not), […]
Peacock-feathered butterfly wings on the back of a perfectly spotlit gown. Blade Runner leather body suits. Kick-ass boots with red flames, a red-eyed skull and a gold TM logo: all this at the Thierry Mugler haute couture exhibition at the Musée des beaux-artes in Montreal. I like ducking into art museums, finding a moment outside the crowded […]
I’m just finishing off decent drafts of two new novels: a thriller and a literary manuscript. Going back and forth between the two doing rewrites, I’ve been thinking about the steps I ask screenwriters to consider when I’m story editing their scripts. Lately, the heightening draft. As a story editor, I tend to start off […]
Last night, I took a glass of wine and a book into the garden on a beautiful evening in Toronto, thinking I’d stay outside until the mosquitoes got bad. There weren’t any, and I stayed out until sunset. I repeat: No mosquitoes in Toronto in mid-July. I’ve been noticing all spring that there aren’t many […]
I didn’t know what to expect, so when we walked into the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, I was sucker-punched by the sight of Nick Cave’s soundsuits, extraordinary costumes constructed from everyday objects, everything from Grandma’s doilies to washboards to mid-century toy tops. They were wonderful, but what was the artist up to? I’m speaking […]
He was about as pumped as you could get, a dark spade beard above a thick neck that sloped down to enormous shoulders, his muscled arms looking oiled even outside the ring. Beside him was his wife, a very pretty Angelina Jolie-lookalike with puffed lips and the most astonishingly poreless skin, completely flawless under camera-ready […]
I wonder if anyone knew a man named Stan Johnson from Keewatin or Kenora, Ontario, a trainee pilot who worked for Starratt Airways in 1939. Because in going through my mother’s papers, I just found a proposal of marriage from him to her. More or less. It’s in a Starratt Airways envelope addressed to my […]
The phone rang yesterday when I was expecting a call, so I picked up. “Hello, this is Windows technical department.” The usual scam, to which I gave my usual answer. “No, it’s not. This is a scam. You take money from old people and confused people. Don’t you have any grandparents?” That’s usually enough to […]
I’ve fallen into a new routine lately of getting up very early and reading poetry. Darkness, a cup of tea, a quiet house and a thin book. Reading three or four poems concentrates the mind wonderfully. Most recently, I’ve finished a lovely collection, Roo Borson’s Cardinal in the Eastern White Cedar,a meditation on mortality. Borson […]
Here it is Valentine’s Day, and we’re celebrating with the release of an audiobook of my novel, Mad Richard. Read by Pascal Langdale, the book is available starting today on all major audiobook sites, including Audible, audiobooks.com, Libro.fm and probably others I don’t know about. Check your favourites and see if it’s there. It should […]