I know it’s eccentric, distributing your backlist titles in Little Free Libraries. But when one of my publishers went under, I was left with eighty copies of two of my books, a novel and a memoir that I left in the basement—for years. Then, as I wrote last time, it occurred to me to slip […]
On a lovely warm fall day, I set out on a walk with my friend Alicia to take a tour of Little Free Libraries in her neighbourhood. With intent. In our backpacks were copies of two of my books from a publisher that had gone belly-up, hmmm, more than a dozen years ago. At the […]
Memoirs are my guilty, gossipy pleasure. They don’t offer the worthy, crunchy, authoritative examinations found in non-fiction titles bristling with footnotes. Nor do they have the license of novels to take us flying into imaginary worlds. I think of them as a hybrid, especially after encountering gaps in my own memory. “Remember him?” my husband […]
I lie when highlighting just two titles. I’m actually going to write about three memoirs, not only the ones above but also Abigail Thomas’s more recent book, What Comes Next and How to Like It—a title too long to fit in the headline. All are connected. All involve dogs, and while the dogs are important […]
When I teach creative writing, many of my students want a formula, rules, step-by-step guidance. And of course there are structures that can be learned (and modified). Formulas to be studied (and tweaked) along the path to writing a short story, novel or screenplay. Yet it’s crucial to remain open to serendipity, especially once you’ve […]
Moments before 3:30 pm on January 24, 2023, the lives of two men fell apart on an ordinary stretch of Danforth Avenue in Toronto. My friend Michael Finlay was pushed into a wooden holiday planter and died a week later of his injuries. The man who has admitted to pushing him, Robert Cropearedwolf, was sentenced […]
Robert Robin Cropearedwolf was sentenced in the Ontario Court of Justice today to three years in prison for manslaughter in the death of our friend, CBC journalist Michael Finlay. Given time already served in custody, Mr. Cropearedwolf will spend 20 months in prison. At the end of that time, Justice David Porter has ordered that […]
Real estate, the age-old obsession. It’s an ideal subject for writers, and one I think is under-utilized. Because, of course, houses are as concrete as you can get, but also thoroughly symbolic. They’re not just about shelter, but class and status. Where can you afford to live? What will you aspire to or settle for? […]
Spas, soaking, hot springs. I love them all, and earlier this month drove to a Korean spa in the northwestern corner of Toronto, a non-descript place in an industrial park near Finch and Dufferin. My friend Alicia knows about spots like this from having been a production designer in film, which means she’s explored odd […]
I paused on the second-to-last page of Philippa Gregory’s magisterial Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History. In her afterward, Gregory sums up the story she’s just told over 676 pages, a meticulously-researched look at the way opportunity and oppression have ebbed and flowed through the lives of women in England for almost a millennium. And by […]
I came early to the big concrete room, and as I watched, something magical happened. Dozens of women filtered in, filling the space the way people do in a film dissolve. They came alone or in small groups, women of every age and background, most of them smiling, laughing, vibrating with anticipation. Also two men: […]
**This is an older post. You can read the latest news about Robert Cropearedwolf’s sentencing here.** I can’t forget a strange moment after Robert Robin Cropearedwolf pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of our friend, CBC journalist Michael Finlay. This was last May following his plea hearing. The judge had left the courtroom, the […]