I made another thing. It look a long time, but I finished my first pseudo-kawandi piece created around a fish kite image from a piece of Japanese fabric. Other elements include: old table runners, several dresses, obi fabric from Japan, and an old decorative pillow case. I’ve now started on the second one, featuring a […]

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Two weeks ago, my flamenco teacher, Elena Mamais (known as Elena La Comadre) died. Last week, her family, friends, and students buried her. I think she would have appreciated the aesthetic of the scene: the white snow coating the trees at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, the black coats of the mourners, the red flowers we threw […]

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I read a total of (roughly) 136 books this year, of which 43% were non-fiction. My audiobook count went up a bit this year, driven partially by what version was available through the Toronto Public Library and partially because I went to Spain and wanted to be able to look at scenery while still reading! […]

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I’ve had a little flurry of emails from ‘book marketing specialists’ offering to feature my novels in their special book club communities. The emails are clearly written by AI and describe my novels in the most glowing terms. Too bad it’s all a scam, because I would definitely use parts of these as promotional material! […]

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COLD HILLSIDE is on sale from all the usual Ebook spots in the US, Canada, and Great Britain today. In other news, almost through the first whirl of estate stuff. I’m trying to get back into the writing groove by doing a daily word prompt. So far, there have been some words right up my […]

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On October 27th, my father died. He was 91, in good health the month before, and then gone. He went in the best way possible under the circumstances. He was at peace and said repeatedly that he was grateful for the life he had been given and had no regrets. We were able to spend […]

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I contributed to the BookDNA.com ‘Best Books I read in 2025″ again this year. I enjoy the process of reviewing all my reading, and the fact that you can include old books (sometimes really old books) gives it a wider range than the usual “Best of 2025” lists. Check here see what I chose. And […]

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This comes hot on the heels of my notes about what I read at the cottage, so expect some duplication! FICTION The Feast, Margaret Kennedy I started listening to a podcast called “Backlisted” and even though I was listening to episodes about books I had already read, somehow NEW books kept sneaking on to my […]

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For various reasons, rather less reading got done this year, though much fun was had despite that. I only read/finished/started 9 books. In my defense, several of them were long! Several of my faves below. Fiction: Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark. I ended up liking this rather more than I expected. The prose was lovely […]

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I spent some time digging through old storage boxes in an attempt to find the cache of my old lyrics, written in my teens and early twenties when I wanted to be in a band. My hope was that were would be something decent enough to pass on to my husband to use in one […]

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