The holiday season this year may involve no Tree Decorating Party (36 years running), no Christmas Eve dinner with family, no Christmas Day visit to “the Hall” to see the extended clan, no brunch with friends, no New Year’s Eve dinner and movie with the usual suspects, but at least we still got a tree […]

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We see a fair bit of live music, mostly because we have subscriptions to three different series (one classical on Sunday afternoons, one modern music series, and one mix of everything from Bach interpretations to a tribute to Frank Zappa). In 2019, I counted 22 shows on the calendar. Needless to say, 2020 has not […]

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My good friends at The House of Pomegranates Press have started to produce amazing editions of classic titles with the feel of old books. As it says on their website: “Whenever we would find ourselves wandering in book shops, dusty antique or junk shops we are always drawn to the back where the stacks of […]

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It was 20 degrees celsius today. The sun was shining. We saw friends at an appropriate distance. Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States. It was a good day.

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Hallowe’en in Ontario is not exactly cancelled – just “recommended against”. This shouldn’t make much difference to us, because our activity ranges between 10 and 20 kids. Trick or Treating action in our neighbourhood of small blocks is highly street-dependent. If you don’t have critical mass of decorations, they just keep on walking. This doesn’t […]

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I’d mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve recorded seven short readings and that my husband has been composing background music for them. Now he’s discovered imovie and has made the jump to adding moody and evocative visuals to his compositions. I don’t know that we’re going to be able to come up with the […]

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Just put the (almost) finishing touches on the new material being added to the upcoming reissue of my Discovering Japan short story collection, due out in December. This new version features a new cover, one additional unpublished short story, and THREE (count ’em, three!) sections from the Work In Progress, aka “The Witch Novel”. Stay […]

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The annual two weeks up north was the usual balm for the soul, despite rainy weather the first week. I went swimming twice (given that the second time was on September 15th, I thought that was pretty good. It was … not warm). I did my one annual ride on the rail trail. I got […]

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Despite the fact that there’s finally a breeze, literal in the fact that it’s not appalling hot and metaphorical in the sense that I’m doing a ‘250 words a day’ project right now. I’m on target but…. but…. There’s always a but. I’m working on both the Witch Novel and the completely reimagined Glass! Art! […]

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What is there to say on any of this anymore? The days come and go, I write a bit or I don’t, I practice flamenco or I don’t, I garden or I don’t. None of it is very interesting. This is not to say there haven’t been good moments. Socially distanced picnics and cocktails have […]

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