Last week was a banner week for my good friend Sandra Kasturi and ChiZine Publications.  Both the Aurora and Sunburst Awards were announced and the tally for CZP and friends was impressive. Sunburst Awards 2018 Best Novel:  The Bone Mother by David Demchuk (published by CZP) Best Short Story:  “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” by […]

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Back from two gorgeous weeks in Haliburton, Ontario.  The weather was almost perfect and even the cool days were considered a relief from this sweltering summer.  We were swimming right up until the last day. However, the glorious weather meant I did not accomplish as much as I might have hoped on the writing front (sure, blame […]

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Well, of course, there are many things one does at the cottage (by which I mean, that WE do at the cottage).  Cycling, hiking, kayaking, swimming, lounging, eating, drinking … the list goes on. Sometimes even writing is done at the cottage.  But the major thing we do at the cottage is read. We read inside […]

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Wednesday night’s Mortified Reading event for ChiSeries was a smashing success, with most of the audience wiping their eyes to keep from crying (with laughter! with laughter!) as Madeline Ashby, Don Bassingthwaite, Kari Maaren, Sandra Kasturi, Brett Savory, Elaine Chen, Stephen Michell, David Nickle, Gemma Files, Troy Harkin and I shared some of our best juvenile […]

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Just signed off on the proofs for the reprint of my story “Consent” for the new anthology Fright into Flight.  I’m very happy that this story will have a new life and share space with such incredible writers as Gemma Files and Nadia Bulkin.  You can preorder your copy at the link. Here’s my intro […]

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By sheer coincidence, I’ve read three books by musicians in the last month. I can recommend all of them. First up, Clothes, Music, Boys by Viv Albertine of the seminal punk band The Slits. This is a wry, raw, funny, and honest look at clothes (she provides a list of what she wore), music (wanting […]

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I did read a bit last year. Ok, I read a LOT last year, but a good chunk of it was for my duties on the Sunburst Award jury.  Much of that reading was pleasurable (if you need something new, just check out the winners and finalists) but it was still a massive number of […]

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We had a gorgeous week in September at a cottage in Haliburton, Ontario (essentially the best week of the entire summer). One of the rituals of the cottage holiday and our more extensive travels is the acquisition of the latest Lapham’s Quarterly.  It’s the perfect thing for reading that’s broken by swimming, hiking, and looking up […]

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For a book, of course. My first two novels (The Night Inside and Blood and Chrysanthemums) were set in Toronto, so finding locations wasn’t that difficult.  I just shamelessly stole from the places that I lived and worked.  Other bits I hand-waved as required (mostly deserted industrial lands … yeah, I think there are some […]

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  I’ve been less productive than hoped since Christmas (work, events, general laziness to blame) but I did revisit some of the exercises I did from Wonderbook by jeff Vandermeer.  The last one was quite challenging, as it involved rewriting a scene multiple times (some of which I admit to having skipped from lack of interest).  […]

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