I had a target of 5,000 words for July, which I managed to achieve* despite everything that was going on in the rest of my life. I’m not persuaded they were GOOD words, mind you, or advanced the plots at all, but – as I am constantly being reminded – it’s easier to cut words […]

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It’s been an eventful few months. Some parts have been good (family visit, getting stuff done) and some parts have been bad (husband’s injury, death in the family). I’ve been getting a bit of writing done and, as always, a fair bit of reading. Here’s what stands out from the last few months. FICTION Termination […]

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After several months of twice-a-month rehearsals, there is finally a flamenco video featuring yours truly and two other (much more talented) dancers from the school. My husband kindly added the text but the video captures one entire performance – no edits. At least my hat didn’t fall off in this one. Check it out in […]

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Bad news: husband went to get out of bed one morning and couldn’t stand up. He’s now three weeks into serious pain in his back and leg, lousy sleep, multiple ineffective prescriptions, and physiotherapy, Things are slowly getting better. Good news: I’ve had to take over the grocery shopping and basic food prep and we […]

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Somewhat to my own surprise, I’ve now passed 100,000 words on The Witch Novel. Some of them are even good words, I think. This project had its beginnings in 2015, the year after COLD HILLSIDE was published. I’d gone back to some old, unfinished projects to see if anything might spark some inspiration. I made […]

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This was the book for which I had the most difficulty choosing a passage to read.  I had sections that I’d performed successfully before, but they tended to be long, require explanations, and lack any shorter sections that had internal arcs.  This latter is very important in readings, at least for me, because I want […]

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That’s the perennial question for an avid reader. My “to read” list is always much too long but now I’ve got a new way to make it longer. I was contacted by Shepherd, a new site for connecting readers, authors, and books. Authors are invited to provide a list of five recommended books on a […]

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Here’s the second installment in my collaboration with my husband on “words and music”. This passage for COLD HILLSIDE is the most description-heavy of the excerpts I chose for this project.  It’s the first introduction to the fey and I wanted to try to capture their elusive, unreal qualities before the later part of the […]

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During the pandemic, an opportunity arose to get a grant to do some digital creative work. That never happened, but it seemed like a great project to work on anyway, especially in the middle of ongoing COVID restrictions. I’ve had some experience recording myself reading but now I had the opportunity to add music, as my husband’s […]

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I did A LOT of reading this year. I suppose being stuck at home during a pandemic will do that for you. Total books read: roughly 160 Fiction: 62% Non-Fiction: 38% Below are some of the ones I liked best, in no particular order. While I read fewer non-fiction titles, more of them stuck with […]

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