Now on Sale: Cold Hillside and A Terrible Beauty

July 26th, 2024 · No Comments

The new (and beautiful) ebook editions of Cold Hillside and A Terrible Beauty are on sale for $1.99 until August 2nd, wherever fine ebooks (and some not so fine ones, I suppose) are sold!

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Tags: Books

Countdown to “New Edition” Day

July 2nd, 2024 · No Comments

Well, I’m not sure about the art, the prestige or the spite parts, but I did like this piece by John Waters from the 2017 Venice Biennale. New e-books editions with gorgeous new covers come out July 9th but you can pre-order now, if that strikes your fancy. Here’s more information from the good people […]

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Tags: Art · Books · News

The End is Coming (of my novel draft)

June 26th, 2024 · No Comments

In theory. I’m on version #3 right now, which is somewhat frustrating. I know what has to happen, but I’m struggling with the balance of ‘show vs. tell’ (no, Nancy, you cannot just narrate all the sections you don’t feel like writing …. or can I?) and finding the final paragraphs. One of my challenges […]

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Tags: Books · Events · Writing

New Cover: A Terrible Beauty

May 23rd, 2024 · No Comments

A switch from blue to red… I think this book poses the biggest challenge to a cover artist. It’s not easy to convey the mix of fairy tale and period horror and to showcase the importance of the setting to the story. This one is evocative without being explicit and it looks great.

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Tags: Books · News

Covers! Copy!

March 29th, 2024 · 2 Comments

Things are moving along towards the reissue of the four novels from Open Road Media. I’ve seen both the covers (gorgeous, once the top hat is gone!) and the promotional ‘jacket copy’ (is that what you call it when there are no jackets?). It’s always fascinating to see how different artists approach the covers. I’ve […]

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Tags: Writing

Get yourself a Hallowe’en present

October 23rd, 2019 · No Comments

A Terrible Beauty is on sale for a short time for just $2.99 (ebook edition) at Amazon.com and Kobo (US sites only). Treat yourself for Hallowe’en this year.

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Tags: Uncategorized

Soundtracks, Part III

October 26th, 2014 · No Comments

After the non-soundtrack post last week, we’re back on topic.  A Terrible Beauty most definitely had a soundtrack.  Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Sarah McLachan’s 1993 album, turned out to be the perfect blend of mood and music for that book. The lines “The night is my companion/and solitude my guide/Would I spend forever here/and not be […]

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Tags: Books · Influences · Music

Nature, description and breaking the rules

August 4th, 2014 · No Comments

    I know that Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules for writing include “Don’t go into great detail describing places and things” but I love writing those. Part of the pleasure of travelling is watching out the window of the train, finding ways to describe what I see, or discovering the perfect graffiti on a dumpster […]

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Tags: Influences · Writing

New E-Book Releases and Upcoming Reading

February 11th, 2014 · No Comments

  At last, some real news can be revealed. In the first big news, the talented team at ChiZine Publications is bringing out my first three novels as e-books, complete with stunning new covers.  A special thanks to Gillian Holmes for The Night Inside and Blood and Chrysanthemums.  They’ll be released in a few weeks. Secondly, […]

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Tags: Books · Events · News

Deciding what to read

May 5th, 2013 · No Comments

Today’s job is to figure out what to read for the Lost at Sea event this Thursday.  (You are all coming, right?   Augusta House, Toronto, 7:30.  Readings, music, art, cake, cocktails, swag, merchandise – it’ll be fabulous.) I’m always envious of people who can manage to read the first chapter of their novel and have […]

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Tags: Events · News · Uncategorized