From My Blog

Last week, my newspaper column was about a memoir writing workshop I will be participating in at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum at the end of September. Together with four other local writers, I’ll be giving tips and ideas for … Continue reading →

I had a childhood memory that my school classrooms all had pull down maps of Canada and the world that were decorated with Neilson Chocolate bars. When I was writing my novel Sixties Girl I did some research to make … Continue reading →

At the Mennonite/s Writing Ten conference I attended last weekend I heard Manitoba author David Elias talk about a book he had recently stumbled upon called Voice in the Wilderness which contained a collection of memoir pieces written by his … Continue reading →

For Father’s Day my publisher Heritage House asked some of its authors to record videos about their relationship with their father and their writing. You can listen to the videos I made by clicking on them below. My Father’s Garden. … Continue reading →

This is the time of year when people are planting seeds in gardens and flower beds, hoping for a summer display of colour and produce. I came across an article recently by Colleen M. Story that offers ideas for writers … Continue reading →

One of my favourite things about visiting a school to talk to a group of students who have just finished reading my book, Lost on the Prairie, is to see the artwork they have created for the novel. I’ve amassed … Continue reading →

It’s Canadian Independent Book Store Day, a day to celebrate the importance of indie bookstores that contribute so much to their local communities and provide a bastion of support for Canadian writers, illustrators and publishers. At this critical point in … Continue reading →

I’m taking a course right now in learning how to write picture books. Over the years, I’ve developed quite a number of picture book manuscripts, but none of them have sold, so I decided it was time to take a … Continue reading →

I’m not sure how many poems kids memorize these days, but when I was in elementary school, we memorized poetry a lot. Steinbach, the community where I spent my childhood, had a speech arts festival. Every year, I recited a … Continue reading →

The Atlantic Monthly published an article yesterday revealing that millions of authors’ works were used without permission to train META’s artificial intelligence. META is owned by Mark Zuckerberg. According to writer Alex Reisner META explored buying the rights to the … Continue reading →