From My Blog

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 →

In the last few weeks, the social media posts of Canadian authors have been filled with expressions of gratitude to the Canada Council. Every year the council sends out cheques to Canadian authors. You can receive between $500 to $4500 … Continue reading →

February is I Love to Read month so I thought I’d kick things off with a photo collection featuring people reading. My students read in the 1980s. I had an old bathtub in my classroom for kids to sit in … Continue reading →

I’m working on my third novel right now. It is set during the 1930s depression. One of the things I’ve been researching the last couple of weeks is what kind of foods were popular during the Great Depression in Canada. … Continue reading →

When I was in Victoria in October I had the pleasure of lunching with Lara Kordic the editorial director at Heritage House, the publishing company that has released my first two novels Lost on the Prairie and Sixties Girl. Lara … Continue reading →