Archive for September, 2011
Travel Tip: Leave the Sticky Notes at Home
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011I’m in Vancouver today, jet-lagged and a little foggy-minded. But not so foggy-minded that I can’t learn from my mistakes. Oh, no. And here’s an important one: leave the sticky notes at home. I don’t do well with airport security. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important — in the wake of 9-11, I’m [...]
Bravery
Friday, September 23rd, 2011Last night CBC aired a story on my cousin, Mark Dawson, and his wife Yoo Choi. Yoo died a few months ago. She had a gambling addiction that she had struggled with in the past. Things got out of control and she committed suicide. Yoo was an incredible woman. One of the warmest, kindest, funniest [...]
Book Review: You Against Me
Monday, September 19th, 2011Jenny Downham’s latest book, You Against Me, was released just last week from Doubleday Canada. It’s brilliant. Doubleday sent me a few books to review, and since this one had the earliest release date, it was at the top of the list. But once I cracked the spine that wouldn’t have mattered. The narrators’ voices [...]
Lost My Golf Balls
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011Last February, I blogged about a nice metaphor my friend Susan Blakeney uses when it comes to organizing her life. Life is a jar, and you have a bunch of things that you want to fit in it. Sand and seashells, and maybe a few golf balls. Yeah, the golf balls still seem weird to [...]
Book Review: Matched
Monday, September 12th, 2011This is one of those books that I probably wouldn’t have picked up on my own. The girl-in-a-bubble cover is pretty, but didn’t grab me. Not sure why; it’s a great cover. It just didn’t look like my kind of book. But a few weeks ago, I had the chance to meet some book bloggers [...]
Plotting and Pantsing
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011Today’s blog post is inspired by K.M. Weiland’s post on plotting. Worth a look, if you haven’t come across it already. I’m looking forward to her new book! I’m an outliner. A “plotter,” as writer-types tend to call it. (As opposed to a “pantser,” who is more likely to start off with a character or [...]
Write Like Jose Bautista
Thursday, September 1st, 2011Maybe that should be “Write Like Jose Bautista Bats.” I have no idea whether or not he writes. But if he does, I bet he’s good at it. (Spoken like the wife of a true Jays fan.) So a month or two ago, I found my brother’s Sports Illustrated magazine at the cottage. I noticed [...]