Train Ride through the Rockies
Monday, February 20th, 2012Everybody has one. That dream — that thing you’re going to do someday. I’m thinking about it this week for a couple of reasons. The first is sad. My friend’s father died recently, and the funeral was last week. Mr. Moore was a wonderful, warm, caring man who had lost his wife a few years [...]
Happy Halloween!
Monday, October 31st, 2011I have two things to share today. The first is my Halloween/scary book recommendation: The Name of the Star, by Maureen Johnson. I started it yesterday, and had to stay up really late to finish it, because I needed to see some kind of resolution. I couldn’t possibly go to sleep with all those ghosts [...]
Cliffhangered
Thursday, October 27th, 2011I love the fact that my daughter is an avid reader. She devours books. I think she’s reading above grade level; I don’t really know, and I don’t really care. What matters to me is that she picks up books on her own and enjoy them for hours on end. She has a cosy little [...]
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 [...]
Happy Birthday: We’re Not in this Alone
Monday, August 22nd, 2011Today is my husband’s birthday. He doesn’t know I’m writing this. In On Writing, Stephen King talks a lot about his wife, Tabitha. He says that whenever he sees a first novel dedicated to the writer’s spouse, he thinks to himself, “They get it.” Because it takes a special kind of person to put up [...]
Scott Cannata’s Run Across Canada
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011Have you heard about Scott Cannata yet? Not a lot of people have. The only reason I did is that he’s a local boy. He went to my daughter’s school, years ago. He’s running across Canada to raise money for cancer. A marathon a day. Sound familiar? Terry Fox is one of his heroes. Scott’s [...]
Compost
Friday, July 15th, 2011“Write what you know.” We’re told that a lot, aren’t we? Something bad happened in my extended family recently. I’m not going to go into detail because it’s not my story to tell, and never will be. I love and respect the people involved too much for that. But I’ve learned a little about different [...]
Open Letter to my MP
Friday, April 29th, 2011I live in Whitby, Conservative stronghold and home to our current Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty. He’s our MP. And I figure, whatever the outcome of the election Federally, he’s pretty safe. But I don’t know who I’m voting for yet. Because the issue that had me worried before the election has kind of vanished, and [...]
The Wrong Book
Monday, April 25th, 2011After I shared this story in class last week, Lena Coakley suggested that I blog about it. Our assignment was to identify the one children’s book that influenced us most, either as a reader or as a writer. Not an easy question at the best of times, and I admit, I was caught a bit [...]
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