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Tending the Garden
This morning I looked at my backyard–naked again now that the blanket of snow has melted, and oh so terribly forlorn– and I saw nothing but piles of dog poo. I couldn’t call to mind the summer garden...
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Fairy Rings and other things
When my son was young we spent a lot of time in the woods looking for things. Sometimes it was heffalumps. Sometimes it was rings of amanita muscaria- the classic white spotted red toadstool- on the...
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Graceful Warriors
My friend Deb was the best flea-marketer ever. She could ferret out vintage like nobody’s business. My 1960’s raybans, my Coach purse, my beautiful Mexican wall hanging, were all gifts from her. When...
View ArticleThe Delight in the Words
So, I’m reading The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson ( the last book she wrote before she died) to my kids. My youngest is old enough now to appreciate the same book as my oldest which makes things even...
View ArticleThe Punk Rock
My kids don’t understand the punk rock. They ask me, “why’d you dress like that?” “why was your hair that ugly color?” They say “that style made you look like a skunk” or “a homeless person.” Or they...
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Becoming Fierce: Teen Stories IRL
This honest and moving anthology of YA writers comes out September 23 2014. I have a story in here about my best friend, our turbulent youth, and the bad choices we made out of love, desperation, and a...
View ArticleBecoming Fierce Blog Tour
The Becoming Fierce: Teen Stories IRL blog tour has started! From September 9 until September 23 you’ll be able to check out early reviews of our creative non-fiction anthology, plus Q&As with the...
View ArticleBalance and the Bookstore
I’ve always worked in ‘different’ jobs- the independent music industry for over twenty years back when it was fun, as a landscape gardener, as a tree surgeon, as a bookseller. The most ‘regular’ jobs...
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The Spaces in Between
This weekend I was on a panel at the breathtaking new Halifax Central Library (pictured here), with acclaimed journalist and fellow Fierce Shorts author, Chris Benjamin, talking about writing from...
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LEXICON BOOKS, GRAND OPENING MAY 1ST 2015
A poet, a novelist, and an illustrator walk into a bar….. Actually we didn’t meet in a bar but I’m pretty sure that wine was involved. Or coffee. Books go with everything. I will say that when we first...
View ArticleLetter to my Grandmothers
My Italian grandmother, my nonna Giovannina, taught me how to knit when I was eight years old. She cast on with her fingers and held the needles tucked in between her ample bosom and her armpits. I had...
View ArticleLetter to my Grandmothers
My Italian grandmother, my nonna Giovannina, taught me how to knit when I was eight years old. She cast on with her fingers and held the needles tucked in between her ample bosom and her armpits. I had...
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Exciting News!!!!! (and it’s been a long looooonnnggg time coming)
I’ve been sitting on this for over four months and it was like perching on a gigantic sea urchin. It was painful but finally (and serendipitously on my birthday), the news was finally broken. I am so...
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New Author photo
I thought it was time for an update. This pic taken by the amazing Madeleine Kendall (www.madeleinekendall.com) seems more appropriate for an author whose next book is about a fledgling serial killer....
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Blood Will Out
Update: The YA psych thriller (formerly NEEDS MUST) has a new title- BLOOD WILL OUT- which I think is terrifyingly appropriate. Stay tuned to this page for announcements and other fun stuff. I’ll...
View ArticleA Few Questions About the Writing of Blood Will Out
3 months. 3 months (and 4 tiny days) until Blood Will Out hits the shelves. I’ve been getting emails from various readers and they tend to ask similar questions so I thought I’d answer a few of them...
View ArticleA Few More Questions About Blood Will Out
What was the weirdest thing you needed to research for the story? Ok, without any spoilers, let me just say that I had to do a lot of research for this book including answering questions I had about...
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What Kind of a Person Could Write a Book Like That?
OK, to answer the first part of this. I am a single mother of two amazing kids, a pet owner (2 dogs and 2 bossy cats), a vegetarian since the age of 12 (an incentive to stop eating animals was that my...
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The Hardcover
Dear Reader, Oh happy day! I received a copy of the hardcover in the mail today. It’s always so exciting and weird to see a book you wrote in the flesh (so to speak). It always seems lighter than it...
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Montreal YA Lit Fest 2018
I live in a tiny, magical chocolate box of a seaside town tucked away on the south shore of Nova Scotia. I look after my kids and pets; I write; I read scores of books in my sunroom perched over the...
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