Movember was an idea that became an annual fundraising movement. People grow a moustache over the month of November to help raise money for men’s health and well-being. I participated once over a dozen years ago, inspired by the idea and by how close to home it hit after my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate…
I’ve got a new idea for a story. This isn’t unusual. This isn’t unusual for this year or this month or even this week. I get new ideas for stories all the time. Writers of all stripes will tell you they’re in the same boat: Too many ideas with nowhere near enough time to use…
I realized about a decade ago that everything happens in phases. This may come across as old news to some — “the only constant is that everything changes”, as the saying goes — but that fact seems to hit me at particular times that stand out as a clear shift in something. I was at…
A short list this month. In fact, scratch that. A non-existent list. September was, for one reason and another, a month when I got zero books or graphic novels completed. Big ol’ goose egg. I’m still reading Rebels by David Liss, which I had just started at the end of August. But I’ve only been…
As a writer, my mind is turning out endless “What if…?” scenarios (at times not a good thing, as I’ve explained). And of course artists of all other stripes can play the same game. It’s fun for me to see how they do that; not just their thinking process for merging ideas to come up…
I’ve talked before about digital privacy — among other places, here and here and don’t forget here — but after making some choices then to help myself (and the ongoing effort to help my family) get some of that, I find myself coming around to revisit it again. A bit of a freshening up, as…
It’s been a busy month at work, so I’ve gotten to read less than I had hoped. Which, mind you, is pretty much par for the course any month. So it goes with we frustratingly slow readers. ReadThe Millennium Bomb – Ricky LimaThe Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your…
I recently finished writing my first novel. I have a tendency, once I’ve finished the first draft of a large project, to shelve it for a bit before I look at it again to start editing or tweaking it. The idea behind that, which I learned decades ago, is to move onto other projects and…
I got a job this past May working at the LCBO — Liquor Control Board of Ontario; the only place you can (legally) get booze in the province, though you can now get wine and beer in certain grocery store chains — which is easily the most intensive public-related retail work I’ve ever done. If…
Wikipedia was established in 2001, the idea being to make an online encyclopedia that anyone could add to and edit as needed to correct. It made sense, in theory: No one is an expert on everything, but there are experts in everything — or even just people who could offer insightful knowledge on any subject…