Writer, Dabbler In Things
Being in Canada, we get plenty of our entertainment from American sources. Sometimes on TV, that comes via American broadcasters who, of course, run American commercials. And sometimes–not often, but plenty, thanks–those ads are for pharmaceuticals. And I’m struck more often than not when those ads play, just how little of the ad time talks … Read more
Regulars here may notice that I freshened up the site with a new look. What do you think? Gone are the bulky header photo (on every page, which was an… interesting choice on the part of slightly younger me) and extraneous header title info on the other pages of the site.Trimmed down is the sidebar … Read more
I continue to work on my novel when time allows, my own dumb distractions can get effectively put aside (I’m a writer, so will put my ability to procrastinate up against anyone else’s), and I’m not working so late into the night that I’m literally falling asleep as I type. Yes, that’s happened. And it’s … Read more
As it’s World Book Day–and most of the planet remains in isolation due to this pandemic, so we’re all hopefully getting even more read than usual–I wanted to share some of my all-time favourite books. These are in no particular order, just however they popped into my head. An angel and demon who have lived … Read more
Bit of a light month for reading, oddly, but most of what I’ve gotten to has been enjoyable. ReadGlitch – Laura Martin Started and stoppedSpace Runners: The Moon Platoon – Jeramy Kraatz ReadingTrigger Warning – Neil Gaiman Glitch was quite a bit of fun. Doing time-travel stories must be tricky to write, but Martin does … Read more
Recently I’ve been listening to a podcast by comedian Mike Birbiglia called Working It Out. Episode 4 is less his usual quasi-formatted approach to interviewing comedians and notable personalities, and is instead Mike and his wife Jen Hope Stein having a talk about collaborating on creative work with someone you’re married to, with Matt Berninger … Read more
I’m continuing to toil away at what will be my first novel, but have once again run into the “What exactly am I doing here?” stage. Meaning, in this particular version of the question, what the book will end up being. And more pressing right now, what it even is at the moment. Here’s the … Read more
A big chunk of January was spent finishing off Y.S. Lee’s The Agency series (well worth your time if that genre is your thing, or perhaps even if it isn’t), but I squeaked in a couple of others as well. ReadZeroes – Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah BiancottiThe Agency: The Body at the Tower – … Read more
I realized some years ago that I had long preferred to not touch up my photos. I would sometimes need to–cropping is not uncommon to lop off bits distracting from the focus, of course; and I knew that certain photo printing services (remember those, fellow old people?) would tend to print a bit dark compared … Read more
Following the unprecedented Kickstarter campaign success with Exploding Kittens, the same crew published Unstable Unicorns. Here, each player is trying to build up a “stable” of a winning number of unicorns and/or unicorn-type creatures from their hand–totalling either six or seven, depending on number of players–while trying to prevent others from doing the same. Each … Read more