In 1870, there were over thirty thousand children living on the streets of New York and many more who wandered in and out of cellars and tenements as their familes struggled to scrape together enough income to put food on the table.
Under the mentorship of sister physicians Drs. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, my great-great [...]
read on... →Due to a SNOWFALL WARNING for the Annapolis Valley and other parts of Nova Scotia, my event in Wolfville has been RESCHEDULED.
Please join me TUESDAY, November 29th at 7:30 pm in the Al Whittle Theatre for an evening of storytelling, reading, Q&A-ing and book signing! Tickets are $2 and can be purchased in advance [...]
read on... →At this years Read for the Cure event in Toronto, I spoke of the importance of storytelling. I shared a tale about how a story a seamstress once told a doctor in the late 1800′s led to a breakthrough in modern medical research.
I posted a blog entry about my part in that story a [...]
read on... →I’m often asked, how much research goes into your historical fiction? And more specifically with this new novel, was it difficult to write about New York City, (even the New York of another era,) while living in Nova Scotia?
The answer to the first question is loads. It takes a tremendous amount of [...]
read on... →I’m thrilled to announce that The Virgin Cure has been chosen as the first pick in Chatelaine Magazine’s inaugural book club!
The editors at Chatelaine have regularly shared their favourite books with readers in the past, and their online books discussion forum has been a fabulous part of their web site for years, so it’s [...]
read on... →After you’ve finished writing a novel, there comes a moment when you decide to pack up the notebooks, index cards, and sticky notes you’ve scattered through your life for the past few years and bid them a fond farewell. It’s a bittersweet process to be sure, but it’s also a time of excitement, because (if [...]
read on... →When I’m working on a novel, I tend to gather music, quotes and images from various sources to inspire me as I write. The walls of my studio quickly become covered in photographs and words from the past, and my ipod gains new playlists based on setting, plot and characters.
I thought I’d share some [...]
read on... →Early in the summer I began working with Sarah Smith, an amazing young film maker and alum of the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts Teen Academy on a project inspired by The Virgin Cure. It was an honour to work with her and I have to say, when I viewed the final edit of [...]
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Just wanted to let you know about two events that are around the corner, and one that’s coming up in October.
This Sunday, September 11th, I’ll be popping by the Chapters in Dartmouth, NS (41 Mic Mac Blvd.), to take part in their fall preview event. If you’re in the Halifax/Dartmouth area and would [...]
read on... →Thanks so much to those who left comments on last weeks post! Here are the names of the winners from the draw for the signed mass market paperbacks of The Birth House (with prologue and chapter one from The Virgin Cure included in the back.)
Blair
Renee Meuse Bishara
Kim Boswell
Please email me at: [...]
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When I was a child I loved finding things…a jar of my grandmother's old buttons, a cigar box filled with boy scout badges and river stones, a flouncy party dress pushed to the back of my mother's closet - circa 1955. With every relic I discovered, there came a story. Real or imagined, the tales that surrounded each object were magic, making the 'thing' more immediate, something more than it was before I'd found it.
Fact or fiction, fantastic, joyful or sad, stories make us more than we were before we found them. Welcome to my shoebox of buttons, sealing wax and scribblings.
- posted on 16/05/2012 23:03:49
