While the world has been memorializing the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I’ve been thinking about a quieter, yet equally mysterious passing that happened on the same day.
In the mid-nineteenth century a man who became known as “Jerome” was found on the shores of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia, mute and missing [...]
read on... →Here are a few highlights from my recent trip to Toronto.
Yes, it’s true. The fabulously talented Erin Morgenstern (author of The Night Circus) “accosted” me at the Toronto Public Library Foundation’s Book Lover’s Ball. And, of course, I loved every minute of it. In truth, we were mostly bonding over our love of [...]
read on... →
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
- Emily Dickinson
Libraries hold a special place in my heart. The public library in my hometown of Lebanon, Indiana was the place I spent most Saturday mornings as a child. My mom [...]
read on... →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... →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... →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 [...]
read on... →
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: [...]
read on... →
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
