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... →Dear Cookie,
I’m sorry.
Your husband put me up to it.
He said it was for your own good.
Please forgive me.
During the first part of December, I made several appearances at bookstores and malls in Nova Scotia. My last obligation of the season took me to the Chapters store in Dartmouth, where I [...]
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... →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... →What Bonnie Stern Book Club When Sunday, November 13, 2011 6:30pm – Where (map) Toronto, ON Other InfoThe amazing Bonnie Stern is hosting a book club event for me and The Virgin Cure at Toronto’s Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill. Starfish’s owner, Patrick McMurray is a champion oyster shucker (which, I [...]
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... →What WFNS Gala – Fall into Writing When Saturday, September 24, 2011 7:00pm – Where (map) Halifax, NS Other InfoGASP as AMI MCKAY &, STEPHENS Gerard MALONE reveal their most MORTIFYING moments on the job
BE ENTHRALLED as Nova Scotia’s favorite authors mix, mingle and SPILL ALL about [...]
read on... →What Sense and Serendipity (or, “From Fact to Fiction”) When Friday, September 16, 2011 7:00pm – Where (map) Port Williams, NS Other InfoPlease join me for an evening at The Port Williams Library! I’m giving a presentation on how my passion for historical research feeds my fiction. (there will be a Q&A portion [...]
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.
