Rea

i'm obsessed with shorts. short. stories.

a letter from alice

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sweet jesus, i returned home to a letter from Alice Munro.  did you know that she tapes her envelopes for good measure?  says a lot about her.  

shitty first drafts

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i sorted out my messy story that i sorta kinda completed last weekend. parts of it were okay and others were absolute shit. i don’t know what i was thinking when i wrote some of those words. and that is the process. back and forth, back and forth, advancing slowly to story’s end. it occurs … Read more

i can’t sleep

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i’m at The Banff Centre and i can’t sleep. it’s too stimulating. i’m writing my brains out and, all night long, i lie in my bed in a half-awake, half-asleep state. the radiators tell me that somewhere in this building a baby is crying. it’s all good.

vulnerability

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i reworked an old essay of mine titled “MEmory” and shortened it so i could submit to CBC Creative Nonfiction contest.  it was difficult to do for a variety of reasons, mostly emotional.  it’s an essay about my grief after my Mom died and, in it, i’m as honest as i can be.  this kind … Read more

a fucking effigy

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the globe and mail no longer has literary editors.  it is floating through literary life, unhinged.  there will, however, be improved product placement. please note there will be a globe and mail montage-figure puppet in a business suit burning at my house, later this week.  anyone in? PS   i hear Douglas Coupland is hawking furniture. … Read more

i avoid personal stories

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and i don’t know why beyond fear.  and conditioning.  but every once in a while my stories show up inside my fiction and it’s always a surprise.  it happens when i’m in flow.  yesterday i wrote about changing my mom’s dressings for the first time, hands shaking.  oh, i placed the scene inside a story … Read more

technical difficulties

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i’m having technical difficulties with podcasting.  please return to regular programming while i consult a professional.

the marginalized short-story cycle

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i’m working my short-story cycle through Humber College and the structure of it has got me thinking: i don’t know a fucking thing about the structure of a short-story cycle. sure, there’s the various structures for stories that i’ve experienced, largely by a combination of trial and error, modelling, and falling into something by accident. … Read more

i’m honoured

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that one of my stories has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for fiction. the story is titled ‘The Suitable Dress’ and it ran in the summer 2012 edition of GRAIN Magazine (39.4). not only is it a pleasure to have published in GRAIN, but this nomination is an honour. http://www.grainmagazine.ca/archive.html  

abandoned suitcases

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an article/project about abandoned suitcases. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/abandoned-suitcases-reveal-private-lives-of-insane-asylum-patients/ i’ve worked with mentally ill folks and the stuff they packed was fascinating. in my days in the ER doing psych assessments, i would ask to see their suitcases. you can tell a lot by the manner in which a bag is packed and, also, by who packed it. … Read more