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

object memory

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i read a book recently that is lingering.  THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES by Edmund De Waal is a family memoir that traces the secret lives of tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke through his family history. historically, it’s significant.  yet there’s something fascinating about De Waal’s obsession with the object that’s captured … Read more