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For the love of reading: my favourite childhood reads
When one of my sons was small, he always had his nose in a book – in honesty, they both did. But this one had an overzealous phys ed teacher tell his older brother that he shouldn’t be reading so much at recess. Me? I figured if a six year old wanted to read Harry Potter at recess, I’d just let him. He’s still a voracious reader – much as his mother is, and it got me thinking recently about the books I loved in my childhood. I still have some of them, although I admit that others got donated when… Read more…
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Reflecting on the beginning, five years on
It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years this month since I truly began my journey as an author. Cutting the cords! Covid, with its travel restrictions and all its unknowns, had scuttled the planned sabbatical for 2020, but even with the pandemic still very much in play, I threw caution to the wind, listened to the whispers in my dreams and cut the cords to my work computer and phone. I still remember the rise in blood pressure when I closed my office door. People asked me if I was really leaving it all behind. Definitely, I was.… Read more…
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It’s all a matter of perspective
“It’s cold. I mean, really cold.” That’s what I heard when I mused about the temperature in the Aegean Sea, when my new ginger-haired husband and I started planning our winter honeymoon to the south coast of Türkiye. We love travelling in January. The crowds stay at home, the weather’s usually not too bad, and we can roam (with lots of sunscreen) without worrying about heat stroke! This trip, we had some ancient Roman ruins to ourselves without a single soul in sight. Bliss. Temperatures were looking like 8-10 Celsius for the two weeks we’d be there, so perhaps people… Read more…
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Ups and downs of being an indie author
I’m always thrilled when a real reader searches me out and leaves a review, comments on my blog, sends a message through my website or occasionally emails me directly about possibly appearing at their book club. It’s a huge boost of confidence that my novels resonate. So I look forward to opening my email every morning. In the last two weeks alone, I’ve had emails from two major publishing houses expressing interest in my writing. Another, from former US first daughter Jenna Bush, extolled the brilliance of my books and wanted to feature one at her book club. On top… Read more…
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Aborted kilt mission
They say if you’re kind, then kindness will be returned to you. I guess it’s not always meant to happen in the moment. Not my guy, and not the right tartan, but you get the idea! A couple of weeks ago, southern Ontario got its first real taste of winter. While Toronto mostly got rain, heavy snow fell north of the city. Of course, that was the day that my fiancé and I were scheduled to drive to Barrie to pick up his new kilt. Yes, my ginger-headed man has decided he’s wearing a kilt to our wedding! The drive… Read more…
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Remembering lives lost too young
My Facebook feed this morning is still reminding me of the horrific shooting at École Poytechnique. It happened in my final year of university, just a couple of hours down the road from where I was at school in Ottawa, studying journalism. Thirty six years ago, 14 women the same age as me, were slain by a lone guman who believed women shouldn’t study at university. I won’t repeat his name. It affected me deeply and I remember so many conversations among my female classmates. I then went on to work in highly technical industries that employed hundreds of engineers… Read more…
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Teenage miscommunication, or how I ended up needing new frying pans!
I’m a communicator – a storyteller, if you will – and for my entire career I was privileged to work with words and language. One of my greatest joys was helping others through particularly thorny issues and ensuring there was no misunderstanding between the giver and the receiver of a message. It should follow, therefore, that clear communication followed me home. Not so much. On the homefront, my family sometimes resembled that proverbial shoemaker’s family, whose children are poorly shod. There are many tales we still laugh about over the dinner table, but the forest fire story takes the cake.… Read more…
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Buen Camino: Learning to trust my abilities!
“It’s mostly flat,” he said. He lied. In September, my fiancé led a group of ten, including me, along the last 100-ish kilometres of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I had a lot going on in my life (retiring and getting my house ready to sell among them) and had taken him at his word that no “training” was required for this six-day adventure. Then, on one of the group Zoom calls, I started hearing about personal trainers and practise walks of 20 km and started to get a little nervous, even though I like a good walk. No… Read more…
