I don’t know what it is about short stories but I really struggle with them. I have loved reading them, although I generally find myself drawn to novels and novellas; some of my favorites are Angela Carter’s collection in The Bloody Chamber, and Too Much…
I’ve been writing fiction steadily now for a year and a half (and sporadically for ten years before that). Here are some things I’m working on about my writing process. I am not a short story person. I wish I were, because I love reading…
Last night I re-watched the 1982 TV movie adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Anthony Andrews and an absolutely magnificent Jane Seymour. I’m pretty sure we had that movie on VHS when I was growing up, because I know every scene by heart and could…
My mom believed in dance and music classes for young ladies. Maybe she’d read too much Jane Austen, her favorite writer. She subscribed to the idea of ladylike accomplishments, which included playing a musical instrument, learning to sing, and dancing like a ballerina. I started lessons…
D’s parents live on a hobby farm in Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island. During the summer, there are few places more pleasant to spend a week or two. There is a farm bursting with spring produce (although we were too early for blueberry season and…
Today we’re heading up north. D’s parents live on Vancouver Island, on a hobby farm in Comox Valley. They keep horses and a stunning vegetable garden on 25 acres of gorgeous greenery and two greenhouses. It’s a vegetarian’s paradise. I’ve been looking forward to this…
I’m working on a fanfiction. It’s interesting to me that I still feel slightly embarrassed by this statement, even though I have unabashedly read and loved fanfic for years. There’s something about taking it up myself, though, that gives me pause. I think it’s a…