playlist for the writing life

Do you listen to music when you’re writing? I know a lot of writers make playlists. Playlists for helping them create atmosphere, evoke a time period, bring characters to life. And playlists for you to enjoy while reading their books. But I find listening to music...

When magic happens in Publishing

The fantasy world we Earthling writers call Publishing is a bleak, competitive and discouraging place. We diligently write, blog, twitter and pray for a bestseller, even as Publishing’s traditional boundaries shift around us and tree-books morph into wild electronic...

a first draft kind of hike

First drafts make me crazy. I’m a reviser. I’ll happily spend days cutting, developing and shaping a story. But how to produce a has-potential-but-needs-work ms in the first place? Even with characters, setting and plot in mind for a new project, a blank...

Praise for Susan Juby’s Woefield Poultry Collective

Last Friday night I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Susan Juby’s new book, The Woefield Poultry Collective, at the Urban Beet in Nanaimo, BC. Here’s a photo of Susan signing her book for me.     I’m a big fan of Susan Juby’s YA books,...

new book contract, website & blog

I’m thrilled to announce that my new YA novel, How to Tend a Grave, will be published by Great Plains Teen Fiction in Spring 2012. I’ll be working with the awesome editor Anita Daher. The book features two grieving teens who meet in a cemetery and …...