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Great stories often start with great questions. And great questions are usually simple ones: What if? How about? or I wonder? Last Saturday, Wil Haygood, author of The Butler, sat at a table outside the gift shop at the Smithsonian National Museum of ...

This week I have encountered two dramatically different reactions from writers being edited. One response, from a young woman writing a difficult magazine piece, oozed professionalism. Whatever she felt inside, it didn't leak out. She completed the required revisions in 24 hours ...

I'm working on a project now that is sprawling and global. I will be working on it when I am 90. This is a project requiring different editors at different stages. And this is when editors remind me of hairdressers. I have ...

Years ago, on our honeymoon, we shared a  cab with a couple of hairdressers from Boston. The cabbie didn't understand their instructions to Trelawny Beach Resort. The tourists, meeting and surpassing every stereotype, raised their voices louder and louder so that the ...

My daughter was a little bit outraged the first time she discovered that I am sometimes hired to write things for people and my name may never appear in the published work. Their name does! I explained that they hire me to do ...

He makes me nervous. I was due to interview Dr. J.I. Packer, renowned theologian, best-selling author, wordsmith extraordinare in two hours when he called me to pleasantly request a brief postponement. Another hour for me to sweat bullets, sip more tea and ...

This article, published in Faith Today, involved spending a night on Toronto's streets, following the work of an outreach to prostituted women. Read it here. 

This article, about a tireless advocate against honour-based violence, was a pleasure and a challenge to write. Published in the United Church Observer in Nov/Dec 2013, click here to read it.   

Lots has been written about a writer's "voice" -- that distinct style/tone/temp/mood  of writing that is yours alone. But there is another writer voice that needs to be developed. That is your own strong, professional voice that is your salesperson, accountant, marketer, ...

I learned as important a lesson about parking as I did about punctuation at the Editors' Association of Canada copy editing seminar I attended last week. But I did sharpen my skills in both areas. 1. The extremely convenient yet odd-shaped parking ...

I did a "Rejoice Re-Read" of some favourite Munro this weekend, in honour of her amazing Nobel Prize for Literature win. I was struck once again how much a non-fiction feature writer can learn from Canada's short story master. Here are the ...

I'm really not an expert. But I'm travelling to Senegal in a week or so on a writing trip. The best part is that I'm bringing along my 15-year old daughter Holly. We will be observing a Samaritan's Purse shoebox distribution program ...