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Work from home peril
Dec 9, 2012
I do not eat Gorgonzola. At least not to the extent that Emma Teitel does, but I did relate to her column in a recent MacLean's, where she writes about the perils from working from home — as a writer. Teitel writes: ...
Best Writing Books
Nov 19, 2012
What are your favourite writing books? Most writers I know went through a time in their professional development when they were reading more about writing than actually doing any writing. I look back at that stage as my cocooning — necessary and ...
The Editor in 419
Nov 15, 2012
Will Ferguson's Giller-Prize winning novel, 419, features Laura, an editor, as the main character. It was fun to peek inside the life of a freelance copy editor, even at a horrible moment in her life. She is a hero, of course, as ...
A Writer’s Armour
Nov 6, 2012
National Post writer Ben Kaplan's article "A Runner Hits the Wall" grabbed me for its honesty about the writing life. Kaplan shares the harsh criticism, "awful on all levels," he received years ago from a failed screenplay, and then his more recent ...
Wrapping up South Sudan
Nov 1, 2012
I believe that my last story on my May trip to visit South Sudan refugee camps has been published. But I'm sure that trip will continue to feed my writing in the days ahead. I recently thumbed through my notes from the trip, captured ...
Never alone with Alice Munro
Oct 17, 2012
Yesterday I picked up Alice Munro's latest novel Dear Life. This summer I reread Lives of Girls and Women and remembered why I love Munro's writing so very much. She is one of the very few authors I will re-read. The other ...
Telling stories through a dog’s legs
Oct 10, 2012
It was a picture of the log that I really wanted, stretching away from me toward the water. Then, Dewey my dog leaped up on it and his legs filled my viewfinder, like a muppet on the run. That was the picture. ...
War Without End: South Sudan
Oct 3, 2012
Read this article for the United Church Observer, about refugee camps in South Sudan, based on my May 2012 visit. Click here for article. "Rim Badal, 15, stands outside the registration centre of the Doro refugee camp in the Maban district of ...
A Writer’s Worst Nightmare
Sep 28, 2012
Most writers would have paid strict attention this past week — and maybe woke up sweaty and trembling from nightmares — as events unfolded at The Globe and Mail. Columnist Margaret Wente was accused of plagiarism in a 2009 column and has been disciplined ...
Reviewing Reviews
Sep 20, 2012
Years ago, we made a batch of African Peanut Soup and served it up to our dinner guests, a young couple we were trying to fix up. We all heroically made our way through the muddy brown gunk in our bowls. We all ...
Operation Migration
Sep 19, 2012
Click here to read my profile of Operation Migration, a global leader in restoring migratory bird patterns, and inspiration for the 1996 movie Fly Away Home. "A large autographed poster hangs on the wall of Joe Duff's office on High Street in ...
Karen Stiller's Newsyletter
Every now and then I write a short e-newsletter. I’d love to have you join.