Fiction is sold to literary agents or publishers by query letters after the book is written and polished. It’s an exciting and heartbreaking process that leaves an overwhelming number of authors doubting their ability to string more than two words together. The sheer volume of rejection is staggering. If you’re a writer, and your query…
A snippet from Rumer and the Red Cardinal, my young adult WIP (Work in Progress) Rumer lost track of time. The orphanage girls had a practiced makeup routine that she used to turn herself into a ghostly waif in fifteen minutes flat. Paloma was far more meticulous. Rumer would have been bored silly, but Paloma…
I live just ten to fifty minutes away a bevy of gorgeous beaches that we visit all year ’round. Lawrencetown is for surfers, not bathers, but it is so beautiful and dramatic.
Galen Sinclair heaved, his mouth bubbling with the salty, metallic taste of blood; he felt a rush of fear, knew that he hadn’t been breathing. His eyes fluttered, closed again. Nothing. The night was like pitch, with only the soft chirping of a few cold crickets to break the silence. His senses reached out, found…
Her name was Bethany. Perhaps we were destined to meet. After my mother died—I took care of Connie for 13 years—we lived hand-to-mouth. I was debilitated by daily migraines and chronic fatigue from a misdiagnosed pituitary tumor, and worked sporadically, so we couldn’t afford a city rent. We packed our meagre belongings, and found a…
I’m not one for anniversaries—I struggle with feelings of loss—but this event five years ago felt like a lifeline. Something I never believed would come to me actually did, and it touched me profoundly. Five years ago today, my first novel, a late-middle grade mystery called Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve, became available for…
Calling all teachers! So happy to report that our teacher’s novel study guide for Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve is finished and is now available to any teacher who might wish to read the middle-grade mystery in class (and save time planning yet another lesson!) The guide was developed by a retired Grade 5 and…
Secrets of the Hotel Maisonnueve is now available in elementary and junior high classrooms throughout the province thanks to the Nova Scotia Book Bureau. If you’re a teacher, let me know and I’ll send you a copy. I can even visit your class to talk about being an author! We’ve gone to a second printing,…