Staying on that wagon…

I was chopping carrots the other evening and flipped the television to CNN’s Headline News channel.  On a program called, Issues, Danny Bonaduce, somewhat infamous celebrity and one-time self-identified alcoholic, talked about why he chooses to drink again. It disturbed me, in part because as a person in recovery myself, I know how dangerous this…

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April is the Cruelest Month

Angel, Passy Cemetery (photo by Ron Davis)   April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. T.S. Eliott – The Wasteland Eliott was right, at least as far as my family is concerned. On Easter Sunday, April 6, 1996, my brother…

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Adjusting to the new – scroll vs codex

Now that the Kindle has finally been released in Canada, people there are chewing over what it might mean to them, and to publishing.  Ian Brown is not convinced it’s a good thing and says so in the Globe and Mail. Others are excited about the new technology, in the way many people are with…

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A Simple Life….Beloved

Photo by Ron Davis – Newfoundland A couple of nights ago I watched the tail end of a television show about a serial killer. In this episode the serial killer in question was a goth rock star who had lost himself in his stage persona. At the end of the show a woman’s voice-over quotes…

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When you want to give up

There comes a time when every writer wants to give up, to crumple those pages into tight little balls and toss ’em in the basket, or better yet — burn ’em. In fact, when I’m teaching I often tell students this in the first class, so they won’t be blindsided when it happens to them.…

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