Addiction
Eulogy For My Brother, Ronnie.
My brother, Bernie, died from suicide, the result of alcoholism and depression on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1996. My brother, Ronnie, died from suicide, the result of addiction and depression on Good Friday, April 10, 2008. I have written about that here, in an essay called, April is the Cruelest Month. Every April I try…
Read MoreShould Trump Start Drinking?
It dawned on me today, while watching a movie about an alcoholic, that perhaps Donald Trump should start drinking. If he did, perhaps he could get the help it appears he so desperately needs. As most people know, Trump doesn’t drink, and although some photos have surfaced on social media of him with glasses of…
Read MoreYou Are Not Alone
I just got back from the 13th Annual International Conference of the Short Story in English, which was held in Vienna. It was lovely. I made some new friends and met some of my literary idols, like Robert Olen Butler and Sandra Cisneros, both of whom I’ve fallen a little in love with. I discovered…
Read MoreTo The Person Who Sent Me A Message About Their Drinking. . .
Yesterday someone sent me a message via this website, saying they had read a recent article in Elle Canada Magazine about alcohol in which I’m quoted. This person — a man I think — told me a member of his family was a ‘raging alcoholic’ and that he was questioning his own drinking. I get…
Read MoreDeath, Be Not Proud
The message came in Saturday evening. Our dear friend’s sister was dead. I’ll call her Mary. My heart sank in an all-too-familiar way. Not another, I thought. Not again. My Best Beloved stared at the message on his phone. I didn’t want to ask, but I’m sure the question was all over my face. “She…
Read MoreThings we have left undone . . .
I just came back from a terrific weekend teaching at the International Women’s Writing Guild 2013 Conference, held at Drew University. The women I met were wonderful, and dedicated to writing. So that was good — as were the classes and the writing and the discoveries we made in our work and the new friendships…
Read MoreJust Go To Meetings?
A couple of months ago I experienced my first heckler. I was doing a reading from my new novel, The Empty Room, at a library in Toronto. The Empty Room is a speculative look at what a day in my life might look like, had I not quit drinking 18+ years ago. I figured there’d be a…
Read MoreThe Agenda with Steve Paikin
I’m delighted to say my televised interview with the WONDERFUL Steve Paikin, on his show “The Agenda” is now available for your viewing pleasure. We did lots of gabbing about THE EMPTY ROOM. You can see it by clicking here. Of all the interviews I’ve done over the years, Steve’s might just be my favorite. …
Read MoreThis Will Probably Get Me Into Hot Water
Jared Bland, the editor at the Globe & Mail, recently asked what I thought was the biggest danger to emerging writers. Without hesitation I said, “Self-publishing.” He threw back his head and laughed and said it was the best answer he’d heard to date. And, just as quickly, I thought — oh dear, here come…
Read MoreAiming For Oblivion
Today a woman told me she didn’t think she had a drinking problem because she never drank to feel better, or even to get high, the way others did; she drank so she didn’t have to feel anything. She found her emotions intolerable, and she drank aiming for oblivion. She wasn’t an alcoholic, she said,…
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