Filipino stories

Filipino culture in my writing – a pledge

| Places, Reading, The Quiet is Loud, Writing

After reading a couple of speculative fiction novels that incorporate non-European mythology (Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson and Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James), and really wonderful conversations with my editor, I’ve renewed my commitment to incorporating Filipino folk tales and mythology in The Quiet is Loud. My dad used to read to me from the book on the right, as bedtime stories. The sun and the moon as living things […]

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NK Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy

Sci-fi and fantasy novels by Black authors

| Reading, Writing | 2 Comments

Discovering NK Jemisin changed my entire focus as a writer. The Broken Earth Trilogy (not pictured, I know) was like nothing else I’d read in my life. The world she created, and the way she wrote it, encouraged me to write what actually made me happy: stories featuring tweaked reality, magic systems, people who could do things unimaginable to us today. And I recently embarked on a fairly intense Octavia Butler phase. And Brown Girl

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how quarantine has changed my writing

How quarantine has changed my writing

| Writing

The COVID-19 pandemic has really thrown us for a loop, eh? Everyone I know is struggling in some way, whether it’s balancing childcare and work, keeping healthy, or finding ways to keep busy. I’ve definitely been struggling too, but I’ve also been noticing some interesting ways quarantine has changed my writing. It turns out that the isolation that comes from social distancing is perfect for writing The Quiet is Loud’s main character – a homebody

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Writing & books in movies: The Terrorizers and La Notte

| Film Stills, Misc., Reading, Writing

I recently asked people on Instagram to recommend “pretty and fartistic” movies to me, and I got several good suggestions. I picked the first two, The Terrorizers and La Notte, at random, and was pleasantly surprised to find that books and writers featured heavily in them. These movies were also very pretty, and I took a lot of screenshots for the blog. This might surprise you, but my screenshots skewed heavily towards the writing and

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novel editing

Book deal!

| The Quiet is Loud, Writing | 2 Comments

I’m thrilled to announce that my novel THE QUIET IS LOUD will be published by Invisible Publishing in Fall 2021!⁠ I’ve been an Invisible Publishing fangirl for years, and I’m beyond excited to work with their team. I know my book will be in the best hands and I can’t wait to get started! Thanks to Kelvin Kong, the world’s best agent!⁠ (Appropriate for November too, because I wrote most of the book during NaNoWriMo!)

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Dawn of the Dead

| Film Stills, Misc.

Will spend the cooler months watching all the movies I should have watched by now. I’m happy to have finally watched the original Dawn of the Dead. Intensely moody and atmospheric, and strangely nostalgic even though this came out two years before I was born. I’m probably not supposed to have fondness for the mall, but I can’t help it – I do. Will spend the cooler months watching all the movies I should have

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Clock & Bell

| Misc., Places, Writing

When I think about some of the memorable parts of my years writing online, I’m usually most nostalgic for the earliest years: 1997-2001-ish. But recently, I fell into a different sort of nostalgia spiral. I forget how it even started, but I found myself missing the way blogging was just a handful of years ago. In 2008, when I was living in Calgary, I started a new blog called Clock & Bell. I’d started it

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How to Be a Victorian, by Ruth Goodman

Reading Ruth Goodman’s “How to Be a Victorian”

| Myth | Lore | History

Ruth Goodman is one of my favourite historians. I’ve watched several of her shows and have seen her as a guest on other history programs, and am always impressed by how she tries to live as period-authentic as she can during a project. I don’t have that much commitment to anything! I’ve recently finished her book How to be a Victorian, which I was very excited about. If you’ve read this blog before you’ll know that

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Exciting writing news!

| Writing

So, ha, in all the excitement and all the announcing it all over social media, I somehow managed to overlook my own blog. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve signed with literary agent Kelvin Kong of K2 Literary! Even though it’s been a few days, it’s still sort of sinking in that now my first novel, The Quiet is Loud, actually has a shot of being read by more people than myself and my handful

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the best writing group

Semi-Retired Hens: In praise of the best writing group

| People, Writing

One February morning last year, I shuffled along a snowy Toronto sidewalk, internally freaking out. I was on my way to the very first meeting of my new writing group. My friend Teri had set it up, and while I trusted her, I didn’t know what to expect. Would we all get along? Would I fit in? Would we be able to help each other? One year later, we have a name (the Semi-Retired Hens), our

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