(But first, let me strongly recommend Leonard Mlodinow’s book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. Awesome.) Before I start these rambling musings inspired by James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar, I should give you two warnings. First, this is not a review of Avatar. It’s an opinion essay that…
Happy birthday, Diana! And happy belated new year, everyone else! With 2010 fresh upon us, it seems like ’tis the season. What about you? Add yours in the comments! 1. How to tell the difference between real Game Boy Advance cartridges and counterfeit ones.
What do you do when you can’t think of a good topic with which to end the year? Read books and watch movies, of course! And then review them! Wait, that’s not what you do. That’s what I do.
Well, really the last review of the whole Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Because as the Fates would have it, The Last Olympian came in on my library hold right before I was about to leave Toronto for a couple months. So I had to go all the way…
Did anyone else here used to be a big Phantom of the Opera *sigh* “phan” back in the day? As usual, I don’t ask because I actually want to talk about Phantom of the Opera; instead, I’m trying to use the show to shed light on a trope in stories…
Confession time: my knee-jerk reaction upon hearing a piece of literature, a movie, a play, or another work of art* is “Canadian” is to run for the hills. Sure, I like Anne of Green Gables and Robertson Davies as much as the next Canuck, but I’ve been served far too…
Hi everyone, As some of you may know, I’ve been working for the past few years on a young adult novel. As others of you may know, at the suggestion of my instructor from the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop this summer, I’m looking for readers. Although of course I welcome…
Hi-ho, Kermit-the-blogger here on the scene of some of the most egregious dialogue diseases to strike authors this year. Forget H1N1 – these strains are virulent and highly contagious. I also must note that a number of popular published stories and many of my current works-in-progress have tested positive for…
Apparently, I’m not done with deciding my favourite stories are sexist yet. (But I am done with sharing this link to the first episode Cracked.com’s new series starring Swaim and DOB, because I for some reason find it to be unadulterated hilarity. Suggestive content, sexual themes, and bad language.) My…
Writing not-sexist stories is tough. I’m not being flippant: I’m a woman who was raised in a reasonably feminist household and who currently lives in an environment with more-feminist-than-average peers, and my first drafts nearly always make me cringe. It would be easy to explain that the stories in my…