Smorgasbord is “a wide range of something”, a something author Elizabeth Hay delivers with panache in her Giller award winning novel, Late Nights On Air. She’s given me much food…
A Literary Smorgasbord
A Writer’s Reflections on Rowing
I had the pleasure recently of rowing a boat in Central Park, New York. While paddling around on the lake, I got to thinking how much rowing is like writing.…
A Korean Novel Illuminates Mothers Everywhere
It’s still a few months away from Mother’s Day, the day we publicly honour our mothers. I was reminded of mine, when I read the wonderful international bestseller, Please Look After…
Dreams That Work Overtime
Do you ever feel as if your life has taken a dramatic turn, as if you are part of some cosmic shift? That’s the feeling I woke up with late…
The Help: Black and White and Red All Over
The 60s was a time when the relationships between the Blacks and the Whites grew embarrassingly red for many. The shame of it all is brilliantly captured in Kathryn Stockett’s…
Hemingway, A Master of Less Is More, More or Less
Ernest Hemingway was the master of saying a lot with less. Everything I read suggests novice writers—and some published writers—use too many words to get their point across. They use…
The Many Paths of Inspiration
I’ve written about inspiration before, but I gave it short shrift. The Encarta dictionary defines inspiration as: “stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or the making of art”.…
Taking A Break To De-clutter The Mind
Since I’ve been up to my eyeballs trying to figure out the next steps in my writing life —and getting confused as to which direction to take—I took a break…
Cipher at Tulsa International Film Festival
CIPHER, a short film my grandson, Michael Stevantoni, directed, shot and edited has just been selected for the Tulsa International Film Festival Sept. 22-25, 2011. As a writer with aspirations…
Scrapping The Prologue
While travelling down to L.A., I fussed about my novel, A CALL FROM THE DEEP, which I’m hoping to get published in the near future. It’s completed but it has this…