It’s not often you read a book that gets you thinking about your own life’s choices. MY MAASAI LIFE by Robin Wiszowaty is that kind of book. Disillusioned, lost, and…
A Young Woman’s Remarkable Journey To Find Herself
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…
Asghar Farhadi’s Film, A Separation – A Universal Film and Story
I saw Asghar Farhadi’s film, A Separation, the week before it won best foreign film at the Oscars. Shot in a very intimate fashion—no panoramic shots of city or country—this film…
Storytelling In THE ARTIST and THE DESCENDANTS
I started off the new year by seeing THE ARTIST, superbly directed and written by Michel Hazanavicius. It’s a curious film, since it’s mostly silent—except for the musical score and a…
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”.…
A Whole Empire Walking
Since I was old enough to comprehend, my mother has bent my ear with stories of how awful it was in the old country, before she immigrated to Canada when…
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…
What J. D. Salinger taught us about writing
An article in the Feb. 2011 issue of Vanity Fair looks at J. D. Salinger and his war experience. There’s also some background information on how he made his mark…
More thoughts on writing rules
Paula Renaye, author of The Hardlines Self-Help Handbook www.hardlineselfhelp.com had an interesting response to my earlier post on writing rules. As she said I could post her thoughts, here they…