Hi, I’m back.
Well I was never gone-gone but I suppose I took a hiatus with travel and illness so I’ve been quiet for a bit. I went to Singapore for a week and that was an experience I absolutely plan to write about. Here’s what I’ve been up to.
Writing Updates
I interviewed this lovely couple who are now running The Marc, a fantastic french restaurant in Downtown Edmonton.
Visiting small businesses in the city and writing profiles on them for Edify’s Shop Around the Corner column: Rogue Wave Coffee and The Book Boudoir
Sharing family recipes for fall in The Tomato, Nonna’s Rabbit & Polenta.
Talking and writing about my concussion rehab.
Previewing a fun family art festival, Kaleido Fest and interviewing an internationally recognized environmental advocate and artist, Lalith Senanayake.
Finding things to do for T&R Day on Sept 30.
I also had a short story accepted to the literary journal Queen’s Quarterly! It will be published this winter.
I’m deep into editing and revising my poetry collection, Maiden to Mother. I’m hoping to get it out into the world as a book.
Stay tuned!
Book Recommendations
On the surface, this book is just hilarious written in the perspective of a young writer who stole her friend’s manuscript and is being haunted by her (guilt). Then you take a second think and every sentence is a microaggression, at the racist world, at the publishing world, at academia… it both entertained me AND forced me to face angering issues I’ve seen.
A friend was so excited to tell me about this when I asked for a fun, big book that could get me through a 16 hour flight. It did deliver. It's a romance. Enemies to lovers/high school sweethearts tropey but it gets into real issues too - body image, abuse, addiction - and had a main character that I actually cared about.
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
I needed to get out of fluffy reading drug-store-book-land and dig into something substantial. This didn’t disappoint me and it made me weirdly depressed and hopeful at the same time. It’s a memoir about growing up poor in middle America from a female perspective. The story weaves together the personal experience and economic systems of the USA.
NOT-RECOMMENDED
It Ends With Us and It Starts With Us
With all the controversy that Blake Lively has brought to the social media world I had to find out for myself what the story really was in It Ends With Us and its sequel, It Starts With Us. Let’s say I agree with the controversy, she’s frivolizing a story that has a serious throughline (domestic abuse) and I didn’t love the quality of writing. It Ends With Us did have elements of the Hallmark movie - a surprise rich bff, a girl who runs a flower shop (successfully, of course), a handsome white knight - it was just too much for me and took away from what I felt was the actual story between the protagonist and her abuser. The follow up love story with the guy who saves her is just too buttery and sweet for me (maybe I’m jaded) and there wasn’t much depth.
