Short story writing challenge #1 — New York Lemonade. Hello and welcome to my creative writing journey! My short stories will be approximately 500 words and show the beginnings, middles, or sometimes endings of a story. The rest can be filled in using your imagination. This first snippet comes from a writing assignment, five little … Continue reading Short Story: New York Lemonade
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” ~Octavia E. Butler I have loved writing since the day I stuck a pencil in my mouth, sat at … Continue reading On writing and my new project
I've had a lot of beginnings and endings in my life and although the cities and the people have been different, the feelings are always the same. The sweetness of adventure is always lined with the bitter taste of goodbyes. Because the reality is, once we leave a place, it will never be the same … Continue reading Leaving Toronto – top 8 things I’ll miss
I used to watch romantic comedies like they were going out of style. My female friends and I had massive collections of DVDs (okay, okay they started out as VHS) and inevitably 80% of them were romcoms featuring your typical boy-meets-girl, boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl grow to love each other, … Continue reading Big Little Lies & small, extraordinary truths
It's September 1998. I've just graduated high school and left home for the very first time to volunteer as a Gap student on the Isle of Man, a tiny little island (32 miles long by 11 miles wide) in the middle of the Irish Sea. When I first heard that I had been accepted to … Continue reading Letter writing, the Isle of Man and a 30 day challenge
My heart thuds in my chest so hard that I'm sure I'm having a heart attack. I gasp for air and each breath is short and unsatisfying. Everything closes in around me and every muscle tenses. It's at this point I either freak out completely or I talk myself off the ledge. When it happened … Continue reading On climbing and anxiety
"Creativity takes courage." ~Henri Matisse If you'd told me a year ago that I've be living in Toronto and be more creatively stimulated than I've been in years, well, I would have spit my hipster Vancouver coffee out on the spot. Creativity runs deep in my family. My mom is a writer, my dad is … Continue reading Toronto – my creative boot camp
