Excerpt: The Haunting of Tess

I have been writing a blue streak over the past month or two, and this weekend, I took inventory of what I have left to cover in the story. It was a jarring moment to realize, "Holy crap! I only have four chapters left!" Four chapters! That's not much at all. In fact, it is...

What’s Your Worst Fear… And Would You Write It?

Fear. It is a natural human emotion. It alerts us to the presence of danger or the threat of harm. It is, at its core, a primitive and powerful mechanism for self-preservation. But how is self-preservation an explanation for one’s reaction to fear when it is the result of a phobia? After all, by its...

Writing Yourself into Your Stories

“You only have one story to write, and you will write it many ways.” – Unknown So about that quote attribution. I write “unknown” because… well… I heard it somewhere, thought it would be a great blog topic to explore, and now for the life of me I cannot remember who said it. Internet searches...

Tackling a Sensitive Topic in my Novel

Should I write it? Do I dare? But it’s such a sensitive topic. This, in a nutshell, was the essence of my mental grappling as I sat down to outline my current work in progress: The Haunting of Tess. After all, developing a main character to whom a sensitive issue is central requires a lot...

How to Become Overwhelmed by Too Much Writing Advice

It starts by staring at your blank page, or at your daily task list, or at your calendar with its inalterable deadline, and acknowledging that you have absolutely no motivation to dig in and git’er done. So to the Google you go, in search of listicles and how-tos and productivity hacks that you hope will...

The Embers of My Wood Stove

It resides permanently in my basement, in a ten-by-ten nook parcelled out of the main floor plan behind the garage. It is squat, square and black. It is my new favourite thing on these cold, rainy spring nights. It is… my wood stove. My actual stove. I call her Delilah. Two years ago, I bought...

The Inspiration Behind “Shadow”

It has been a strange night here at Casa Bale. Following recommended Federal guidelines for self-isolation due to the Covid-19 Crisis (willingly and without complaint, mind), my special someone and I have found ourselves inside and without the kiddies for the night. Without the kiddies and with no options for a fancy meal out means...

Florence Foster Jenkins and my Netflix Paralysis

Netflix Paralysis. That’s what I’m calling it. It is a state of existence in which there is simply too much to watch on my streaming subscriptions that I become overwhelmed with, and therefore paralyzed by choice. It’s not just The Big Bad N that’s perpetuating the cycle. It’s Crave. It’s Amazon Prime. It’s YouTube. And...

Oh, But We Were So Young…

My quieter, more introspective moments seem to be fewer and farther between these days. Whether this is because I have grown less introspective over the years, or because I have less free minutes with which to be introspective, I’d prefer not to think about. I’d prefer simply to accept that it is, and to appreciate...

#MomFail Averted?

I have never read the “How To Be A Good Mother” handbook. If I had, I am sure I would not have committed so many #MomFails in my son’s eleven years. For instance, I might have read in the DOs and DON’Ts section of the Terrible Twos chapter that no matter how frazzled you are...