Have you been seeing all the ads on Facebook and Instagram for luggage?
I actually find them fascinating. Not the ads — the products themselves. All the different kinds of suitcases, knapsacks and packing cubes designed to let you cram as much as you can into a bag small and compact and lightweight enough to take on board with you — thereby avoiding the need to check Continue reading
I’ve been writing a lot lately about cutting back on my television viewing — or, more specifically — the
News. So it won’t come as a surprise to hear that in the last couple of weeks I haven’t watched TV at all, and in the last month I don’t think I’ve watched even five hours.
Reading has been a passion my entire life. Even before I could read myself, I loved stories and was constantly bringing either my mum or dad a book so they could read to me. So it’s been disconcerting, and shocking to say the least, to find that in the past year or so, I’ve had a hard time carving off time to read, getting into whichever book(s) I’m reading and actually finishing them.
Too many distractions, I guess. Projects, deadlines, blogging, working on my own book, life, Trump — something’s always gotten in Continue reading
As you may have noticed (or maybe not), I am trying desperately to steer clear of writing
about U.S. politics. Aside from the fact that it’s stressful and aggravating, there doesn’t seem to be any point to it. It changes nothing.
Hence all my recent trips down memory lane.
Sadly, though, even if I am trying my best to remain silent on the subject, no one else is.
There doesn’t seem to be any escaping “45”, his (insert swear word here) family, his cronies, his partners in crime, his sycophants, his tweets and Continue reading
You’ve heard me say time and again that I love reading and I love books. And I love having books 
around. It gives me pleasure just to see them, let alone to hold them and feel their weight in my hand. To smell the ink. To feel the texture of the paper.
The sight of bookcases filled to overflowing is comforting to me. So are tables piled high with them.
I love looking at all the different books I’ve read and I Continue reading
How weird is this? Right in the middle of walking to meet a friend for coffee a book title popped into my
head. James Hilton’s Lost Horizon.
Out of nowhere. Why? That’s my question to you.
Why?
I first read Lost Horizon back in grade school. Don’t make me tell you how long ago that was. In those days, we were given a required reading list at the very beginning of the school year. And each time we finished a book we had to Continue reading
Well, not literally. I’m talking about the book I’ve been writing on and, more specifically, off for the last
nine years.
When my mother was ailing I was struck with an idea for a book about her and me. I tucked it away in the back of my mind for later. I said nothing to anyone until the day after she died, when my closest friend and I were headed back to Montreal for the funeral.
As the words literally started pouring out of my mouth, my friend handed me some paper and a pen and I spent the rest of the trip writing. This
went on for the next three months. It was amazing, the book was literally writing itself.
Seven chapters in, I hit the wall. No, not writer’s block. I’d been Continue reading
Canadian Thanksgiving was this past weekend. And considering how, for the past two weeks, I’ve been talking about what I’m 
grateful for, I figured this was the perfect time to continue that particular conversation. And then I’ll give it a rest, I promise. Which you’ll be thankful for, I know.
Right off the top, I’m grateful for my sense of humour. There’s all kinds of shit going on just about every place you can find on a map — not to mention the crap we all put up with in our own lives — so being able to find Continue reading
FI haven’t been to a library in years. Yes, I know. Shame on me. I used to go and then I stopped. Why, 
exactly, I do not know. Crazy when you consider how much I love to read; and the cost of books. Anyway.
A friend of mine is an absolute devotee. She is always either coming from or going to the library. And recently she told me that now, at least here in Toronto, you can download books. Who knew?
Gotta admit, I was impressed. She told me I just needed Continue reading
It seems I’ve got supernatural powers. Well, not across the board. I do have my limitations. But I seem to be able to 
conjure people. People who magically appear (or re-appear) into my life after long absences. It’s nothing new, actually. I’ve done it for years — never intentionally, mind you. It just happens.
Last month it happened twice, within days of each other. Which is extraordinary in and of itself, don’t you think?
The first time freaked me out I don’t mind telling you. I’m still talking to myself. There’s a gal I’ve known most of my life — by which I mean, we first met when I was about eight or nine years old. That’s most of your life, right?
She, her three siblings and their parents, lived a block away from where I lived, in Montreal, with Continue reading
Yes, I am happy. Very happy. Jumping for joy happy. Nope, I did not win a lottery. This is better, actually. Yeah, better than winning a lottery. I may actually 
have talked about this before. Doesn’t matter. I’m gonna talk about it again. It’s different this time anyhow.
For at least the last twenty years I’ve wanted to write a book. Nothing to do with ego, I have just always thought there was one in me. God knows I tried. I gave myself headaches trying to come up with topics. I’d write a few sentences, maybe a paragraph or two, only to end up ripping the sheet of paper off the pad, crumpling it up in a ball and tossing it. I even took a book writing course, which I really enjoyed. Not that
365 And Counting 