Category: in the book(s)
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Autumn: dark hallways, creepy teachers, what’s not to love?
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If you attended a school where an atrocious murder was committed, or where something dark and unnatural crept the hallways, would you be fascinated, or horrified? I’m one of the few people I know who loved school, loved the entire back-to-school August prep. So why are so many people drawn…
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Star Trek: A New Storytelling Chapter
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The Trouble with Tribbles. Devil in the Dark. Wolf in the Fold. Catspaw. Some of the best episodes in the original Star Trek series. I even used one of the titles in my Chaos Roads trilogy, in homage. The original series was one of the most innovative shows to ever…
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Strange writer research
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“You’re researching what?” “Well,” I said to hubby, “I have this idea stuck in my head about the librarians on the archive planet of Jebeha being lizard-like.” He shrugged. He’s used to the weird things that come out of my brain. Why lizards? I don’t know — I just go…
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Libraries and Third Spaces
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During the first COVID lockdowns, when you couldn’t walk around a neighbourhood without people crossing the street to avoid you, I found myself gravitating to our local botanic garden. I drove by one day, just escaping the four walls of our home for a little while, and found the parking…
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The Earth’s Entrances to the Underworld
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There’s a plain just east of Naples, Italy that smolders away. I’ve been to a place like that before, on the island of St. Lucia, a large, collapsed volcanic crater called Sulphur Springs. It’s been dormant since the 1700s, but it doesn’t seem that way when you’re watching steam boil…
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It’s a matter of opinion
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The most intimidating thing about producing a piece of art, whether it’s a novel, a painting, a script, a movie or whatever, is putting it out there for people to look at. Even though that’s the end goal – to share your vision – the act of letting others see…
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Turning words into art
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“I would go from one city to the next, inspired by the monks in the Middle Ages, who would carry knowledge from one monastery to the next monastery.” Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Swiss art curator, critic, and art historian; artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. What to do when your mother-in-law…
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The ancient (and racy) origins of holiday feasting
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I begin to sing about Poseidon, the great god,mover of the earth and fruitless seagod of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae.A two-fold office the gods allotted you,O Shaker of the Earth, to be a tamer of horsesand a saviour of ships!Hail, Poseidon, Holder of…
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The Mysteries of the Magi
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When I was around five years old, my grandfather passed away, and I remember his funeral chiefly for the overwhelming amount of incense – so oppressive and acrid that it made me cry. (I was sensitive to smells at an early age.) One of the typical components of incense used…
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Colour Me…??
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I don’t decorate with red and green for Christmas. Ironic, because red was my favourite colour when I was a child, and it is an attractive combination. I don’t mind it in small doses, but in large amounts it does tend to smack you in the eye. Is that holiday…