An Evening with Jean Chrétien

Last night my husband and I were supposed to be listening to Canada’s former Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, talk about his new book, My Stories, My Times. The evening was hosted by Kingston Writersfest and John had bought advance tickets. When we arrived at the...

The Boy on the Beach

The world remembers the photo of two-year-old Alan Kurdi, who died on a beach while his family was escaping the war in Syria. His aunt Tima Kurdi,a Vancouver-based journalist, was among the over 70 local, national and international authors invited to  present at...

Home Children

The newly-written subplot of my novel, Finding Home,  underscores the mistreatment of the Home Children and the suspicion with which they were viewed. The earliest child immigrants were brought to Canada in 1869 by Annie Macpherson, who predated the better-known Dr....

Recruit

The origin of this personal memoir was an exercise at my Writers’ Group. We had all contributed one word to ‘the hat’. At each meeting we read a short piece of writing based on the word drawn the previous week. This was my response to ‘Recruit’. I was happy with the...

The National War Memorial

Barricaded and fenced. Accessibility denied. The National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa has been cordoned off from the public since April for ‘major restoration’. The work will be completed in time for the Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11th. I was...

Throwing rocks at Sarah

Our novel, Finding Home follows: 1) Sarah, an English orphan as she makes her way to Canada in 1870 to find her family, and 2) Richard, the privileged son of a sawmill owner who is trying to find his place in the world and regain his father’s respect. When the...