About stories of all kinds
The desert isn't as empty as we think. Sands crawl over sands, rippling with wind or the tracks of sidewinders. Ruins gape, abandoned by the men who made them and left for an inheritance of the relentless sun. But it's not only elements, lesser creatures, and the relics of human habitation that fill the desert.… Continue reading Gods and Saints: Setting in Story
Canadian literature. Yawn. Why are we like this? Probably because Canadian art, like that of other British Commonwealth nations, is a) recent: comparatively speaking to other literary traditions; b) slow to develop: why make your own art when your "mother" nation has a pre-established canon?; and c) difficult to maintain: why patronize upstarts when, again,… Continue reading On-Line English Literature Discussion: Canadian Authors
In recent years there has been growing awareness of the troubling trends in fictional romances, especially, but not limited to, YA romances. It seems to have come to the surface along with the acknowledgment of rape and abuse in society, which is telling. The issues in fiction largely centre on male love interests, particularly the… Continue reading The Wrong Man
Two summers ago, I read two historical fiction books in pretty close succession, both mysteries, that, while gripping enough in the act of reading, I found less than satisfying afterwards. I was a bit puzzled as to why this was, because one of them, The Dante Club, was written by an author I had previously… Continue reading Emphasis on “Historical,” Weak on “Fiction”: The Dante Club and The Blackest Bird
Fictitiously Yours 