Everyday Magic

Late Spring 2020, I began taking photos and shooting short videos in response to rolling bouts of extreme anxiety. It didn’t take long for me to discover that closely observing nature was the best way to calm my frazzled, distressed brain. Week after week, for over a year, I kept up the practice, occasionally sharing some of the images via social media. The other day I decided to dump a bunch of my favourite moments from that experiment into iMovie and wound up with sixteen minutes of what I call “everyday magic.” Nearly all the photos and clips were shot

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Why I Write

A few months ago, (which seems like a lifetime ago now) fellow writer Dean Jobb asked me if I’d be willing to give a talk at the University of King’s College in Halifax titled: Why I Write. I happily accepted the invitation and looked forward to spending a Sunday afternoon in June with the students and faculty of the King’s Creative Non-Fiction MFA Residency to discuss the ins and outs of the writing life. Of course we all know what happened next. But rather than cancel the lecture, we carried on virtually—the students and faculty from their respective homes, and

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Tuesday thoughts

A slip of paper I stuck in a book three weeks ago as a bookmark (in Elizabeth McCracken’s excellent short story collection: “Thunderstruck”) brought me to tears this morning when I rediscovered it. The simple phrase – “Work together as a society” was the result of an artistic exercize that I gave my Teen Writing Academy students this past summer at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts. During the two week intensive, I challenged the five writers in the Academy to write down 50 things they fear. They, in turn invited their peers to add their fears to the

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Someone always knew you would

So, the news is out—the process to adapt The Birth House into a television series has begun! (If you missed the official press release, there’s a link to it at the end of this post.) Because so many of you have been along with me on the novel’s journey from the start, (can you believe it’s been 13 years?) I thought I’d share a few behind-the-scenes glimpses into this new chapter in the book’s life. A few weeks ago, two members of the AMAZING team behind this project—Kerri MacDonald (Frontier, Little Dog, Republic of Doyle) and Elizabeth Schofield, (Director of

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The Birth House optioned for TV.

I’ve been dying to make this announcement for awhile now, and it looks like today’s the day. The news first went out this morning via Playback Online, (“Canada’s production, broadcasting and interactive media destination”) and this afternoon on TV-Eh? but for those not normally in the TV/Film news stream, (myself included) I’m posting the entire press release below. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sherry White, Kerri MacDonald and Omnifilm Entertainment adapting Ami McKay’s, THE BIRTH HOUSE. Vancouver, BC, Friday May 24th 2019 Omnifilm Entertainment has secured the rights to the #1 Canadian and international bestseller, THE BIRTH HOUSE (Penguin Random House Canada)—authored

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Advice for New Witches

Writing a novel can take years. The Witches of New York took five. Along the way, I learned a lot of things about the world and those around me, and above all, myself. One of the biggest revelations that came to me while writing this novel was the realization that magic is everywhere. And the more you’re open to it, the more it will present itself to you in ways large and small. In August, I was given the wonderful opportunity to share a night of storytelling at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts. I was supposed to meet

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