We’re about to start week three of rehearsals for “Nothing Less!” so I thought I’d share another behind-the-scenes post about the history that has informed and inspired the play. This time, I’m tackling the anti-suffrage movement and how it found its way into homes across Canada, the US and the UK. Postcards were extremely popular in the early 1900’s. People were keen to send, collect, and display them in their homes. Political cartoons were also wildly popular and often found their way from the newspapers in which they were printed, into the scrapbooks of middle-class families. Illustrations depicting anti-suffrage sentiments …
Category: the writing life
I woke up Thursday morning to the joyful sound of honking geese wafting through my window. Their “conversation” was filled with impatient exuberance and, as Joni Mitchell once wrote, “the urge for going.” A lone raven that often perches atop one of the spruce trees beside my house barked a string of surly caws to send them on their way. It was the first day of autumn—a time of passing, a time of new beginnings, a time of change. The Witches of New York begins on the cusp between seasons—when the heady, bright days of summer are giving way to …
I’m thrilled to reveal the cover art for the Knopf Canada edition of The Witches of New York. The wonderful Kelly Hill at Penguin Random House Canada has done a spectacular job with the design and I couldn’t be happier with it! It’s a perfect marriage of history, magic, mystery and the obscure. When we get closer to the publication date (November 1st, 2016) I’ll explain more about the cover’s details, but for now I’ll just say that it holds a few clues and secrets that are tied to the plot. (I can’t tell you how hard it is for me …
It’s been a lovely summer here in Nova Scotia, filled with blossoms, bees, visits with friends, and the occasional cat nap. It was also a summer of tearing apart a leggy draft of a novel so I can build a better one. Now it’s time to settle in for the hopeful, nose-to-the-grindstone stretch of days required to finish the book. I won’t be on social media much (if it all,) the next couple of months, but when I check in later this fall, I should have lots of new to share! Until then, I leave you with a few summery …
A heavy fall of snow respects the cottage of St. Eumachus of Perigord (sixth century). One rigorous winter day, while St. Eumachus was occupied in prayer for the clergy and people of Perigord, a heavy storm of snow fell on all the surrounding country, but not a single flake fell on the cottage or in the little garden plot of St. Eumachus. We are told that an eagle with outstretched wings brooded over the cottage and garden, and protected them. – Les Petits Bollandistes, vol. ii. p. 414 (1880) I read that passage during our most recent snowstorm in Scots Bay …
Surprise! I’ll be talking about “Witches, Suffragists and Shopgirls” (and my novel-in-progress, The Witches of New York) at the new Halifax Central Library, Thursday, December 18 at 7pm. Hope to see you there!!!