Writing

Everybody has a story to tell, but…

If you think of it, our lives are built on stories. Our stories begin with our birth, our mothers relate tales of various levels of pain in labour; often our details are written down or at least discussed with family and friends, our length, weight, the colour of our eyes,

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What do you want to be?

I woke up this morning another year older and no closer to knowing what I want to do with the rest of my life. Well-meaning adults, perhaps because they cannot think of anything else to say, often ask youngsters “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. The

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The Courage of Memoir

I am not a courageous person. I will go out of my way to avoid conflict. I will accept responsibility, even for things I haven’t done, to avert tension and unpleasant situations. Although I have been rebellious in many ways, I prefer my rebellions to be private. I don’t often

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Reading to Write

“Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write” once said Annie Proulx, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Shipping News. As writers and wannabe writers and anyone who has ever contemplated putting pen to paper or tapping frantically on their keyboard knows,

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The Answer is Always Books

Christmas this year and my family has decided to do a Kris Kringle. We have a limit of $50 to spend on whoever we have drawn out. I’m not going to mention whose name I drew, just in case they are reading this. But if any of you just happen

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Emerging: creativity can develop at any age

The word emerging conjures up various images, shadowy figures appearing through the fog, the answer to a puzzle gradually revealed, a butterfly breaking through its pupate. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, the simple definition of “emerging” is “newly created or noticed and growing in strength or popularity: becoming widely

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