Tags

  • Published on

    working towards the deadline

    Working Towards the deadline
    We're really racing towards the Fall deadline that we've given ourselves for the launch of our anthology. There is so much to do, so much to think about. 

    I'm currently formatting the book using Atticus. It's pretty easy to use and I'm happy with it so far. The next step is to get it finalized and up on the distribution platforms that allow us to get our book to readers. 

    Amazon is the first that comes to mind. 

    Please let me know where you get your books.

    Where do you get your books?

    What type of book do you prefer?

  • Published on

    the twilight zone

    The Twilight Zone
    I was recently told by several people that my writing was reminiscent of the Twilight Zone stories. Nothing could have made me happier. Growing up, I couldn't get enough of watching the old episodes and then the more recent ones as well. Although they often gave me nightmares, I continued watching them with interest. Not because I enjoyed being scared (although maybe there was an element of that, I'm sure), but because the stories were strange in a way that made me think and wonder about life through the lens of the absurd and fantastical. 

    I still remember the one classic episode from 1960, Eye of the Beholder (spoiler alert), where the audience doesn't see anyone's face and we just know that a woman is about to have a life changing surgery on her face. The suspense and the reveal at the end of the episode in which everyone but the woman looked like pigs left me in shock and wanting more of the same. 

    In a similar fashion, I try to take the people on a journey with my writing in which there are twists and turns and an ending that might not have been what the reader anticipated. I enjoy creating fantasy worlds with struggles or themes similar to our own that make us think and reflect on our lives and situations. 

    So when someone tells me that my story makes them think of the Twilight Zone, I take that to be the best compliment someone could give me. 

    I'm super excited to share my stories with everyone in the new anthology, This is What We Are and Other Stories. We're working on getting the book out this Fall. Sign up for the newsletter to get updates on launch dates. 
  • Published on

    What inspires me?

    What inspires me? - Nora
    Triggers for writing fiction are different for everyone, I think. 

    Mine can be landscapes hurtling by on a train in a foreign land, astonishing confidences of friends, my own adventures, especially those not easily explained.

    My instinct when feeling a writing trigger coming on is to write something otherworldly in the realm of science fiction or fantasy. 

    The story I'm writing right now is like that.  My dreams had been surprising me lately.  Then they gave me an idea....

    The Dreams of Others

    He drew his hand back, his fist the size of a ham, and swung at me, missing as I skipped out of the way. A rush of excitement and fear jolted through me as I raised the baseball bat and struck his red thick-jowled face once, twice, thrice.  

    At first he howled, but once his nose broke and blood spewed from his mouth along with a few of his teeth, he made a choking sound.  As I bashed him across the face a final time, he fell on the kitchen floor, silent. The bat hung limply from my hand, blood dripping from its tip. At last, I thought, at last. 

    The walls of my kitchen blurred, then I was outside, the bat gone from my hand, watching my little brother swinging on a tire hanging from the tree at their cottage. I was so happy, there were tears in my eyes. Why had I thought him dead?  I started running towards him and then….

    I jolted upright in my bed, my heart thundering in my chest, my eyes a bit wet. For a moment I felt so disoriented that I was surprised to see Henri lying beside me, before I remembered he was right where he was supposed to be. 

    I just killed my husband, I thought muzzily. And my brother was alive. I shuffled off the bed and to the bathroom where my head cleared, the dream hangover gone. I never had a brother, and my lovely Henri looked nothing like the lout I’d struck with the baseball bat. 

    As I returned to bed still emotionally wrenched, I promised myself, as I had many times before, to see someone about this. It happened almost all the time now, leaving me exhausted throughout the day.  
    ​
    ​I was dreaming the dreams of strangers.....

    More to come soon!

    If you write or are thinking of writing, what has inspired you lately? ​
  • Published on

    At the Beginning...

    Welcome from Nora
    Welcome to my page.

    A couple of years ago, Josy and I got together to support each other as we pursued our writing goals.

    Our new anthology, "This Is What We Are", is the result of our collaboration. We had a fabulous time putting it together!
    ​
    ​For a taste, here's a quick bite from "Witness", one of my stories in the anthology: 

    ​A streamer of light, the vessel shot across the void stretching between the nine planets, hurtling toward a little blue planet, third from the sun.

    ​The witness had been there before, and shuddered to recall the pain of entry and transformation. It had been a shockingly primitive world. What changes had been wrought since the last time? Had the creatures of that world risen or fallen? Likely fallen, since the witness was returning once more, and another event was imminent.
    ​

    ​Stayed tuned!  Our anthology is launching soon.
  • Published on

    Welcome

    Welcome
    If you're here, it's because you're interested in knowing more about me, my writing and reading science fiction, horror, and fantasy. 

    I'll do my best not to disappoint. 

    That being said, here is an excerpt from the story "Tagged" from the new anthology, This is What We Are and Other Stories. 

    Mary sifted through the pile of severed hands. There were limbs of every shape, size, and colour amassed haphazardly on the stainless steel counter of the morgue. Some were hacked off cursorily, while other cuts resembled something the surgeons she worked with would carefully execute. What they did all have in common, however, was that they were all missing their tags.

    If you want to read more about Mary in "Tagged", stay tuned for the launch of the book and subscribe to our newsletter updates.