For this year’s kickoff, my company gifted all employees with a subscription to MasterClass — the place where you can listen to your idols talk about their areas of expertise. I’d seen all the ads; so far, the classes are well produced and the ones I’ve watched are great. Walter…

Scrivener is a tool for writers with a singular focus. It’s not for publishing, layout, or for creating fancy newsletters; it’s for writing. All the scenes, outlines, character maps, pictures, resource and anything else you can think of goes into your Scrivener project. …

Yesterday, we foraged for flour, eggs and sliced ham at a Vancouver Costco. Civil lineups, lots of hand sanitizer and diligent, sign-wielding employees reminding people to social distance. I flashed my Costco card and the door employee waved us in. No temperature check or mask required. …

We are a Canadian family on a trip to the UK. As my wife and kids sleep, I’m typing this at a coffee shop in the Stockbridge area in Edinburgh. We are exploring Britain and Scotland a bit before dropping our son off for a year of college in Manchester. …

I’m not planning to fight, but hitting is great! — I’m a 50 (cough, cough) year old man. I work out four to five times a week; cardio, some weights, stretching and the occasional yoga class. And I’m bored. If it wasn’t for Netflix on my phone, cardio on an elliptical device would be the equivalent to an aerobic root…

Applying butt to chair with a word deadline works wonders Tom Wolfe squeezed out only 135 words a day; Hemingway averaged 500. Both guys didn’t have the internet pounding on their door. Netflix wasn’t screaming for a novel they could monetize into a TV series. Both guys didn’t give a…

Coffee shop creativity — I do my best writing in coffee shops. The combination of paying for a coffee and a light murmur makes for good writing. But why is that? Hemingway famously drank, but only after he’d written. The Atlantic reports, Lee Child exists on 20 cups of coffee and a pack of…

Writer’s block can be hell. Like insomnia or constipation. You want something to happen and it just doesn’t. Writer’s block is like a concrete barrier keeping your car from falling down to the next floor. Not all writers have this problem but when it hits, it’s a bitch. Lots of…

My father was born in 1932, quit school in Grade 9 and started working. In his early twenties, he drove a milk wagon for Silverwood’s Dairy in London Ontario. A wagon pulled by two horses. No gas or batteries required. Just a stop for hay and water. I have a…