by jillemaclean | May 31, 2018 | The Writing Process, Writing Inspiration
How do you counterbalance too much time spent at the computer? I vowed I’d never write a blog at the very last minute, and here I am – with three blogs stashed in Microsoft Word – writing one I want to post tomorrow. I’ve started researching a sequel for the as-yet...
by jillemaclean | Apr 16, 2018 | Novels I’ve Read, Writing Inspiration
Does a book you’ve owned for a while suddenly leap off the shelf and demand to be read? Helen Humphrey’s The Lost Garden, published in 2002, was such a book for me last week. I read it over an evening and the next morning. In prose both subtle and sure of itself, she...
by jillemaclean | Mar 30, 2018 | Book Review, Writing Inspiration
Although I don’t have a reading list per se, I have one shelf of books that I really want to get to. Bookends on the coffee table hold seven or eight novels that are a little higher priority, and there are at least four more books – fiction and non-fiction – on the...
by jillemaclean | Feb 15, 2018 | Writing Inspiration
Have you read Beowulf? Seamus Heaney’s translation, that is. His introduction alone is worth the price of ten books. Beowulf is a compelling read, poetry that’s rich in imagery, imagination and narrative drive, replete with graphic descriptions of a warrior culture...
by jillmaclean | Dec 1, 2017 | Writing Inspiration
So why did I embark on a novel set in medieval times? By late 2013, although I’d thoroughly enjoyed writing all five books for young people, I felt I was in danger of falling into a literary rut: four books set in Newfoundland, bullying either the main theme or an...
