Gleanings
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by Kerry
6h ago
and I realized that my quiet writing has a relevance to those who are willing to listen. And even if it doesn’t, I need to do it. A lot of writers, I can only assume, would feel like they can’t write about a thing unless they’re an expert about the topic, but there’s a lot of activity that happens in the act of learning. That’s where the factual stuff in both of our stories feeds the emotional content. How do I know so much about these Mills & Boon romances? Because I snuck into my sister’s books of course. Later I also snuck into my father’s bookshelves and read all the juicy bits from ..read more
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BOOKSPO: Psychological Thriller Edition!
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by Kerry
6h ago
This time I’m talking with Ashley Tate, bestselling debut author of TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES, about how reading Iain Reid’s smash hit novel I’M THINKING OF ENDINGS gave her permission to write the blendy psychological thriller-literary mash-up of her dreams (or worst nightmares?). Listen at substack or Apple podcasts or most places where you can get your podcasts ..read more
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Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life, edited by Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee
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by Kerry
6h ago
I’ve been around for a little while, and I think it’s safe to say that Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life, edited by Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee is the best literary anthology I’ve ever read. It’s a beautiful volume, as aesthetically as pleasing as you’d expect for a book about art, a beautifully crafted object in its own right, complete with colour photography of beadwork, quilts, Kelly S. Thompson’s knitted bull terrier, a conversation in embroidery, and needlepoint. I’m not actually sure of what the difference is between embroidery and needlepoint (I’m a lapsed knitter myself ..read more
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The Books Themselves
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by Kerry
1w ago
Last week marked seven years since the release of my first novel, an occasion I didn’t mark as in years past because I’m trying to be more honest and human about my publishing experiences (as opposed to, like, posting, say “WOO HOO BIG BOOK TOUR ENERGY!” posts when it’s just me eating crullers at a series of Tim Hortons across Southern Ontario). I’ve been really lucky and privileged to have published three novels in total, but it’s never been like how I thought it would be, I’ve never received the validation that my books are real, that I’m legit. I’ve never made a major bestseller list, I’ve ..read more
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First Day of Spring
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by Kerry
1w ago
How to begin? I think I’ll start with my bona fides, even though its kind of obnoxious. I don’t own a car, I use public transit, I wash and reuse plastic bags, I hang my laundry to dry, I’ve banished serviettes in favour of secondhand cloth napkins, I make monthly charitable donations to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, I’m not a jet-setter, all my clothes are secondhand or from local designers, I’ve been refilling the same dish soap container for half a decade now, I only vote for politicians with climate plans, I eat meat just once a week if that, save veggie scraps for soup stock, I buy s ..read more
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The Afterpains, by Anna Julia Stainsby
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by Kerry
1w ago
Anna Julia Stainsby’s debut The Afterpains has been a hot topic of conversation in one of my group chats lately, so I was happy to get my hands on a copy and check it out for myself. It’s the story of three women and their respective experiences of motherhood and loss woven together with those of the people who love them, a testament to love and friendship, first and foremost, and the transformative possibilities of both. It’s the story of Isaura, whose teenage pregnancy was part of a long family history that seemed like a curse, and how she had to leave her daughter behind in Honduras while ..read more
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The Leap! (New Bookspo!)
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by Kerry
1w ago
The third episode of BOOKSPO is up, and it’s particularly special to me because…it was also the first interview I did for this project, at the end of January. Back when I knew absolutely nothing about how to make a podcast, back when my self-esteem and confidence were at remarkable lows, and I knew that making the podcast would help me find my way out of that low. But making the leap to doing that was scary. There was something paralyzing about where I was at that point, creatively, and making any leap seemed terrifying and impossible. I felt really intimidated about approaching authors for i ..read more
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Routine Interrupted
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by Kerry
1w ago
This message is coming to you from outside of routine in a variety of ways, the first being that it’s not due until the end of the month, but I’m spreading things out so that, going forward, my Pickle Me This Digest (a monthly compendium of my blog posts) arrives in inboxes mid-month, my essays come at month-end, subscribers don’t get end up forgetting about me, or getting fed up with all my newsletters arriving at once. Because it’s not been long since my last Pickle Me This digest, this newsletter is shorter than usual, which is probably for the best since—also outside of routine—it’s March ..read more
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Home, by Toni Morrison
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by Kerry
1w ago
“It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve started to read the novels of Toni Morrison—Beloved, Sula, Jazz, and just recently her debut The Bluest Eye—and for me, this has been a process of becoming, of watching the possibilities of literature unfolding. Mesmerizing, and also disorientating. I’ve found understanding these novels to be difficult. The kinds of places where the bottom land is high up on the hill. Where the unsaid is articulated, where the wicked are permitted sympathy and understanding. Whose love is a kind of gutting desperation, an urge toward destruction. Stories that ar ..read more
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Home, by Toni Morrison
Pickle Me This
by Kerry
2w ago
“It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve started to read the novels of Toni Morrison—Beloved, Sula, Jazz, and just recently her debut The Bluest Eye—and for me, this has been a process of becoming, of watching the possibilities of literature unfolding. Mesmerizing, and also disorientating. I’ve found understanding these novels to be difficult. The kinds of places where the bottom land is high up on the hill. Where the unsaid is articulated, where the wicked are permitted sympathy and understanding. Whose love is a kind of gutting desperation, an urge toward destruction. Stories that ar ..read more
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