If the ship goes down, the way we promote and find books is going to change. — There has been a lot of speculation this week that Twitter-as-we-know-it is coming to an end. Whether the social network dies a fiery death or withers away slowly, the truth is that discoverability for new books and authors will go down with it. Twitter has been the place to hock…

A major win for authors — we won’t be paying for this loophole anymore! — In July, I wrote a story that mentioned a huge and problematic loophole in Amazon’s eBook return policy. Amazon allowed anyone to return an eBook within seven days, regardless of the amount they’d read, for a full refund. Makes sense for a digital product, right? Wrong! When this loophole was…

Grief is complicated when every week is a new 9/11 — As a Canadian citizen, Queen Elizabeth II has been the reigning monarch of my country for my entire life. I have close familial ties to the UK and grew up with the Queen’s portrait on my grandmother’s parlour wall. Her portrait also hung in my primary school classrooms while we…

A follow-up on the dissolution of one of the fastest-growing publications — I’ve been away a lot the last couple of months. As I’m in the thick of finishing up my PhD thesis, I’ve stepped back from social media and my online presence to focus on that work. So I’m probably the last to hear about all the Medium drama, from the…

CTV’s outrageous decision reveals that misogyny and ageism is alive and well in Canadian Broadcasting — Lisa LaFlamme has been a household name in Canada for decades and is known globally for her journalistic integrity. After a 35-year career with CTV, LaFlamme was unceremoniously fired from her position as Chief Anchor and Senior Editor of the network’s evening news show, CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme…

Please stop stealing from small creators to “stick it to The Man” — Two times in the last month, I received very nice messages on Twitter from readers of my first novel, asking about future books. Normally, I would be thrilled to get such a message. Someone read my book! That’s awesome! However, right now those messages hit differently — because my books…

What you can do to protect your rights in post-Roe v. Wade America — On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned two key decisions protecting the right to access abortion care: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). In the days after, many have questioned what practical measures they can take to help protect themselves and their loved ones as…

A major literary landmark is rotting in a UNESCO City of Literature — The final story of James Joyce’s Dubliners, titled “The Dead,” takes place at Number 15 Usher’s Island in Dublin, once home to his great aunts who inspired the story by hosting extravagant dinner parties in the stunning Georgian townhouse in the 1890s. A tale of hospitality, miscommunication, and marital strife…

Watch out, CEOs: your performative #IWD posts are getting you called out! — This International Women’s Day, one Twitter account stood out against the flood of #IWD promotional posts: The Gender Pay Gap Bot. Using data pulled straight from the United Kingdom’s official gender pay gap data, the Gender Pay Gap Bot does exactly what its profile says it’ll do: retweets companies’ performative…

Most of history is just one big pissing contest, isn’t it? — In light of the current escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine — and all the badass men and women, including President Zelenskyy himself, making big moves on the resistance front — I would like to share my favourite story of how the United States once attempted to intimidate Russia during…

What do Coco, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red have in common? — It has always been trendy to hate on what is popular, and especially what is popular with young female audiences. When a certain animation style becomes the norm, for example, that animation style may begin to see harsh criticism for no other reason than it is “mainstream” and therefore “boring.” …

Check out this literary landmark the next time you’re in Dublin — At first glance, it may be easy to overlook Sweny’s Pharmacy. Tucked away on Lincoln Place in Marion Square, Dublin, this treasure looks deceptively simple. There are no flashy signs, no arrows pointing toward its entrance, no tour guides pushing their group toward the building (unless it’s June 16th). …

Twitter is losing its mind over a school board’s decision to ban Maus — Since the release of the McMinn County Board of Education’s meeting minutes, Twitter has been (rightfully) losing their minds over the decision to remove Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus from the eighth grade curriculum. …

Let’s stop glorifying a man who sexually abused children — In December 2021, a petition began making the rounds asking that Trinity College Dublin rename its Erwin Schrödinger Theatre after “a non-pedophile, please.” The petition was written in response to a recent Irish Times article which revealed the famous physicist to be “a serial groomer of girls” who abused at…

“Secret Book Wife” and the politics of success in a marriage — Question: If your wife wrote a book and earned a $100,000 advance (an absolutely massive accomplishment for any writer), would you be complaining about it to strangers on the internet? The Internet is once again losing its mind, this time about the story of a man who thinks that his…

Supposedly “Gender Critical” views are suddenly flooding Canada’s news cycle in an eerily familiar pattern… — The UK has a transphobia problem. Ever since British author J.K. Rowling began to publicly air her “Gender Critical” views on Twitter and published an anti-trans manifesto on her blog, the British media has become a battlefield for trans rights. Although the “TERF Wars” (TERF being an acronym describing trans-exclusionary radical feminists, ie, anti-trans activists) may…

Noodle the Pug is a TikTok sensation. Here’s why thousands of viewers tune in every day to see whether or not he has bones. — It all started with a thirteen-year-old pug named Noodle. Every morning a man named Jon Graziano on TikTok (@ Jongraz) checks to see if his very old pug has any bones, and the TikTok world is fascinated. He does this by picking up Noodle, who is a very chubby, sleepy…

For those of us Millennials who grew up on Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling’s transphobic outbursts online were one hell of a wake-up call. Now other beloved feminist authors, like Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates, might be wandering down the same path. What’s that they say about meeting your heroes? — Having 24/7 access to anybody famous is going to result in learning personal tidbits, habits, and opinions that might otherwise have been kept quiet. In the past, we learned scandalous things about authors when their diaries or letters were published post-mortem; think, for example, James Joyce’s incredibly kinky letters to…

The true story of a publisher that stopped paying its authors — and is somehow still in business — On July 16, 2021, I made the following announcement on my public Facebook page: “I have made the hard decision to part ways with Dreamspinner Press and their imprint, Harmony Ink, who published Out of Order (2015) and Order in the Court (2016). The fate of these books — which…