The Art of Daydreaming

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Have we lost the art of daydreaming? I ask myself this as I make my way through my daily commute. I see people checking their smart phones on the way to the subway, standing in the elevator, or waiting for their next bus. There’s very little talk happening on these phones; no one is speaking to one another. With each ping, our brain fires, turning us all into Pavlovs who crave that next notification from Facebook or Twitter. I remember when my commute included time for daydreaming. It seems like so long ago. I’d listen to my music, with my…

Mercurius Istoria

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Here Ye! Here Ye! A new broadsheet is born! Hot off the presses. The 17th century saw an explosion of printing and in particular the publication of newspapers, the most popular being Mercuius Politicus. In that tradition, I have started my own broadsheet. Mercurius Istoria is a monthly newsletter offering the subscriber a brief flavour of my news, interesting historical links and images. Subscribe now and receive Mercurius Istoria by email. You don’t even need to find an urchin on a street corner hawking a copy. Delivered straight to your inbox. The December edition is now available. Click here to view.    …

When did I become a pizza critic?

Categories: WritingTags: · · · · · · 12 Comments

I’ve been a life-long reader and can’t imagine anything more satisfying than curling up with a book and losing yourself in its pages. If I were a foodie, it would be equivalent of eating my way through five star restaurants. As a child of immigrant parents, I had to wait until the first grade before someone taught me how to read. Before then, I would look at books and pretend I knew how. My older cousin once called my bluff, and I made up some story on the spot to convince him. And so a writer was born. Imagine my…

Author Spotlight: Elaine Cougler

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It is my pleasure to introduce historical fiction Indie author, Elaine Cougler. Elaine is the author of The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck and her third book, The Loyalist Legacy, just came out. Elaine is a fellow Canadian whose trilogy covers the lives of British Loyalists from the American Revolution, beyond the  War of 1812 to the Rebellion of 1838. From these conflicts, Canada emerged as a nation. Join me in welcoming Elaine as she shares her thoughts on the writing process. Did you have any scene which was more difficult to write than the others? One that you pondered…

Storytelling makes us human

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Have you ever wondered what makes us special? I recently watched a Ted Talk, by Yuval Noah Harari, What explains the rise of humans, where he explores the basic question about what makes us human. Chimpanzees are our closest relative, sharing 99% of our DNA, and yet we are as different to them as the sun is to the moon. Why? According to Harari, humans differ from other animals because we can cooperate in large numbers and with great flexibility. How do we do this? Through our imagination. Animals use their language to describe objective reality; in contrast, humans exist in a “dual reality” consisting…