As a student, I was often told by a wise teacher that we needed to have balanced personalities, so that humanity would not tip the world over its axial tilt where it hangs precariously today, askew by about 23 degrees. That meant that we needed to keep our left (analytical) brain in sync with our […]
Left and Right Brain balanced – wise man or muttonhead? Read More »
So we owned the podium, eh? But the naysayers, our Canadian alter•ego, had a lot to say about it before we got there. Our typical Canadian hang•up got in the way during the dog days of the Olympics, during that middle stretch after the great gold performance by young Bilodeau, when the medals seemed to
Olympic Reflections Read More »
The waters are calm when looking over the ocean from the battlements of the Fort that guards the entrance of the harbour at Santiago de Cuba. Off to the right over the horizon lies Jamaica in the sun, and to the left is Haiti in its destruction, while down below, in 1898, the Spanish galleons
This week I completed the first draft of another novel. This one came out very slow, as if I were pulling out a premature baby, yet unwilling to be born. I have never suffered from writers block for too long to be bothered by it in the past. But this time, I wondered whether I
Creative wells run dry – or do they? Read More »
I was dismayed when I read the revised air travel baggage regulations soon after Christmas and realized that I could take a laptop on board but not a handbag containing my books. I love to read on flights, forsaking the movie, the chatting with my neighbour, or the drinking and eating, just to catch up
Reading Books In Flight Read More »
When Haiti was hit by the massive earthquake, I couldn’t help but feel that the poor always get picked on. Why choose an impoverished country that has been reeling from one political and economic disaster to another? Why take them out with an earthquake as well? This happens quite regularly in the developing world: never•ending
Why do the poor always get picked on? Read More »
When the sad tale of the greatest golfer’s fall from grace, or more aptly, fall from the stereotype, broke recently, I was glad that I was not in his cleats. Just the other day, I was lamenting the fact that my books weren’t best•sellers, yet (you see, I am ever hopeful, and vain). But with
Celebrity Conundrum Read More »
“So this is Christmas, and what have you done?” The refrain hangs heavy on my mind. Like a stock•taking superimposed by some divine deity who is counting down the hours in my life left on this earth. I learned a few home truths this year. I learned that I could write books and stories in
Winding down the year Read More »
Now that the launches are over, and the book stores (the ones I know of) have been supplied with my books and all my friends and relatives have been cajoled, teased and threatened to buy a copy of my latest creation in time for Christmas, how does one get to the next level of book
Man, do I need to win one of them literary awards? Read More »
I watched the movie 2012 and had a sense of déjà•vu as I left the theatre. Had the movie’s script writers and I met in some dream space and used each other’s plot lines? The destruction of the earth, which takes place in the first fifty pages of my book, is in this movie! Now
Deja-vu (After the Flood, the novel vs. 2012, the movie) Read More »