I’m sitting by the edge of the Grand River. When you go for really long bike rides, gravity is against you. One water bottle for every hour of the ride… but water is heavy. A bike lock. Layers of clothes because it was cold early, and as it gets warmer, you strip on the side…
Fiction / Literature / Music / Short Story / Writing
Ten years ago, a song came out that has not been equalled in the decade since. In the last ten years, we’ve had a pandemic. An invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Another conflict between Israel and Palestine. We’ve had the rise of generative artificial intelligence, and we’ve learned that the climate crisis is very real.…
Fiction / Literature / Music / Writing
Writer brain dislikes sleep and loves coffee, even though writer body likes rest and is positive that caffeine is bad. What are you going to do, though? Get up, even though it’s dark, and put on your headphones and do the things that are you supposed to be doing. Make some art. Walk under starlight.…
Fiction / life / Literature / Movies / Short Story / Writing
Talking about movies released in the late 90’s is like being in the 80’s and referencing entertainment from 1960. It’s deeply weird. We’re too serious. It’s easier to give into doomscrolling and the belief that everything is bad in life, or at least getting worse, than it is to have fun. However, in the interests…
Fiction / Literature / Short Story / Writing
I’ll never know how to properly talk about myself, but here goes. Great thanks to Freefall Magazine, subtitled ‘Canada’s Magazine of Exquisite Writing’ (love that!) for awarding me both second and third place in their prose contest. Second place winner was ‘The Arms of Village’, a very tough story to write, and a hard one…
I have proof. I wrote a story called ‘Cavegirl’. It was inspired by a trip to New York City, and specifically by the rocks that lay about Central Park. Here is a photo from yesterday. Amazing that a city this big has a park so majestic in the middle of it. Central Park used to…
I feel like when you write, you should write on multiple levels. So, in this post, I’m covering the intensely personal in terms of skin friction, as well as the more esoteric topic of writers who aren’t published, don’t have a publishing deal, and are on their own. I know that’s not what writing on…
The first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be glorious. This image is AI-created. Took about ten iterations to get it right. It’s meant to be a depiction of my brain, the scientist/engineer component as well as the literary component. Three times in the last week, someone has termed my…
Boulevard’s selection of this story for the noted award is a turning point for me. As of today, the story remains published on Boulevard’s website for free reading: https://www.boulevardmagazine.org/free-reading/the-reach. Boulevard is considered one of the top literary magazines, and has been for a while. They put my name on the cover, which is exceedingly wonderful,…
I didn’t need a Furiosa movie. I loved Mad Max: Fury Road. The visuals, the world-building, the creativity, all on a scale that was hard to fathom. I liked Max. I liked Furiosa. I liked every single supporting character. I’m sure George Miller, the director, is all manner of strange and wonderful. After all, he…
Hi all, June 10th at 6 pm in Toronto, per the above, I’m going to be doing a reading. I have no idea what I’m reading yet, will have to sort through that. The ten-minute period won’t really allow me to get through a whole short story, but I could certainly do part of one.…
Feeling the depths of jet lag at the moment, but I know it will pass. Sitting in a coffee shop… drinking coffee. It’s a remedy. Grateful to The Masters Review for including me on the shortlist for their Winter fiction contest: https://mastersreview.com/2023-2024-winter-short-story-award-for-new-writers-shortlist/. The piece is called ‘Powder Blue’. Technology, I think, challenges our definition of…
The Mega Manila Urban Population is about 26 million people. It is one of the densest populations in the world, about five times more dense than New York City. The above photo is of a cathedral that escaped the severe bombing Manila took during World War II. It is in Intramuros, the breathing history of…
It’s funny when you travel around the world and feel more at home than you do at home. Here, people smile and nod. They bring their hands together. I like the lemon taste of the drink. Emulsified chilies in a bowl, spread liberally. The supposition that people start from: thank you for coming, we assume…
In my writing life, I do things alone. I’m solitary, and reclusive, and then wonder why I feel forgotten at times. Do you ever feel forgotten? Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s us, pal. In my professional life, I have thousands of people that I collaborate with, because there is no other way to get anything…
Trent Lewin 