You won’t believe me, but I’m not real. Not a real human being. I’m a robot. An automaton. Trent Lewin is an anagram (try it, and you will see), and that name was always a hint that something was different about who I am – that in fact, I am no one. I never was. […]
Some Very Cool Recognition
This is pretty neat, a short-list for an international writing competition: 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Shortlist 4000 entries from 47 countries, and 26 stories on the shortlist (including mine). Kind of blown away, to be honest.
Anywhere is Better than Here: A True Tale of Domestic Terror
You may or may not believe it, but this is a true story. On July 24, 2015, R_____ and J_____, family name withheld, were loitering in the dusty parking lot behind a townhouse complex when they saw a heap of recyclables perched against a back entrance. Their original inclination was to push the […]
Morder Moist Fowl
A day be and that which ends. And tired through the bones. Creaking notions in the bottom of the blender, whipping around. Coffee at ten pm, because I might miss something. Television. Baked goods. Beer and maple syrup. Snoozing on the couch. Wake up and you’re there. […]
Did You Know that You Cannot Lick Your Elbow?
Too much fiction can make a person overly serious. I often like to substitute clanking prose on the keyboard with shopping on-line… somewhere in that statement is an important commentary on humans as a whole. I’m sure everyone has heard of the mega on-line site Alibaba (http://www.alibaba.com/). It is a Chinese-hosted site from which you […]
My Name is Not Julie: A Guest Post
This is a post about the infamous Julie! That’s right, the blogger without a blog! I have been long remiss in sitting on this guest post – my apologies to Julie and the rest of the blog world that I’m sure would dearly like to know more about her. As one of the most generous, […]
The Day “Stairway to Heaven” Died
Writers, wrongly or rightly, wish they were able to compose songs. The highest goal of a writer is to make someone feel at all what they might during the meanest moment of the worst song. Capturing music in written form is difficult. But it is possible, as long as you don’t forget that to get […]
Audio Story – What I Sound Like When I’m Not Speaking
Have you ever wondered how long it takes to read a 1,500 word short story? Apparently, 8 minutes and 19 seconds. Below is a radio station’s reading of one of my short stories, the one that was short-listed for the CBC’s short story prize last year. It’s called Saad Steps Out. If you have a […]
Fragments Made of Fiction: Experiments in the Thursday Set
Open Strong How I came to know that Drew Ramos regularly went to other worlds was nothing more than a bookmark nestled in a Harry Potter book (the sixth one, I think) that came spinning out when I happened to knock it off an end table. Drew was the type who would re-read Harry […]
How the Star Wars Teaser Saved My Shoes
On Friday November 28th, the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lucasfilm/starwarstheforceawakens/). In the long tradition of celebrating Kardashian posterior, I’m pretty sure it blew up the internet. I found myself walking through downtown Toronto on the day-of, skirting skyscrapers and bagel shops, street meat vendors and cyclists. I […]