Things That Change You Forever

I have a ghost story of my own.  At least, I have a ghost-cat story. My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor.  My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical.  Twelve foot ceilings!  Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture!  Wait… let’s get [...]

Hot For Teacher

I always get a boost of industrious energy this time of year, and a renewed sense of purpose.  All those years of back-to-school excitement have left me with a nigh-Pavlovian response to Labour Day.  I’m one of those (apparently rare) few who actually liked school from kindergarten onwards, so the beginning of a new school [...]

Coming Up Roses

Like many in the book business, I get most of my books for free or at cost.  While I rarely have the patience or skill to bargain for any other object, when it comes to books the thought of paying retail is, to me, rather absurd.  The major exception to my self-imposed rule is in [...]

All That Fairy Tale Nonsense

One of the many criticisms levelled at romance novels is that they’re a poor model for women when it comes to real-life relationships. All that fairy tale nonsense, detractors say, will make women want the wrong things from their partners. I could list a dozen things wrong with that assumption, but I’ll limit myself to [...]

Mary, Queen Of Hearts

Despite being a rapacious reader of just about everything, during my formative years I managed to miss any number of writers who are the bedrock of their particular genres. For instance, I read Terry Brooks long before Tolkien (and yes, I’m aware of the gravity of that mistake). I didn’t discover Diana Wynne Jones until [...]