From Six Words That Change Everything to Hope That Changes the Future
Hey everyone, it has been a minute! I'm revamping the blog and removing some old content to start fresh. Since I often receive questions about the brain tumour center where I work, I thought I'd provide a brief introduction to the Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre (aka BTRC).
"Your child has a brain tumour."
Six dreaded words that echo through hospital corridors and shatter the world of families across the globe. In that moment, time stops. Questions flood in faster than answers can be found. Parents grip each other's hands as medical terms they've never heard become the new vocabulary of their lives. The future, once filled with school plays and soccer games, suddenly hangs in uncertain balance.
But what if those six words didn't have to carry the same weight of despair?
At the Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre (BTRC) where I work, we've made it our mission to change that conversation. As the world's largest pediatric brain tumour research centre, we're not just studying these devastating diseases – we're fundamentally transforming how we understand, approach, and treat them.
Our strength lies in something rare in the research world: true multidisciplinary collaboration. Under one roof, neurosurgeons who operate on the most delicate tissues in the human body work alongside neuro-oncologists who navigate the intricate dance of cancer treatment. Neuropathologists who can read the story tumours tell at the cellular level collaborate with basic scientists who decode the molecular mysteries that drive these diseases forward.
Together, we are developing precision therapies that don't just treat brain tumours as a single disease but recognize that each child's tumour has its own genetic fingerprint, its own vulnerabilities, its own pathway to being defeated. Our research moves seamlessly from bench to bedside, from discovery to clinical application, from theoretical possibility to real hope for real families.
Every breakthrough in our labs, every collaboration among our teams, every innovation in our approach is driven by one unwavering vision: to transform medicine so fundamentally that one day, doctors will look parents in the eye and say something different.
"Your child has a brain tumour, but we can treat it."
Follow and support the Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre on social media:
This blog post was inspired by a 2014 TEDx talk by Dr James Rutka, a neurosurgeon and the director of the BTRC. The talk is available on YouTube and can be viewed below.
Winter 2023 Favorites Archive
📚 Favourite books 📚
Fiction
Station 11 by Emily St. John
When I first saw that HBO was coming out with a limited series based on this book, I had to quickly escalate it to the top of my ‘To Be Read’ pile for fear of spoilers. This excellent book is set in Toronto, with vivid scenes steps from where I used to live. It always amazes me when writers craft scenarios ripped from future headlines. In this case, a global pandemic decimates the world. While starkly different from the COVID-19 pandemic, St. John's imagination of a pandemic's fallout is eerie and chilling.
For fellow writers: "Read like a writer" craft notes: I found Emily St. John utilized some valuable devices I could learn from. I loved how she captured character mannerisms in simple yet evocative ways. One favourite line describes a voice heard over the phone:
"A man's voice, almost familiar and very British" (emphasis my own). With two words, I could instantly hear that voice in my mind.
Later, St. John's masterful use of foreshadowing impresses the reader with the high stakes of the situation without telling us (an example of the cardinal rule: show, not tell). I won't detail the example here as it contains spoilers, but it can be found on p. 30 of the trade paperback version.
NonFiction
Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson
I loved this book. It tackles contemporary moral and political issues polarizing society today (such as race, gender, sexuality, religion, and culture) with a fresh, logical examination. It was humbling to pull back my point of view, literally imagining myself peering down at Earth from space as if I were an alien and observing the fears and conflicts that tear so many of us apart. Then, on top of that, layer Neil deGrasse Tyson's beautiful personal insights and lessons from science, highlighting the beauty of our world and how to heal the self-inflicted chasms between us. I first listened to the audiobook while commuting to the hospital, then quickly went out and bought several copies to give to family and friends. It is a short but essential read for anyone concerned about what is happening on our planet.
🎥 Favourite media 📺
🎥 MOVIE 🎥
Women Talking
Every year, I strive to watch all the feature movies nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. It has become a challenge since the Academy expanded the list to 10 movies. Now, I end up watching the films throughout the year, and Women Talking, directed and co-written by fellow Canadian Sarah Polley, got its turn this summer. I had no idea what the movie was about because I deliberately avoided watching any nominated movie trailers, fearing it would taint my experience. This movie's acting performances, writing and story, captivated me and left me thinking about "the women" for days. I wanted more of Sarah Polley and bought her memoir Run Toward the Danger to listen to on my commutes (also recommend if you enjoy memoir).
📺 Television Series 📺
Happy Valley (seasons 1-3)
I love British police procedurals, and Happy Valley is exceptional. What sets it apart from series such as Line of Duty, Broadchurch, or Unforgotten is the immersion into the life of the lead character, Catherine. The story explores crimes yet threads the personal life of Catherine and her family across each season, and a central plot line started in Season 1 carries through to the third and final season. I binged all three seasons within a month.
Craving for more? See previous favourites here.
Archive: Favourite finds from Spring 2021
My favourite books, movies and television series discovered in Spring 2021
📚 Favourite books of SPRING 2021 📚
Fiction
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai spans several decades but centres around how the AIDS crisis of the early 1980s affects the lives and relationships of a group of friends living in Chicago.
Makkai’s writing is evocative and beautiful, and as always, I read this book from a writer’s point of view, hopefully learning techniques from the author along the way. A principal tenet of writing is to show, not tell. Narrative description, or telling the reader what is happening, is boring. It’s better to show the reader through actions and metaphors, which hopefully immerses them in the story to feel what is happening rather than simply reading about it. Makkai’s The Great Believers is chock full of this technique in action.
In one example, Makkai conveys a shift in Yale Tishman’s mood after receiving good news. Instead of just saying, “Yale was happy,” the author expands on Yale’s actions that represent his jubilation and happiness:
“On the way home, Yale bought flowers and an apple pie. He smiled at strangers on the El, and didn’t feel the cold.”
Here, the reader can likely relate to the actions one might do in moments of outward joy and even subconsciously tap into their own prior, similar experiences to share in the character’s emotions.
Although a work of fiction, Makkai meticulously researched the 1980s gay scene in Chicago. At first, I wondered how the author would be able to put herself into the minds of a group of gay men, but she did so flawlessly — with both humour and tenderness. I later learned she interviewed dozens of gay men, HIV survivors and health professionals to help capture an accurate portrayal of the characters and setting.
The Great Believers also gave me a wondrous gift — resurfaced memories of loved ones lost. Many of the book’s characters and circumstances stirred up recollections of my mother’s friends who experienced the AIDS crisis during the 1980s-90s. I thought of Cloin Watts, a close family friend who lived with us for a year. He died of AIDS in the early 90s.
Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.
Bonus recommendation: If you are interested in this book, try the limited series It’s a Sin on Amazon Prime.
NonFiction
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Show Your Work is a must-read for all creatives — writers, artists, vloggers - anyone who creates content for the world. Typically, creators focus on the end product rather than the process. In his book, Austin Kleon encourages us to flip things around and focus on the journey rather than the destination.
Creatives can instantly reach their audience on the internet. Websites and social media provide an opportunity to show your work at every stage. Kleon encourages us not to obsess over perfection and instead share the raw material, the creative building blocks. Another benefit of following Kleon’s advice is the ability to build a platform and connect with people interested in your writing, artwork or creative projects.
Kleon contends that true happiness and contentment lies with sharing our work as we go rather than focusing on the result. It reminded me of something author Anne Lamott said in an online writer’s workshop. She told us not to focus on publication as the signpost of success and to expect the feeling of accomplishment to disappear 24 hours after publication. For some of her books, Lamott would continually check their Amazon sales ranking in the weeks following their release. As her titles slowly slipped down the rankings, she realized that worrying about her book’s performance was toxic. Instead, it’s essential to move forward and keep creating.
By willfully sharing our work in progress online, the world bears witness to our true accomplishment — the creative process.
Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.
🎥 Favourite media of Spring 2021 📺
🧠 brain candy 🍬
The Flight Attendant (HBO)
Wow, what a rollercoaster of a TV series. The series stars Kaley Cuoco (from Big Bang Theory) as a flight attendant, who after a night of excessive drinking in Bangkok, wakes up beside a murdered man’s body. The twists and turns in the suspenseful comedy left me on the edge of my seat.
The depth of Cuoco’s performance surprised me and is a huge departure from the ditzy blonde stereotype she played in her previous role of twelve years. Best of all? The season finale left room for a second season.
Watch the series trailer here.
🧠 brain food 🥕
Your Honor (Showtime)
One of my all-time favourite TV series is Breaking Bad, and when I watched Your Honor I revived that nostalgia for Bryan Cranston’s acting excellence. Instead of chemistry teacher turned meth cook, Bryan Cranston plays the role of a sitting judge who goes to extremes to protect his son after a hit-and-run accident.
Although the show received an overall lukewarm rating on Metacritic, I found the series suspenseful and well-crafted. Like Breaking Bad, it doesn’t conform to some formulae and the finale was both shocking and unexpected.
Watch the series trailer here.
Craving for more? See previous favourites here.
Why did the Friends Reunion affect me so much?
The heartwarming Friends Reunion special event on HBO MAX surfaced lingering feelings of loss.
Within minutes of starting the show, I felt a surge of emotion, tears brimming in my eyes as I watched each actor walk onto the set and greet their castmates.
The Friends series has been viewed over 200 billion times, so you must have been born yesterday if you haven’t seen the show at some point. You can rewatch on streaming platforms, or you can purchase the complete series on iTunes for a reduced price of 60$ (just for the May 28-31st weekend).
Watching the show was my weekly ritual for many years. I laughed and cried through many episodes. At one point in the special, we heard from people across the globe as they described how Friends shaped their lives, and in some cases, saved them from suicidal thoughts while in the deepest of depression.
The show ran for ten years—the same period as my most recent relationship. Perhaps the last relationship of my life. It was both heartwarming and -wrenching to watch the actors console each other after their final episode. I realized their sense of loss resurfaced my own grief. All of my future dreams instantly vanished as the most important person in my life slipped away. The beautiful holidays and good times we were supposed to share were now over. Then the what-ifs danced in my thoughts. What if I hadn’t been so rigid and stubborn? What if we had tried harder for therapy? What if…
Like stepping in quicksand, the thoughts pulled me into feelings of despair, sadness and anxiety. Probably the exact opposite of what the reunion show’s creators envisioned.
Yet, the show also reminded me of the importance of connection. Something many of us have missed after a year of seclusion during the pandemic.
To get out of my head and stop dwelling on ineffective emotions, I FaceTimed my mother. We talked about how losses can remind us of deeper ones, especially those we haven’t fully processed. Like the end of my relationship. We only spoke for a few minutes, but the gift of connection was enough to whisk away the fog of sadness and reminded me of a meaningful life philosophy:
“Regrets of the past and dreams of the future consume life. The magical words of living are Here and Now.”
Archive: Favourite finds from Winter 2021
My favourite books, movies and television shows discovered in Winter 2021
📚 FAVOURITE BOOKS OF WINTER 2021 📚
FICTION
The Outsider by Stephen King
In November 2020, I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time (see my blog post here). I had never written fiction before (as an adult) and decided my first novel would be a paranormal thriller based on a real-life criminal case my mother and I worked on in 2017. When I looked for advice on writing fiction, the universal message from many famous authors was to read extensively in the genre you want to write.
Stephen King’s The Outsider had been sitting on my “to be read” pile for almost a year, and November was the perfect time to dive into it. I wanted to read it from a writer’s perspective, with particular attention to how King used point of view, tense and how he developed memorable characters.
After reading only the first fifty pages of The Outsider, King struck me with how quickly he drew me in with intriguing characters. I noted how King used point of view, or POV, to connect the reader with the character. The Outsider is written in the third person, omniscient POV, which means the reader knows the characters inner thoughts. Each section of the book may have multiple main characters in the scene, but the point of view rotates to one central character, and you always know who takes the reins with the primary POV.
The key ingredient was HOW King writes as he shifts the POV from character to character. Many of his sentences are written with the language and style of the character. King weaves expressions the characters may say in the book’s dialogue into the section’s central narrative as if told from their perspective.
One example is the character Holly Gibney; a private investigator introduced midway into the book. It's immediately apparent that Holly's personality is distinct and unusual from the other characters. She's brilliant, and through her actions in the novel, King shows the reader she is affected by OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) or perhaps lives on the autism spectrum. Holly could be continually checking her Fitbit to regulate her heart rate or meticulously planning her travel routes to optimize efficiency. There was always something revealing about her character.
Holly was also very particular, and unlike her colleagues in the book, rarely swears. King’s narrative adapts to reflect this. In one section, Holly is after some information from a hospital worker who is reluctant to talk to her, suspecting she was a reporter. King writes:
“This was interesting. It might not have anything to do with the matter she had come here to investigate, but maybe it did. The woman hadn’t gone all poopy, after all, until Holly mentioned Peter Maitland’s name.”
We aren’t reading Holly’s thoughts here, yet King uses her mannerisms in his narrative, by repeating words (“poopy”) and phrases she says, or might say, in conversation. King maintains this subtle technique for all of the main characters.
As I begin writing my novel, I hope to incorporate this element of King’s style to make my characters come alive for the reader.
Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.
NONFICTION
Deep Work and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
This seasons selection is an amalgamation of a podcast and two books by the same author, Cal Newport. Working from home during the lockdown phases of the pandemic presented challenges I’d never faced before. It’s easy to say “I’ll work between 9 and 5,” but the reality is that line quickly becomes blurred, and on many days I struggled to remain focused and motivated. I sought out productivity advice online and came across the podcast Deep Questions hosted by Cal Newport, who like me, is an academic and author.
The podcast episodes then lead me to Newport’s books. Deep Work outlines a workflow philosophy based on assigning time blocks for in-depth focus on projects rather than reacting to a task list or email inbox. I am currently reading his most recent book Digital Minimalism, and while I can’t dump social media apps entirely, his advice resonated. I found that disabling notifications, blocking social media apps during the workday, and not reviewing email until after 11 am an incredible boost to my work attention span. The trick is to find what works for you, and I highly recommend these three resources to get you on the road to mental clarity and anxiety-free workflows.
🎥 Favourite media of winter 2021 📺
🧠 brain candy 🍬
Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)
After finishing Younger (last season’s top pick), I went in search of another mood-boosting comedy to help keep my spirits up as the COVID-19 pandemic second wave took hold in Toronto. I figured Darren Star knocked it out of the park with Younger, so why not give his new Netflix series Emily in Paris a try. It was okay. Just okay. I remembered seeing at least two people on Facebook recommend Ted Lasso, so I gave it a try even though I’m generally not a fan of shows revolving around sports.
In the show, Ted Lasso (played by showrunner Jason Sudeikis) is a lovable, perpetually optimistic American football coach recruited from his small-town coaching career to lead a struggling national soccer team in the UK.
To become a passionate advocate of a comedy series, I need a show to pull me in and hold on tight, and there is one formula guaranteed to do this: laughter through tears. If a show can tap into my heart and make it swell with endearing emotion, I know it has great potential. I especially know the show is a winner when I find myself smiling or laughing with pooling, wet eyes. Almost every episode of Ted Lasso hits the mark.
Watch the series trailer here.
🧠 brain food 🥕
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
“Are you jumping on the Queen’s Gambit bandwagon too?” asked a colleague at work when I told him I was getting a fancy chess set for Christmas.
I replied with an enthusiastic, whole-hearted, resounding “Yes!”
The limited series centres around Beth Harmon, a child chess prodigy orphaned at a young age. Her chess career ignites when the orphanage caretaker takes her under his wing and introduces her to the game. For the rest of the series’ episodes, we watch the socially awkward Beth grow and mature into a vibrant, intelligent woman and world chess champion. The series is based upon a book written by Walter Tevis from almost forty years ago. After the series’ debut, Tevis’ book became an instant New York Times bestseller despite its age.
The book’s renewed success and the bandwagon my colleague described is known as the “Queen’s Gambit effect.” Sales and interest in chess skyrocketed after the show’s October debut. Bloomberg reported that the number of online chess games doubled in November and one game retailer quantified the chess set sales spike at 1100% over the previous year.
I couldn’t imagine a better result, both for the author and for the chess community. I learned chess from my father when I was young, but it took my renewed interest as an adult to truly appreciate the skill, strategy and focus the game requires. I had no idea that the number of legal chess positions amounted to 10^40 and that the estimated number of possible games was 10^120. Chess.com, the site I chose to join, goes as far as to state “there are more possible chess games than the number of atoms in the universe.”
For me, picking up chess was calming, helped me unplug from the attention scattering technological distractions (see Cal Newport’s pick of the season above) and retrained my attention span to focus on one activity. If others, especially young adults preoccupied with their phones, can achieve this attention-building boost, our society benefits.
If you haven’t watched it yet, what are you waiting for!?
Watch the series trailer here.
Memento mori (and the science of death awareness)
Every morning I wake to a reminder of my delicate mortality.
Every morning, I wake to a reminder of my delicate mortality.
🌅 My view from bed every morning
Close up of Memento Mori poster
The framed poster is a symbol of the inevitability of death. Memento mori is Latin for “remember you have to die.” I discovered this concept after falling down a rabbit hole searching out contemporary information on the ancient philosophy of Stoicism and found The Daily Stoic, a website run by author Ryan Holiday, selling various prints and medallions imprinted with stoic reflections such as memento mori. Eventually, I found StoicReflections that offered the “life calendar” print shown above.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested.”
The average lifespan is 80 years or 4160 weeks. Glancing up at the poster allows me to see my life in weekly blocks and how many “empty” blocks I have left. Every weekend I grab my Sharpie and fill in another box.
It may sound morbid or depressing, but the weekly ritual of filling in a new square grounds me in the present and motivates me to make the most of each day. I don’t necessarily mean working harder or stressing over some legacy to leave behind either. The persistent reminder elevates me with gratitude to appreciate simple, joyful moments, pushes me to enhance my physical health, and reprioritize meaningful goals. I reflect on how I will make my week count.
No one sees the impact of death on the living more than a funeral director. In her 2014 memoir Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Caitlin Doughty says: “Death is the engine that keeps us running, giving us the motivation to achieve, learn, love, and create.”
Many others, though, tend to avoid the topic and will even deny its reality even in the face of a terminal diagnosis. I wondered why and questioned if scientists had attempted to analyze the effects of death awareness on human behaviour.
In early studies, psychologists focused on the negative impacts of death awareness, called terror management theory, or TMT. Most TMT studies examined how existential fear promoted aggression, greed, materialism, and rejection of those with different beliefs and values. The theory also proposes we have psychological systems in place to minimize anxiety caused by death awareness. Researchers concluded that we cling to religious beliefs (such as heaven or the afterlife) or symbolic cultural milestones (having children, writing a book 😀) to transcend death (Vail et al.).
Or we unconsciously try to avoid the possibility of our mortality altogether.
In 2019, researchers watched the brain activity of volunteers when presented with either neutral stimuli or those associated with death (such as the words “burial” and “funeral”). Researchers projected the phrases alongside images of themselves or strangers. They found that when they flashed up a person’s own face next to “death-related” words, their brain dampened activity in specific areas. In other words, the subject’s brain tended to suppress any link of death to themselves (Dor-Ziderman et al.).
Brain activity differences when comparing “control images with Self “ > “death images with Self.” Colour signal shows brain regions with significant differences. Authors concluded that dampened brain activity with “death images with self” leads to decreased sensing of death awareness.
The lead researcher on the study, Dr. Avi Goldstein, said: "This suggests that we shield ourselves from existential threats, or consciously thinking about the idea that we are going to die, by shutting down predictions about the self, or categorizing the information as being about other people rather than ourselves” (Doubting death: how our brains shield us from mortal truth, The Guardian).
Scientists later turned their attention to the positive aspects of death awareness. They found that “management of death concerns can play a key role in motivating people to stay true to their virtues, to build loving relationships, and to grow in fulfilling ways” (Vail et al.).
In her personal development/awareness seminars, my mother repeatedly said, “Perspective - use it or lose it.” When it comes to viewing our mortality, we can choose our perspective: a threat or an opportunity. I prefer the latter. Reminding myself of my mortality refocuses me and prompts me to take action and seek out things that make me happier to enjoy each day. Days of the week can just slip by if we don’t pay attention, and the last thing I wanted was to have my 9-5 career as my sole metric of accomplishment. I want to see, feel and experience more.
How can we slow down and make each day count? Here are some hints for bringing you closer to living the life you want, making sure your day never feels wasted:
🚏 Change your routine. We often get set in our way and go about our days on autopilot. We walk the same routes to work. We visit the same coffee shops. We bike or run on familiar streets. Instead, take the road less travelled and take a different path to work. Go for a run in the other direction and buy that coffee at a newly discovered shop. Unplug your earphones and listen to the birds instead. Leave your phone on the charger — you will see and experience newness, and your days will expand.
Awareness of your mortality may even motivate a lifestyle change, an opportunity to adopt new habits such as eating quality foods and moving more.
📓 Create a memory journal. Reflect on your day, and write a couple of sentences about something that happened that day. Jot down any insights that sparked in your mind. During the pandemic, our days can feel repetitive and unexciting, but memories surface all the time — and that can be your entry for the day.
In his book Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks writes, “I decided that at the end of every day, I’d reflect upon my day and ask myself one simple question — if I had to tell a story from today, what would it be? As benign and boring and inconsequential as it might seem, what was the most storyworthy moment from my day?”
I record my storyworthy moments in a “5-year memory book.” The best journal I found is the Leuchtturm1917 brand.
Each page is dated and divided into five sections that correspond to that day of each year. As the years roll past, you can read what you wrote last year, or two years ago, and so on. Some of the other 5-year memory books are narrow and offer limited space for each entry. The Leuchtturm1917 brand leaves room for at least 5-6 lines.
💡 Indulge your curiosity. It might be as simple as taking a cooking class, playing around with watercolours or reading a different book genre. For me, it involves expressions of creativity. While writing my first book, I experienced explosive moments of joy — a rush of feeling alive. Recently, I began working on a novel. The move from nonfiction was scary, but I allowed my curiosity to push through the fear. Soon my imagination took over, and ideas spilled onto the page, and that thrill of creation burned within. It didn’t matter if the book was ever published — the story was for me, and I felt imbued with a sense of accomplishment and contentment. Today mattered.
My daily mortality reminder and all of my suggestions above are all different facets of mindfulness. If I were to add a fourth tip, it would be to meditate, even for ten minutes a day, using the Calm, Headspace or Waking Up apps on your phone. Slowing down and paying attention makes our days feel full and allows us to add more creativity, experiences, and joy to each day.
The average lifespan may be 4160 weeks, but in reality we don’t know how much time we have left. Accidents can happen anytime. My research on brain tumours and cancer biology has made me appreciate the fragility of life. I aim to make each of my remaining days and weeks count.
How will you spend your week?
credit: The Peanuts by Charles Schulz
First impressions
I share my experience designing my book’s cover.
First impressions - The evolution of a book’s cover design
Book cover reveals are exciting, and designing your book’s cover is thought to be the fun part of publishing a book — the icing on the cake. For many, including myself, the design process can be suspenseful and laced with moments of anxiety and uncertainty because it’s often outside of our control. Authors following the traditional publishing route hand over their masterpiece to an editor, who shares the book’s key themes with their graphic artist colleague, who generates the design concept.
While writing and editing the book, I shared my book’s cover on social media, and several people noticed it change over time. I received many questions about how I chose my final cover, so I thought others might be interested in my cover design experience and what to expect when working with a publisher.
As the saying goes, first impressions are everything. You want a reader to walk up to the bookshelf and immediately gravitate to your book. But what makes for a good book cover? Notably, the book’s title needs to be prominent, easy to read and memorable. The overall cover design should be visually inviting and even have an element of mystery to prompt the potential reader into picking it up or clicking the link to find out more.
For me, having an image of the book’s cover also made my book feel real. Silly, I know, but it was my first book, and I half expected my book deal to evaporate as if waking up from a dream. One of the first things I did when I started writing the book in 2017 was to design a mock cover for myself.
I highly recommend doing this if you are writing a book. In moments of self-doubt and dwindling inspiration, looking up at a picture of your future book will lift your spirits. Building your future cover is also fun and exciting. You can even import your design to generate a 3D mock image of the book using DIY Book Design’s free tools.
My self-designed corkboard pin-up cover
It didn’t matter if the title changed or if the publisher reconfigured the final design — I needed something to pin up on my corkboard to push me toward my goal.
I wanted something simple and abstract. When my mother saw the aura, the colours appear to her like fireworks. I strived for a similar effect on the cover. I launched Adobe Illustrator and got to work…
Although my subtitle was long and cumbersome, it told potential readers what the book was about. In the end, though, the main title was the only thing to survive through to the final book cover.
During the book’s revision process, my editor sent an email asking for photographs, ideally images that included my mother and me when I was younger. Immediately I thought of this perfect picture:
Picture from Midnight Globe article, July 31st, 1979
The problem? I didn’t own the licensing rights. The original photograph was taken in 1979 and appeared in a tabloid article titled “Psychic Finds Secret of Auras.” I tried to purchase a license, but the magazine was defunct, and the parent company had no record of the original photographer. Licencing can be expensive, and while the larger publishers have a budget to allow for this, a personal photograph for my cover made the most sense.
Ectoplasm?
We decided to use a photograph that had significance. In Chapter Six, I’d mentioned one photo as a symbol of my father’s spiritualism bias. When I had sent the picture to my father by email, he immediately noticed the shimmer in the bottom left corner, saying it looked like “ectoplasm,” a supernatural substance released by some mediums while in a trance. (To learn more about the bizarre history of “ectoplasm”, click here.)
The aberration on the picture had a perfectly natural explanation, though. I had snapped a picture of the photo with my iPhone, and the cellophane sheet protecting the photo created the reflection. His reaction alerted me to his possible inclination for supernatural explanations rather than a rational alternative.
The designer at Random House Canada used the original picture for the first official version of the cover.
Cover: Version 1
Some authors don’t get any say in approving a cover, but I was lucky that my vote counted. I loved the subtle effect of the crystal ball and instantly approved of the cover. Unfortunately, it wasn’t well-received by book retailers who were concerned about its online visibility, especially when viewed as a thumbnail. Viewed in this way, the cover was dark and the type challenging to read. In other words, back to the drawing board.
Cover: Version 2
The next version went bright and bold but unfortunately included several pictures we didn’t have the license to use. The artist wanted to combine science elements with a retro feel, given that a good chunk of the book took place in the 70s and 80s.
While the title was prominent and vivid, I was not fond of this version because I wanted only to include graphics that had significance to the book’s contents. I didn’t feel the yellow dots and flowers belonged.
Cover: Version 3
The next version was a winner. The original picture from the first cover version returned, and the radiating lines and coloured triangles represented the aura colours my mother saw in her psychic readings. The only revision I requested was to tweak the colours to match the most common aura colours discussed in the book: green, gold and blue.
And with that, the final cover design was born.
Archive: Favourite Finds from Fall 2020
My favourite books, movies and television shows discovered in Fall 2020
📚 FAVOURITE BOOKS OF FALL 2020 📚
FICTION
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
I started this book before the pandemic hit and I put it aside as work intensified. When everyone in Toronto went into self isolation, I was able to finish this beautiful book. It turns out it was the perfect lockdown read, given the premise of the book.
The story takes place just after the Bolshevik revolution where the aristocratic protagonist, Count Rostov, is placed under house arrest inside a top hotel in Moscow.
I initially thought the book would be a snooze-fest. I mean, what could possibly be interesting about a man who spends his life stuck inside a hotel? The book completely surprised me, particularly the author’s superb use of imagery and wit.
A quote that resonated: “That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”
Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.
NONFICTION
How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens
Without question, this book is a must-read for every nonfiction writer and academic. Every day we are inundated with information consisting of books, videos, articles, podcasts and even tweet-storms. Without a method to capture and process this information for use by our future-selves, a ton of time is wasted when we sit down to write.
In a nutshell, this book describes techniques to capture relevant information in a format that quickly resurfaces later when we need it.
Limited availability in hardcopy, so digital may be the way to go: Indigo, Amazon, or order through a host of independent bookseller options who deliver.
🎥 FAVOURITE MEDIa OF FALL 2020 📺
🧠 BRAIN CANDY 🍬
Younger (TV Land; Amazon Prime)
I am a little late to the party on this one. With six seasons already under its belt, Younger is the perfect fun, hilarious, make-you-feel-good series I needed during the worst of the pandemic lockdown.
The magic comes from its stellar cast and visionary creator Darren Star, who also created Sex and the City.
The good news is you can binge watch all six seasons on Amazon Prime, and rumour has it, a seventh season is on the way.
🧠 BRAIN FOOD 🥕
I May Destroy you (HBO)
Set in London, England, the series follows a group of close friends as they navigate the Millennial social scene. The main character Arabella, played by the magnificent Michaela Coel, is a writer under pressure to finish her sophomore book.
One night at the pub, Arabella’s drink is spiked, and as her memory flickers in her consciousness, she wrestles with the realization that she may have been raped.
The series explores multiple levels of personal violation, from the subtle to the egregious, and explores friendship and forgiveness.
Coel is the creative genius behind the show, which fictionalizes her own experience of sexual assault while writing for the British comedy Chewing Gum (Netflix). In addition to writing and staring in each episode, Coel also directs a bulk of the episodes.
The full season is available to stream on Crave(HBO) in Canada.
My experience with NaNoWriMo 2020: Finding success in failure
I attempted my first NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, challenge. I found success through failure.
In early October, I decided to join NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, for my first time. Every fall, thousands of writers sign up for the challenge and wait for the literary equivalent of a starter’s pistol crack to echo across the globe: the midnight chimes ringing in November 1st.
The NaNoWriMo site is a non-profit agency dedicated to encouraging creativity within its writing community. With a small donation, they send you the official stickers and notepad as a welcoming package.
To “win” the challenge, each participant must write a 50,000-word novel in November. That’s roughly 1700 words every day, for thirty days. With the month now coming to an end and based on the word count criteria, I’ve failed the challenge miserably.
But for me, NaNoWriMo was an absolute success — the challenge exposed another measure of my capability.
Although I’ve successfully written a nonfiction book, which hits the store shelves on December 29th, this was my first attempt at writing a full-length novel. Sure, I wrote a science fiction adventure book when I was ten years old, but that was for an audience of one. My NaNoWriMo project was a novel I hoped would appeal to many. The problem was I had no idea how to write fiction.
Writing a nonfiction book felt easier. The storyline, setting and characters were defined. All I needed to do was translate the factual details into compelling sentences on the page. Fiction relies on the author’s imagination, and I was instantly overwhelmed as I tried to flesh out the main character’s profile and plot a potential storyline. I turned to Google for help and found the internet was rife with helpful templates and decision checklists. For example, one flowchart helped me decide on the novel’s point of view and tense. Then there were pages and pages of templates for character creation, sub-plot development, and scene card descriptions. The jargon was dizzying.
Instead, I cheated. I decided that my novel would mirror a real-life murder investigation that my mother and I were pulled into a few years ago. Suddenly, I had the cast of characters and a paranormal thriller plotline to build out with my imagination.
I thought about how I would pitch the book to my agent or publisher. How could I hook someone in fifteen seconds or less and make them want to read the book?
Back to Google. I found Gareth Powell’s insightful website filled with authorly advice, including a blog post on How to Write an Elevator Pitch.
I applied his formulae and came up with this:
As I sat down on November 1st to write my novel, I asked myself a simple question: what if ?
What if my psychic protagonist had a vision during the trial, which surfaced pivotal information the lawyer needed to cross-examine a crucial witness? What if the psychic, for whatever reason, was barred from reaching the courtroom in time?
The story engulfed me, and my fears and apprehension disappeared as a movie screen played in my mind’s eye. I saw the opening scene, frame by frame. Before I knew it, I had written the novel’s dramatic prologue, its sole purpose to throw the reader into the story and hook them into turning the page and continuing with Chapter One.
Occasionally I got stuck, especially when I tried to bend the story to align with what happened in the real-life murder case. Whenever I hit a stumbling block, I put the computer away, laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. A few deep breaths later, I tossed the scene I wanted to write around in my thoughts. As soon as I shrugged away the constraints of reality, my imagination took over. I grabbed my stack of index cards and jotted down any scene epiphany or idea that surfaced.
It’s now the last day of November, and the NaNoWriMo challenge is coming to an end. Although I’ve only managed to write a fraction of the 50,000 words, December is a new month.
Photo credits: personal photos of templates from Writers Online and Abbie Emmons; emoji: © Yael Weiss via Adobe Stock; What if: © MarekPhotoDesign.com via Adobe stock; index cards: © caimacanul via Adobe Stock.