May I recommend
Getting a jade plant
I have a merciless attitude to house plants, which is: I will plant you in shitty soil that I’ve just dug up from my own slug-infested garden; I will water you when I remember and on the same timetable and in the same quantities as every other houseplant; I will put you where I want based on my own decorating sense, rather than your sun/shade needs or desire to not be in a draft; if you are near my tea-drinking chair, I will dump a lot of tea dregs into your pot; if you develop a brown leaf or weird mildew I will do nothing to help you, merely standing by as you slowly shrivel and die; I will only talk to you to chastise you for failing to thrive in the hostile conditions I have created.
The above abusive approach has meant that I have killed many, many, many plants. My heart is calloused and unfeeling to these deaths. When one goes down it reinforces my belief that if the plant doesn’t have what it takes to survive, it should pack up its root system and get the hell out.
It also means that the only plants I actually have in my house are either gifts that people who don’t realise my harsh attitude have foolishly given me or free ones I’ve amassed from various Buy Nothing Group giveaways over the years.
The exception to this is my thriving collection of jade plants. These things are very, very, very difficult to kill (you can believe me, see above) and most excitingly of all, you can propagate them, meaning that once you get one going you can pluck a sprig off another, stick it in some soil, or “soil” — again, see above — and that hardy little motherfucker will probably root right in and turn into another plant. I say “probably” because literally the only thing I do is stick a sprig into a pot of soil, and sometimes those sprigs do just tip over and get icky and soft and die, but then other times (miracle of life, irrepressible force of creation, divine spark, etc.) they take root and become their own plants.
Get a jade plant - trust me, you can’t kill it — I’ve tried!
Got a hot tip on an unkillable house plant? Tell us in the comments!
Dorky Sneakers are IN because our bodies are crumbling
Cool People Accidentally Saved America’s Feet
My Morton’s Neuroma and I are here for a normcore comfy shoe trend… My short-waisted-torso suffered through the handkerchief shirt/low rise jeans trend of my twenties, so I feel like in my forties, I deserve ALL the giant, white sneakers life can throw at me.
And so, bulky and bulbous are back. In 2014, New York magazine introduced the public to a new word to describe this nascent aesthetic phenomenon: normcore. You’ve likely noticed sometime in the past decade that it is cool for young, hot people to dress vaguely like Seinfeld characters—mom jeans, dad hats, crew-neck sweatshirts, ’90s florals, and bulky sneakers from brands such as New Balance and Reebok. Among those elements of normcore, chunky shoes really, really broke out. People are generally more willing to take risks with their accessories than with their clothes, and especially for men, shoes are a common place to try out something new.
There is no such thing as an “alpha wolf”
Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth?
I do love a revisit of a long held scientific assumption
In contrast, wild wolf packs are usually made up of a breeding male, a breeding female and their offspring from the past two or three years that have not yet set out on their own—perhaps six to 10 individuals. In the late 1980s and 1990s Mech observed a pack every year at Ellesmere Island in northeastern Canada. His study, published in 1999 in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, was among the first multiyear research on a single pack over time. It revealed that all members of the pack defer to the breeding male and that all other pack members, regardless of sex or age, defer to the breeding female. The youngest pups also submit to their older siblings, though when food is scarce, parents feed the young first, much as human parents might tend to a fragile infant.
Book Stuff
Book Signings!
Saturday, April 1, 1pm to 3pm - Perfect Books, Elgin Street - Ottawa. Come on out, have lunch on Elgin Street and then whiz over and say “hi” to me. It will be a blast.
Saturday, April 22, 1:30pm-3pm - Librarie Michabou, Aylmer. It’s in a shopping center! I’ve never been, but you probably need to pick something up there, so come on over and say “hi!” Most exciting, I’ll be joined at the signing table by Wayne Ng, a fantastic, award-winning author.
Saturday, April 29 — 1pm-3pm - The Spaniel’s Tale Ottawa. It’s in my neighbourhood! It’s Independent Bookseller’s Day! I love it! Come on out!
Literary Festivals
Sunday, April 16th — Quebec City — I’m thrilled to have been invited to the Morrin Centre’s Imagination Writers’ Festival in Quebec City . Come join me on the Plains of Abraham!
Sunday, April 30 Time TBD — Online — Newburyport Literary Festival. An amazing lineup of excellent writers, and I’ll be in conversation with one of my fave podcasts, Strong Sense of Place. Huzzah!
Thursday, May 4th, 3:45 pm. — Arnprior, Ontario — Little Branches Rural Roots. I’ve been invited to this wonderful small-libraries conference to be in conversation with fabulous writer and historian, Suzanne Evans.
Newsletters!
*New* I really enjoyed writing this article for the wonderful newsletter - Meet Cute Missives, which examines romantic comedies:
Can you quote “10 Things I Hate About You?” Do you have strong opinions about the best Pride and Prejudice adaptation? If so, this is the newsletter for you. Expect essays about Jane Austen, “Bridget Jones” and more.
You can sign up and get a weekly delivery right to your inbox.
I talked about listening to the Bridget Jones audiobook with my 13-year old daughter over the Christmas break and how funny and romantic the story is WHILST also being a complete time capsule to the nineties very BAD attitudes to feminism, relationships and women’s bodies. BJD is a worth a re-look!
*new* Podcasts!
With the release of Speak for The Dead, I’ve been chatting up a storm!
Book Cougars — I had a very fun conversation with Chris and Emily about archives, and writing and sequels and I fan-girlled a little on them, because I enjoy their bookish-library-ish podcast and the WONDERFUL book recommendations they give.
A Bookish Home — wonderful conversation with Laura and I drop some sweet book recs at the end!
Badass Writers — This is a more crafty conversation where Kathleen and I get into some nuts and bolts about writing, including how to incorporate clues into a story when your don’t write with an outline (or even any idea about who the murderer is - ha ha ha).
Buy my books!
TikTok
Do it with your teeth
A couple of salty dames
Liam Neeson doing improvisational comedy
Do you have a business plan?
Goat in a sombrero
Here comes Samantha
Katniss gets it
This kid is going far
Basset hound PUPPY
Iconic scene
The amount of self-control I have exerted in not filling this list with Pedro Pascal/The Last of Us clips is truly exemplary
I would not like this above me
Bond. James Bond.
Ruh Roh
I think you can…
Just a couple of loons
Thanks for reading my weekly newsletter.
You can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here and Facebook here. Also, check out my website
My approach to plants is "Benign neglect." I'll look for a jade plant!
The plants!! 😂👏🏻 I’m *exactly* the same way. I rarely buy myself a plant but when I do it’s beautiful and I love it and I know it’s gonna die but 😬 like sorry little dude, you might have a better, longer life with someone else but you’re mine now so… sorry? 🤷🏼♀️😂
And the tweets are awesome. 😂