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Please check out my most recent article, recently featured in NINK, the newsletter of Novelists Inc. I can still remember a marketing debrief from my early days at Harlequin, when the folks on the ninth floor discovered to their surprise that a romance novel with a toddler pictured alongside the heroine and hero on the […]

At the recent Novelists’ Inc conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida, Mary Theresa Hussey and I offered a panel discussion on the role of freelance editors in the publishing process.  The notes below are an adaptation of the points made in our discussion. Where Do Editors Come In? NINC 2017 Mary-Theresa Hussey Good Stories Well […]

The whole word was watching last weekend when Justin Johanssen really stepped in it. The best friend, and best man of James Matthews, Pippa Middleton’s new husband, delivered an off-color, tasteless and offensive speech at the almost-royal wedding that was likely intended to be funny. But apparently, his banter was not well-received. The upper-crust crowd […]

Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook, famously had this to say when promoting her book, Lean In, about women in the workplace: “Men still run the world. And I’m not sure that’s going that well.” Screenwriters use loglines, authors use quotations, advertisers use slogans and politicians….well, let’s just say sound bites bombard us every day in […]

I was on a mission.  I wanted research from the trenches.  So I decided to poll some of Toronto’s top event planners to learn what’s happening out there in the wedding speech arena.  Are couples coming up with innovative ways of entertaining their guests? Are multiple toasts still the norm?  Who’s speaking? Who’s M.C.’ing? Has […]

A friend recently regaled me with details of her attendance, over the long holiday weekend, at The Wedding From Hell. She had been invited to attend the nuptials of her good friend’s daughter, and had travelled from another city to spend the weekend with the celebrating family at one of the premier event venues in […]