North Bay 2023 Lori shifted in her seat. Rain drizzled against the windshield. She bit her fingernail, picked it out of her mouth, moved on to its neighbour. “Tell me one more time.” she said. Her voice barely holding back the tension she felt inside. Dean sighed. “C’mon Lor. What more is there to say? ” “There’s a hell of a lot to say Dad, considering I just found out I’m related to a murder victim.” Lori turned her wide eyed stare on him as the silence between them slowl

North Bay, 2023. It took most of the trip out to her dad’s place, but around Laurier Garden Centre the crowd on the bus thinned out enough for Lori to find a seat at the back. Mercifully, the fan blew tepid air against her blazing hot skin. She rubbed her eyes, shifting the reusable bag from the seat next to her to between her legs as a heavy-set man in a suit wedged his way into it, nodding appreciatively to her while he dabbed his forehead with a folded handkerchief. Lor

Sunset speared the horizon as Nelson Lancaster stumbled through loose shale. The blood red orb was a constant compass pushing him...

I’ve always shied away from writing characters that weren’t, on some level, related to me. What I mean by this is any character that wasn’t a straight white male. I learned quickly that this leads to very one dimensional stories (or worse, retelling the same story just repackaged.) I realised that writing diverse characters is not only essential to my success as a writer, but it’s crucial to my actual growth as an author. But I was faced with a daunting question: what gives