Welcome aboard!
Having subscribed, you probably already know who I am, but just in case, here are the highlights:
I worked full-time for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for thirty-five years
I spent a decade making radio plays with CBC Radio, working with some of the finest actors, directors, and writers in Canada
In 2007, I left production to join the CBC management team. I was basically an Ops Manager of one sort or another for the rest of my career
I loved working for the CBC
In 2023, I retired from the CBC and now write as much as I can (when not looking after the house, making podcasts and walking our Sheltie)
Over the years I’ve also worked as a story editor on multiple radio, television and film projects
My debut novel, A Time and a Place, was published on October 1st 2017 by Five Rivers Press.
My memoir, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of working at CBC Radio, Adventures in the Radio Trade, was published on August 1st 2023.
I’m a member of SF Canada, Canada’s National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals, SFWA, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and the Writer’s Union of Canada.
I run a small indie publishing company, Donovan Street Press Inc. It publishes books by me and other authors. It’s a supporting member of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association (APMA). It’s early days but we’re having fun so far.
That about sums it up. These days I live in Riverview, NB, with my wife, Lynda, our Sheltie, Wendy, and our Siberian Forest Cat, Lily.
You’ll find two newsletters here. One is called Assorted Nonsense. The other is called Captain’s Away! Both are free (though you can contribute if you like).
Here’s what they’re all about:
Assorted Nonsense
Many years ago I started writing.
It feels like a long time ago. Many lifetimes ago. I would say shortly after the dinosaurs roamed the earth but A. that’s a corny Dad joke and B. the last dinosaur plopped itself down and said, “That’s it, I’m done” some sixty-five million years ago and honestly it wasn’t THAT long ago that I started writing.
So anyway, I wrote short stories for my friends and classmates and then just for myself, and this body of work eventually contained many fragments, false starts, thoughts and notions, and one day I bundled up what I considered to be the best of it in a binder that, after a moment’s reflection, I called Assorted Nonsense.
Which, to me, is exactly what it was.
I don’t mean that it didn’t have value, or that it was absurd (though some of it probably was). I just meant that it was “of various sorts put together; miscellaneous” (assorted) and that although I valued it, I didn’t take it all that seriously. I called it “nonsense” with great fondness. I did not really think that anyone else would find much value in it.
Later I started a blog. I called it Assorted Nonsense as well. It just made sense. It was also “of various sorts put together; miscellaneous.” Nor did I continue to take myself very seriously. I mean well; I have heart, but I’m no George Bernard Shaw.
Probably I should write consistently about a single subject. Then people would know what to expect. Probably I should be more serious. But I can’t do either of those things. I can only be me.
I can only write assorted nonsense.
So, that’s what this is.
Captain’s Away!
It’s one thousand years in the future. The Earth is a distant memory. And the Doucettes have seen better days.
It’s certainly not every day your space station is blown to bits beneath you in the opening volley of a senseless war. In the aftermath of this attack on their home, the Doucette family find themselves careening from one fantastic space adventure to another as their lives are upended in ways they can barely comprehend.
Technologist Yolande Doucette must fix the starship Beausoleil before its crew goes insane. Both Yolande and her husband Bertrand mourn their son, Alain, lost in the devastating attack. They pray that their seventeen-year old daughter, Marie-Josée, recovers from a mysterious illness while Marie-Josée herself, unaware that her body lies comatose, is forced to impersonate the captain of the Beausoleil. Meanwhile, the stuck-up daughter of the grieving emperor responsible for all this mayhem is kidnapped by a rude robot on a secret mission.
Hostile aliens, rebellious robots, murderous despots and more all stand in the Doucettes’ path as they try against all odds ta reunite as a family while doing their best to help Akkadia win the war. Will they succeed?
Read the exciting space adventure Captain’s Away! to find out!
Captain’s Away! is a long form, weekly serial. New chapters come out every week (more or less). Comments and suggestions welcome as we go along.
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