Tag: dreams

April 24, 2020

Authors in Quarantine – Nathan Frechette

With this this series, I am hoping to capture how this cultural moment is affecting our speculative fiction authors and how our authors are surviving during the COVID-19 outbreak Spec Can: What have you been up to during the COVID-19 outbreak? Nathan Frechette: I’ve been fortunate enough to work from home for my day job, so I’ve been doing a...

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February 8, 2020

Loa in Dreamland

Loa in Dreamland A review of Nalo Hopkinson and Neil Gaiman’s House of Whispers Vol 1: The Power Divided (DC Vertigo, 2019)  By Derek Newman-Stille For those of you reading Speculating Canada over the past few years, you have probably noticed that I am a huge fan of Nalo Hopkinson’s work. I’m also a huge fan of Neil Gaiman and...

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December 17, 2014

A Love Letter to Story-telling

A Review of Helen Marshall’s Gifts for the One Who Comes After (ChiZine Publications, 2014) By Derek Newman-Stille Helen Marshall’s “Gifts for the One Who Comes After” is her love letter to storytelling. Marshall examines the way that we are shaped by the tales we tell ourselves and the stories that are told about us. She reminds the reader that...

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December 12, 2014

Mute Ghost in a World of Words

A review of S.M. Beiko’s The Lake and the Library (ECW Press, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille S.M. Beiko’s The Lake and the Library is nominally a story about growing up, and the feeling of nostalgia for things lost and things changing. It is about the discovery of a library filled with books that are gateways to fantastic worlds, pages that...

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November 11, 2014

Masked and Changed

A review of Richard Wagamese’s Him Standing (Raven Books, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Lucas Smoke learned the art of carving from his grandfather and finds that his hands seem to move of their own volition to carve figures that he sees in everyday life…. but when he learned the art of carving, his grandfather didn’t teach him the deeper meanings...

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February 27, 2014

Quote – Rather Dream Than Live by Roles of Others

“We would all rather dream than live by the roles of anyone else.” -S.M. Beiko – The Lake and the Library (ECW Press, 2013)

Categories Quotes Comment: 1

September 10, 2013

A Brush With Mythical Madness

A review of Ursula Pflug’s The Alphabet Stones (Blue Denim Press, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Ursula Pflug writes The Alphabet Stones with a mixture of rural Ontario accent and a transcendent poetic quality. Her work glitters with the cadences of rural ontario while evoking a deeply poetic quality and beauty of phrasing. The Alphabet Stones is a voyage of self...

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May 8, 2013

Quote – Without Stories, People Lose Touch with Themselves

“It’s all machines now. It’s a – what do they call it? – high tech world. Fascinating to be sure, but… it estranges many people, cheapens the human experience. There’s no more room for the stories that matter, and that’s wrong, for stories are a part of the language of dream – they grow not from one writer, but from...

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February 27, 2013

Dissolving Selfhood

A Review of Brett Savory’s In and Down (Brindle & Glass, 2007) By Derek Newman-Stille Brett Savory’s In and Down is a truly horrifying novel, not necessarily because of the haunting images of bodies, clowns, and flies, but because it reminds the reader about the fluidity of identity – that we are not fixed, unchanging things, but are rather constantly...

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February 15, 2013

Interview with David Nickle

An interview with David Nickle by Derek Newman-Stille I was pleased that David Nickle was willing to do an interview here on Speculating Canada and particularly that he shows such a strong interest in the ability of Speculative Fiction to open social questions, challenge taken-for-granted notions, and encourage readers to think for themselves.  Spec Can: To begin our interview, could...

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