C.A. Logan
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Don’t take a gun to a pen fight
I’ve been writing fiction since I could wield a pencil. Sure, I was an introvert, so sitting in the house writing was not a loss for me, but it’s impossible to avoid the fact that writing is an isolated endeavour. Also, technically, more affordable than skiing—just you and your weapon of choice, whether the pen, Continue reading
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Doyle vs. Holmes
How many writers wish they could write a character like Sherlock Holmes? My guess is most of them. Sherlock Holmes is the best-known fictional character still, although that whippersnapper Harry Potter has quickly risen to number two in recent decades. Put together a deerstalker, a magnifying glass and a pipe, and readers all over the Continue reading
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Robot Love
With everything going on in the world, life on Electric Street is pretty calm this summer. Except for a quick drive to the Maritimes and frequent jaunts to Toronto, I am at my desk, writing drafts and learning new things. Doing my electric company A long, long time ago, I can still remember … my Continue reading
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189 Days to Christmas
Since I am doing a little light research for my Archie Sloss novel, I discovered that the Glasgow Police appointed their first detective in 1819 and followed with a designated Criminal Department in 1821. Is everyone on the same page as me? I’m thinking Netflix’s Dept. Q Christmas Special, where DC Rose Dickson (played by Continue reading
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Saltare non possum, ergo scribo
~~~ I can’t dance, therefore I write I, like most people, could slice my life into phases. Suburban kid, Journalism undergrad, newly married executive wife, urban single mother … (clip cut here) … eventually civil servant, and now full-time writer. In September 1990, my life path changed, the way it does. Although I had Continue reading
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Archie Sloss: The Burglar Who Stole the Heart of Victorian Society
PART TWO: Western Australia, circa 1873 – Archie Sloss, the escaped convict and robber, was in hiding from the police with a price of two hundred pounds on his head. How would he get away? Archie tells us that nine days after the police raided the hideout, Donald Macvittie, a respectable Scottish shepherd, bought passage Continue reading
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The Remarkable Life of Archibald Sloss: A Genealogical Discovery
This month, the blog is part one of a longer story, because I need to testify. Yes testify … to the remarkable life of Archibald Sloss, born in Stirlingshire in 1830. Archie, alias Archie Baird, the ex-Duke of Portland Prison, Old Dad Sloss, or “The Burglar with the Blue Scar” was my grandmother’s grandfather’s older Continue reading
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The Word On The Street
On Sunday, September 29, I had the great honour of taking part at Toronto’s annual book fair, The Word On The Street. I shared the Canadian Authors Association table with authors Jeffrey Neil Kippel and Mindy Heather Blackstien (The Ridiculous), Laura Nashman (Dogs of Toronto) and Elvira Cordileone (Elvie, Girl Under Glass). Sunday was warmer Continue reading
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Hair, Jawlines and Sex
We have been hearing a lot of speculation on the reasons that my second novel is taking so long to finish. Let us first reject the suggestion that my book was crap and now I am trying harder. Critics! Cannot live with them … However, it is a fact that I freely penned my first Continue reading
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Digging the Dirt
This April, I sat down for a serious self-directed sermon. I wagged a finger at myself. “There will be no more flying, no more canal boats, no more bonfires, no more driving out of province, until you finish the next book.” Pause. “Fine,” I grumbled. Grounded. Calli, my muse, mocked, “and we’ll have fun fun Continue reading
C.A. Logan Author 