I hate Daylight Savings Time. Hate it. My mental functioning is very tightly linked to sunlight. I want naps on rainy days, and the darkness of winter is a terrible trial for me. That’s why I celebrate Winter Solstice as ... Read More  

When crisis strikes, where can you turn for comfort? If friends who bring you chocolate aren’t quite enough, and assuming that you’re a bibliophile like me, you’ll probably resort to one of your favourite books. In the manifestation of ... Read More  

Writing a novel is a lot more personal than writing non-fiction. Non-fiction is external – I find and repackage information. Fiction, in contrast, comes from the inside, and sometimes what’s inside is a bit… surprising. When I first started ... Read More  

Back in September, I got some pretty fantastic news. More schools had booked me as a guest speaker than any other author in Nova Scotia’s Writers in the Schools Program. Including the inimitable Don Aker, a fact so shocking ... Read More  

And I have thoughts. Thought the first. Benedict Cumberbatch should not be allowed to speak in an American accent. I’m used to seeing him in things like Sherlock and The Imitation Game, and without the British accent, I had ... Read More  

A video of puppies, because I can't even this week. Read More  

Last Monday, I wrote about where facts come from. Since the post focused on the peer-review process used to check scientific data before it's published, I probably should have called it "How We Know Scientists Aren't Just Making Stuff Up." Today, ... Read More  

Want to know how to tell when you’ve been friends with someone for too long? Text exchanges like this one, which I swear is 100% true: Her: I’m in the medicentre. Since when is Elliot a girl’s name? Me: ... Read More  

Because little foxes with big ears make everything better! Read More  

The phrase “alternative facts” was floating around the media (social and otherwise) this weekend, and it made my head explode on multiple levels. First, because I work at a university, and I’m pretty sure if you use those on exams, ... Read More  

Mmm…. popcorn. It’s a favourite treat around this house. It has also been dinner on more than one occasion, because we don’t have kids, and therefore don’t have to worry about setting a bad example. 😀 And according to daysoftheyear.com, ... Read More  

One of my weirdest experiences as a scientist was doing a maternity test on an elk. A female elk wearing a Jasper National Park ear tag had been found on an Alberta elk farm. Since it’s illegal to keep wild animals ... Read More  

I’m talking about the movie here, not the book, although this may apply to the book too, for all I know. I loved The Neverending Story when I was a kid. LOVED. I sobbed my eyes out when Atreyu’s beautiful white ... Read More  

Me: Can you stop at the grocery store on your way home? Tech Support: Sure! Me: There are only three items. Here’s a list. *Tech Support takes list, exits* *Tech Support returns several hours later with four full grocery ... Read More  

You’ve probably heard about scientists using photos of whale flukes to identify individual humpbacks. Did you know that a similar strategy is being used to count and identify zebras? Originally called StripeSpotter, it’s a barcode scanner. A barcode scanner for ... Read More  

I started reading Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series over the holidays. They are YA zombie apocalypse books, and they are terrifying. The zombies themselves, yes. Mayberry’s monsters are creepy and awful, and his action scenes are seriously intense. But the ... Read More  

The holidays are over. Ornaments are falling off your drooping Christmas tree, and the kids have tracked crunchy needles all over the house. The papers you left on your desk before the break have mated and multiplied. The snow that was so ... Read More  

The blog is going dark until 2017. Whichever holidays you celebrate this time of year, I wish you peace, joy, and abundant naps. See you next year! Read More