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EmailGrit, passion and more: How my hometown shaped my life and writing
Posted Nov 29 2019 in About Jen, Community, Home, Small town life, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing
Last weekend, something extraordinary happened for my hometown (American) football team. After twenty-nine long years, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship. Unlike my late mom, I’m not a football fan. I gleaned the little I know of the game from glimpsing my high school team practicing […]
Read More...In praise of ‘virtual’ friends
Posted Nov 15 2019 in About Jen, Friendship, Social Media, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing
While I’m blessed with many friends in my ‘real’ life (including one who goes back to my high school years and often reads this blog), my author life means I also have many ‘virtual’ friends—people I’ve connected with via social media who, at the click of a mouse, have been a source of encouragement, inspiration, […]
Read More...Finishing a book, ‘nesting’ for winter, and celebrating writing milestones
Posted Nov 1 2019 in About Jen, Books, Family, Firefly Lake, Friendship, Reading, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing
Last week, I finished writing the sequel to The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls. For those of you who have read the first book in this series, the sequel is Annie’s sister Tara’s story. It will be my fifth published book (or eighth including the German editions of my Firefly Lake series) and together with the […]
Read More...Asking ‘what if’ and building a book: ‘The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls’
Posted Oct 18 2019 in About Jen, Community, Family, Small town life, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Writing, Writing craft
My new book (and first in a new series), The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, came out last week. I’m heartened by how many of you are excited to read the story and touched by the lovely things early readers have said about it. If you’ve already posted a review on Amazon, Goodreads or elsewhere, […]
Read More...Community, connections and crisscrossing a continent
Posted Oct 4 2019 in About Jen, Friendship, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, Travel, WFWA, Writing
As many of you know, I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico last week attending my first Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) retreat. Held annually, it offers independent writing time, but also includes workshops, discussion and working groups, and social events to help writers foster new connections and community. This year’s retreat focused on the writing […]
Read More...Technical difficulties…
Posted Sep 20 2019 in About Jen, Newsletter, Technical Difficulties, Travel, WFWA
Dear blog readers, Owing to technical difficulties over the past few weeks, I haven’t scheduled a blog post today. I’ll return with a new post on October 4, 2019. Thank you for your understanding and patience, and a grateful shout-out to the tech support specialists who are helping me get ‘back to business as usual’ […]
Read More...Shopping and mother-daughter bonding
Posted Sep 6 2019 in About Jen, Family, Motherhood, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls
Shopping together is one of the things I enjoyed (and miss) doing with my mother. Although we usually didn’t buy much, wandering around the shops and then having lunch was when Mom and I had some of our best talks. In between teaching me how to spot a bargain, upcycle a dated outfit with trendy […]
Read More...A time of losses and gains
Posted Aug 23 2019 in About Jen, Family, Friendship, Home, Reading
One of my favourite series of books, loved in childhood and which I still return to as ‘comfort reads’ as an adult, is the Little House stories by American author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Those books taught me about resilience, cheerfulness in the face of difficulties, and finding a silver lining, no matter how grey the […]
Read More...Saying goodbye to my childhood home
Posted Aug 9 2019 in About Jen, Family, Home, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls
I’m writing this post from my hometown in the Canadian province of Manitoba, a place I left when I was in my early twenties and, apart from brief visits, I built my adult life elsewhere. Now, though, I’m doing the final clear-out of my late parents’ home in preparation for selling it—those four walls and […]
Read More...What I learned on my summer vacation: Author life meets real life
Posted Jul 26 2019 in About Jen, England, Family, Friendship, Holiday, RNA, Travel
When I was at school, the first writing assignment after the long summer holiday was usually about what I learned on vacation. While I never enjoyed that exercise—the dullness of distilling those magical eight weeks on a sole sheet of lined paper to a prescribed structure—I thought of it again recently thanks to the two […]
Read More...The Latest News
- Nov 18, 2019: Chatting with author Maggie Blackbird about my writing life & ‘The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls’
- Nov 15, 2019: Interview with author Susan B. James about ‘The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls’
- Oct 30, 2019: Asking ‘what if’ and building a book: The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls
- Oct 24, 2019: Harlequin Junkie Spotlight: The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls
- Sep 22, 2019: The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls is on tour with Suzy Approved Book Tours (October 14 to November 29, 2019)
- Jun 04, 2019: ‘What libraries mean to me,’ North Grenville Public Library, ‘An Evening at the Library,’ June 22, 2019
- Mar 29, 2019: Ein herzliches Willkommen an die deutschen Leser!
- Mar 29, 2019: Welcome to German readers!
- Feb 15, 2019: Penguin Verlag acquires German rights to Firefly Lake series
- Dec 11, 2018: Take Two Characters: Jen Gilroy chooses two of her favourite fictional people — Guest post, author Susanna Bavin’s blog