Dundurn | Discover a new story

“Where did you get the idea for your book?” It’s a question authors are asked all the time. Sometimes the conception is so vague and evolutionary that it is difficult to put into words, even for a writer. However, in the case of my new novel, Bury Your Horses, there really was a single, seminal “a-ha” moment. The book’s spark came while I was working on a project for the Hockey Hall of Fame researching North American hockey.

Even before coronavirus, there was an urgent need for clear communication, for translating science into plain language, for demystifying medicine and for reducing stigma around disease and disability. This type of science writing is even more critical during this global pandemic. 

In Jacob Bronowski’s 1973 book The Ascent of Man, based on the television series, he talks about the danger of an ‘aristocracy of intellect.’ He warns that keeping scientific knowledge only amongst such an aristocracy could “destroy the civilization that we know.” He writes:

Closing Time is the seventh and final instalment in the Stonechild and Rouleau police procedural series, and the feeling is akin to sending my last child off to university. Naturally, I’m asked how it feels to finish writing about Officer Kala Stonechild, Staff Sergeant Jacques Rouleau and the rest of the gang, and I always respond, “bittersweet”.