I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I published by first book, exactly four years and one month ago. It seems like yesterday, and at the same time, a lifetime ago. With four years having past since the year I wrote and published three poetry books in a year (yeah,…
Author: J.L. Fizzell
I am an author an a poet from Northern Ontario. See also: Northern Soul, Nemophilist
Celebrating International Women’s Day
Canada and International Women’s Day Women’s rights look different all over the world. I am blessed to live in Canada. While we still have a lot of work to do here (and have a dark side when it comes to the historical treatment of women), I acknowledge and value the fact that I am blessed…
How to Haiku
As you may already know, my favourite style of poetry is free verse. I’ve never been very good at following rules, so naturally as a writer I drifted towards a style that allowed me the creative freedom I needed to express myself. With that being said, I do try and push myself to write other…
Mind Your Mind.
We all have bad days. Maybe something exceptionally terrible happened, or maybe you’re facing a mountain of minuscule frustrations. Maybe it’s something completely different. What you’re facing, however, is irrelevant. I don’t mean this in the sense that your experiences aren’t difficult. What I’m saying is that your perception of the experience is far more…
How Adversity Birthed an Author
With my third book, North of Dreams released today, I thought it was time to tell you a story. I won’t lie. This piece was easy enough to write, but it wasn’t at all easy to share. I may be a poet spilling my soul for your eyes, but overall I tend to be fairly…
Poetry Unpacked
Poetry. I love asking people what they think of when they hear the word. For many it brings back memories of high school English class where we were force fed the “author’s meaning” of any piece of literature that crossed our desk. Your interpretation was often shut down and irrelevant, and while I’m an avid…
The Magic of Inspiration
For those of you that don’t know, I work in Children’s Mental Health in the Education System when I’m not writing, and just like the students, that means I have summers off. I started the summer with a foolproof master plan to treat these two months as an opportunity to write full time. Thus far…
15 Ways to Make it Through the Art of the Book Fair
A few months back the Silverleaf Writer’s Guild put out an add in newspapers across the region looking for authors to be featured at the Second Annual Northern Ontario Book Fair. I jumped on the opportunity and submitted my application the same day I saw the posting. Nine authors total would be selected to attend…
What Exactly is Blackout Poetry?
I first heard about Blackout Poetry this year during National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) through the Silverleaf Writer’s Guild. I was sitting in the boardroom for our weekly gathering when one of the writer’s told us that we’d being trying our hand at blackout poetry. Me, having no idea what that meant or what to…
Starting Off as a New Author.
Words. Thought. Language. I often wonder where we would be without these things. Even with a decent vocabulary it’s hard to find ways to express yourself properly sometimes, or describe something perfectly. I love words. They are a part of almost every moment of our day – from the audible curse at your alarm clock…
J.L. Fizzell 