Author: mamirault2015

If my math is right, I was 9 or 10 when Star Wars was released to theatres. That means Carrie Fisher has been part of my life—albeit in a detached/ fan/ celebrity/ 21st Century/ Twitter kind of way—for the last thirty-eight years. Almost four fifths of my time here on Spaceship Earth. That’s a long time. … Continue reading Carrie Fisher – a love letter

August 2012. My cousin Liz, her daughter and Bixby the Tofino rescue dog picked me up at the airport in Victoria BC. They were taking me to Tofino for an overnight camping trip—my first visit back to that little town that had taken up lasting real estate in my heart and psyche eighteen years before. … Continue reading The Necklace: Chapter 1

I travel for work. A lot. And mostly, I love it, but sometimes, all of that back and forth, time zones and conference/hotel food takes its toll … When I originally wrote the post below, it was May. I had come back from Goose Bay and was headed to Ottawa and was staring down a … Continue reading Jet Lagged

I came across a tweet the other day that read, “If you do one good thing today, how about thanking a songwriter for what they do?” This got me thinking …  *          *          *  The Yarmouth Exhibition – a celebration of rurality complete with livestock barns, ox-pulls and marching bands. My Grampie used to run … Continue reading Marni: Unplugged

I live on the Atlantic. I tell people I suffer bi-coastal personality disorder because my daydreams are drenched in Pacific mist and surf. I am anchored to the East by family. My ancestors are buried here, on Nova Scotia soil. This is where I began. Where I learned to walk, to talk, to dream. Where … Continue reading Bi-Coastal Personality Disorder

Tuesday May 24, music fans across the country woke up to impossible news: Gord Downie, singer of the Tragically Hip had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 52. 52. Gord Downie. Cancer. Terminal. I was gutted. Hearing that one of the artists I have been awed by since my early 20s … Continue reading #Courage

I remember when the idea for writing my novel came to me. Not when it happened, but how. The title came first: Everything I Learned about Being a Girl, I Learned from Princess Leia. It was long for a book title, and I knew that, but I didn’t care. The strung-together words sparked my imagination. … Continue reading The Big Magic in little affirmations everywhere

Life. Novel. Blog.  Dear reader, it’s been over a year that my first blog post went live. My cousin, Liz and I were contemplating writing blogs around the same time; in fact, I think we launched our first posts within a few days of one another. It wasn’t a race or anything; it just kinda … Continue reading Life. Novel. Blog.

When I finished grad school, my cousin Liz gave me a copy of The Creative Habit by choreographer and dancer, Twyla Tharp. I think the title says it all. About five years passed between reading the book and starting my novel, but that notion of ‘habit’ and its correlation to success, however one defines it, … Continue reading Habitual creativity in a dangerous time