Resources
Resources can be challenging to find for any writing project. I started work on The Xenthian Cycle in September 2014. I also read voraciously. After completing the series alpha draft in December 2015, I took six months to read about topics that emerged in that first headlong rush.
I started with the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Summary Report. My research broadened as I went and continues in my day-to-day work on the series.
Here are some resources that have provided insight, suggested related topics for me to explore further, or created space for reflection on my biases. It’s not an exhaustive or prescriptive list by any means, but it may give you some places to start.
Reference Sources
Books:
- The Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Executive Summary
- All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward, by Tanya Talaga
- Am I Black Enough for You? by Anita Heiss
- American Like Me; Reflections on My Life Between Cultures, edited by America Ferrera
- A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott
- An Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, by Thomas King
- Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay
- Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Chinatown: An Illustrated History of the Chinese Communities of Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, by Paul Yee
- Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples, by Gregory Youngling
- Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling, by Larissa Behrendt
- Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall
- In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth & Reconciliation, edited by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail
- It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Strength, by Arlan Hamilton
- Letters to My Grandchildren: Memoirs of a Dragon Lady, by Carol Williams-Wong
- The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway, by Edward Benton Banai
- Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, by Cathy Park Hong
- #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, edited by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale
- Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, by Jan Wong
- Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver, by Paul Yee
- Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, by Tanya Talaga
- So, You Want to Talk About Race, by Ojeoma Oluo
- Stolen from Our Embrace: The Abduction of First Nations Children and the Restoration of Aboriginal Communities, by Suzanne J. Fournier and Ernie Crey
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know, by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Chinese in Toronto from 1878: From Outside to Inside the Circle, by Arlene Chan
- The Reason You Walk, by Wab Kinew
- The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, by Desmond Cole
- Tales from Gold Mountain, by Paul Yee
- The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons and My Crazy Chinese Family, by Lindsay Wong
- Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, by Nisi Shawl
- White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia (1880-1940), by Margaret D. Jacobs
Podcasts:
- Asians Represent (Daniel Kwan and Agatha Cheng)
- Canadaland (Jesse Brown and team)
- The Jon Corbin Podcast (Jon Corbin)
- One Dish, One Mic (Sean VanderKlis and Karl Dockstader)
- Made In (Evy & Jas)
- Red Man Laughing (Ryan McMahon)
- Seven Truths (Tanya Talaga)
- Stolen (Connie Walker)
- Storykeepers Podcast (Jennifer David and Waubgeshig Rice)
- Thunder Bay (Canadaland Investigates)
- Unreserved (CBC: Various hosts)
Other Digital Resources:
- The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary, hosted by The Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota
- “Word of the Day” posts by Brando (@anish_no_bae) on Tiktok. His exploration of the meanings behind each Anishinaabemowin word of the day is both beautiful and thoughtful.
- Writing with Colour on Tumblr
Sensitivity Readers
Writing about modern-day Toronto means reflecting the diversity of people, backgrounds, and perspectives I’ve encountered living here. From the beginning of this project, I was excited to work with beta and sensitivity readers.
If you’re unfamiliar with this term, sensitivity reading is the practice of giving a manuscript draft to a person from a specific community or cultural group to have it read for offensive content, misrepresentation, stereotypes or other biases. Like structural editing or proofreading, it is a professional service for which the sensitivity reader is paid.
I was fortunate to have a wide and varied group of 25+ beta readers reviewing drafts of Chaos Calling from the second edit onward. After gathering their feedback, I wanted to be sure I’d heard from people who write and publish, and not just people in my network. For Chaos Calling, I sought sensitivity readers for both the story’s Chinese Canadian characters and Anishinaabe characters.
Overall, I found the experience tremendously constructive. To respect their wishes, the people who provided sensitivity reads for me aren’t named here or in my book.
I am solely accountable for any subsequent failings of my work.
Where do you find a sensitivity reader?
If you’re working on a project that could benefit from sensitivity feedback, here are some places to look:
- Editors Canada—This resource largely focuses on showcasing other editorial skills (e.g., structural edits, line editing, or proofreading), but some of the listed editors do mention sensitivity reading in their bios. I’d love to see Editors Canada expand their service offering to include sensitivity reading as a searchable category in and of itself.
- Firefly Creative Writing
- Quiethouse Editing
- Salt & Sage Books
- Writing Diversely
- Writing with Color’s resource page
You can also search via social account bios. Try googling “sensitivity reader” + a genre keyword related to your work to find a more specific list.
Writing and Creativity Resources
There is no singular approach to writing or any creative act that works for everyone. The trick is to keep at it until you figure out what works for you.
I don’t have an MFA, although I respect writers who choose to go that route. To me, the most important thing is practice. I am fortunate to have had many mentors in my professional career. My line is stronger because of their guidance and feedback.
That said, there are some tricks and tools to writing fiction. The books and resources listed below may be helpful to you, or googling them may lead you to other useful resources.
I also believe in the value of writing groups to improve your writing, provided your group has strong, considerate ground rules for feedback and everyone is committed to giving feedback on time. Some great places to look? Try university or college writing courses, meetups, Wattpad, or fanfiction boards.
Again, your mileage may vary.
Books About Creativity:
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown
- Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee
- Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
- Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass (textbook and workbook). Maass is a well-known literary agent. I strongly recommend this resource for writing projects where you’ve finished at least one draft. Maass himself suggests that his resource works best with a completed manuscript. The one time I applied his method to an unfinished work-in-progress, it was a disaster and I ended up shelving that project. So, helpful in the end? But no fun to experience.
Podcasts:
- Magic Lessons Podcast (Elizabeth Gilbert)
- The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (Bianca Marais, with Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra)
- UnF*ck Your Brain (Kara Lowentheil)
- Unlocking Us (Brené Brown)
Want a Great Book Recommendation?
I write steadily, but I also work full-time. I know from experience as a reader that it’s hard to wait between books. Below, I’ve linked to writers whose work I’ve read and enjoyed.
This list isn’t exhaustive or prescriptive. As with any personal recommendation, your mileage will likely vary. I recommend that you check trigger warnings for individual books.
- Katherine Addison (speculative fiction)
- Charlie Jane Anders (speculative fiction)
- Angeline Boulley (young adult)
- Thi Bui (graphic novels)
- Akemi Dawn Bowman (young adult)
- Octavia Butler (speculative fiction)
- Lily Chu (romance)
- Julie Dao (young adult/speculative fiction)
- Cherie Dimaline (speculative fiction)
- Anthony Doerr (fiction/speculative fiction)
- Alicia Elliott (fiction/nonfiction)
- Esi Edugyan (fiction)
- Neil Gaiman (many genres)
- William Gibson (speculative fiction)
- Elizabeth Gilbert (fiction and nonfiction)
- Jenny Holiday (romance)
- Nalo Hopkison (speculative fiction)
- Justina Ireland (young adult/speculative fiction)
- Mira Jacob (fiction)
- Uzma Jalaluddin (romance)
- Victoria Jamieson (middle grade)
- N. K. Jemisin (speculative fiction)
- Guy Gavriel Kay (speculative fiction)
- Thomas King (many genres)
- T. Kingfisher (speculative fiction)
- Sonnet L’Abbé (poetry)
- Ann Leckie (speculative fiction)
- Fonda Lee (speculative fiction)
- Ursula LeGuin (speculative fiction)
- Rebecca Lim (speculative fiction)
- Roselle Lim (romance)
- Tracey Linberg (fiction)
- Malinda Lo (speculative fiction)
- Madeline Miller (fiction/myth retellings)
- Erin Morgenstern (speculative fiction)
- Bethany C. Morrow (young adult/speculative fiction)
- Silvia Moreno-Garcia (speculative fiction)
- Naomi Novik (speculative fiction)
- Maggie O’Farrell (fiction)
- Nnedi Okorafor (speculative fiction)
- Tommy Orange (fiction)
- C. L. Polk (speculative fiction)
- Emily St. John Mandel (fiction/speculative fiction)
- Waubgeshig Rice (fiction/speculative fiction)
- Eden Robinson (fiction/speculative fiction)
- Rebecca Roanhorse (speculative fiction)
- Rivers Solomon (speculative fiction)
- Andrea Stewart (speculative fiction)
- Tui Sutherland (middle grade)
- Tanya Talaga (nonfiction)
- Angie Thomas (young adult)
- Sherry Thomas (many genres)
- Katherena Vermette (fiction)
- Richard Wagamese (fiction/poetry)
- Connie Willis (speculative fiction)
- Martha Wells (speculative fiction)
- Ali Wong (memoir)
- Brandon Wong (fiction)
- Anna Yen (fiction)
- Charles Yu (fiction)
- Gabrielle Zevin (fiction/young adult)
When’s the next book coming?
You’ll get publication news and updates six times a year