• Books and Movies for Adults

    Give Me the Night by Liane Spicer

    Charmaine Rousseau is a Trinidad-born writer whose short story, “Miss Annie Cooks Fish” has been short listed for the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014. She is the author of two novels, Cafe Au Lait and Give Me the Night, both published under the pen name Liane Spicer.

  • Novel Spaces

    Reveal, Advance, or Get Out of My Story

    I recently wrote a short story and decided to submit it to a publication. I hired our own novelspaces co-ordinator, Liane, who did a brilliant line edit on it and I was about to submit it when I re-read the submission requirements. Maximum word count: 3,500 words. Yikes! My story was pushing 5,000 words. I had to drop a third…

  • Books and Movies for Adults

    The Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave

    Iris’ dying wish is to ensure that her newborn child learns her life story “so that she could understand who she is“. When Iris passes on from her earthly existence, she is given access to pen, paper, and the memories of family members who can fill in gaps about her past. In this way, Ms. Augustave takes us into the…

  • On Writing,  This and that

    Image, Then and Now

    The first time I picked up The Giving Tree, I reacted very strongly to the author’s photo on the back. I thought, “This must be an excellent book, because the author is a scary looking guy!” And it was true. Shel Silverstein became one of my favorite children’s books authors. I thought about him this morning as I got ready…

  • Novel Spaces

    Be the Enabler

    Newton’s laws of motion are the sort of laws that must have seemed like common sense once he came up them. The first one states that “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.” So if you are moving you stay moving unless something…

  • Novel Spaces

    It’s Not Your Job

    I do my best to support my fellow Caribbean authors, so when I came across a new book by an author from the region I looked for it on Amazon and took a “Look Inside”. I did this because although I am a self-published author and wholly support self-publishing, I am painfully aware of the wide variety in quality that…

  • Novel Spaces

    Praise for a Prize

    Sometime in 2010, while I was living in Ghana, a friend insisted on introducing me to a young woman who was doing something remarkable in the world of literacy. “You have to meet her and hear her story,” my friend insisted, and what a story it was.

  • Short Stories

    Hiatus (of sorts)

    Hi all, I haven’t stopped writing short stories. I am writing consistently but submitting my stories to various publications. As a result, I cannot post them here. Please be patient (I’m trying to be) and keep checking in. I will post links to stories whenever possible. Thanks!