AvidBards
Reflections

4 Years of AvidBards: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Like everyone, the past few years have been challenging in so many ways. For us, it’s been a trying time attempting to keep our creative motivation running. AvidBards has been conspicuously put on the back burner, moving further and further down the priority list as concerns around health, work and life occupy the majority of our mental energy.  It’s been really hard for us to find the energy to keep up with Avidbards. The pressures of social media can be a lot, even though we’ve discovered and connected with some really awesome content creators this year and feel like we’ve…

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Books

New Beginnings – Guest Post by Johanna Nield

Today’s post is an incredibly interesting one. Most often, I’m on here talking and writing about stories, what has happened in them, how they made me feel and the impression that they leave. Yet, in all that time, a question I do not seem to ask nearly enough is, how did the writer feel while creating this story and these characters. A big debate in the literary world is whether the author’s intentions actually matters. Some say that the initial intentions should be dismissed, for once the book leaves their hands into that of the reader, it is no longer…

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Reflections

On the Social Responsibility of Writers

Do they have any? With Pride month upon us, it is perhaps no surprise that the question of social activism is on my mind. And since I am in the midst of writing my doctorate thesis, the question of social activism and writing has occupied my thoughts. Particularly the wonder of whether or not writers have a social responsibility to be activists, especially if they are writing about social issues? I am unashamed to admit that social activism plays a large role in my life: I am an openly feminist person of colour, an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and ardently…

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Reflections

Why I Don’t Use A Rating System Anymore

Something I see frequently in the world of book bloggers and media bloggers is the use of a rating system, ranging from stars, teacups and even dragons. When starting off this blog last year I thought it was such a great idea! It was a concise form of giving people a snapshot of how you felt about the work in question (which in our case could be book, film, TV show, or album). However, while this remains true, in recent months I have felt a resistance to rating my books. One reason for which is simply because I do not…

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Reflections

November Writing Tips

As the year comes to a rapid close, I find I tend to scramble to finish the goals I set out to accomplish. However, sometimes I have to remind myself that new goals and experiences can pop up at any time, no matter how early or late in the year it is. Whether you’re taking part in National Novel Writing Month, the internet based project that is more commonly known as NaNoWriMo, or realizing you haven’t made much progress on (or even touched) the projects you’ve set out to do, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting a personal goal or…

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Books

Sleeping Giants Book Review

Do you ever have those books where you just tear through them and then can’t remember what your life was like before having read it? Well that was how I felt last week after finishing Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel .My life was not forever changed, or made any different by reading the novel really, but there was something about it that felt inescapable and undoubtedly right. Now, that might seem like a rather odd thing to say about a book, but looking back, the thought of that story not being in my mind seems incredibly odd. The novel, set up in…

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