projects

A Theory of Darkness:

I am currently revising a cross-genre mystery novel called A Theory of Darkness that I wrote for my Master’s thesis at Concordia University, funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The novel works within the conventions of the mystery-genre to explore and subvert commonplace beliefs about the nature of time, identity, and fantasy. It features Sally Smith, a clerk at ‘The Mystery’ bookstore, who begins to receive anonymous letters that challenge many of her assumptions and beliefs, and push her to confront herself and the world around her. On a quest to uncover the anonymous letter writer’s identity, Sally is lead to seedy spots and peculiar characters. She is forced to examine the very notion of a mystery and what it means to know. In a novel where characters range from a private detective and a femme fatale, to a physicist and a bookstore owner, plot and structure stand side by side with experimentation and theory. Using Sally’s quest to find “Anonymous” as a frame for the larger mystery of humanity’s search for understanding, A Theory of Darkness gives new meaning to the ‘dark’. Though this project is research/theory-intensive, it also aims to be an accessible/pulpy page-turner.

Declarations (of my Semiotic Heart):

I am revising a collection of poems that concerns itself with binaries, dichotomies, and blacks and whites. The poems are an attempt to call attention to the categories we box ourselves into. For example, good/bad; love/hate; sane/crazy; virtue/sin; reality/fantasy; man/woman... By pushing these categories to the extreme, I call attention to their rigidity and attempt to complicate our great divides. I use of humour and high-pitched subject matter to do this. The atmosphere I aim to create is ironic and irreverent. The poems are easy to digest – unless you’re planning to show them to your mother! They’re short, snappy. Zingers, if you will.