Writer, Producer
* This was published by Open Book as part of my writer-in-residency appointment. Hi, I’m Jane, and I’m the protagonist of Helen’s novel, Pull Focus. I’m taking over the blog today to answer questions readers may about me, or the book, or anything else. What’s an Agony Aunt? A woman who replies to reader’s letters, usually in a newspaper or magazine column, and gives advice. What qualifies you to give advice? Probably not too much, but […]
The Dublin book launch of Pull Focus, postponed last fall due to Ireland’s strict Covid lockdowns, has been rescheduled for July 12th. I’m entirely delighted. As readers of this newsletter know, I hold dual Canadian and Irish citizenship, and have spent a lot of time in Ireland over the years, visiting friends and family (and my father’s grave, who’s buried in his hometown of Mallow alongside my grandparents). I also partially wrote Pull Focus during two residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie at Annaghmakerrig, […]
Please join us to celebrate the Irish launch of Pull Focus, 12 July 2022, 6-7:30pm, Hodges Figgis, 56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin 2.
Well, that was fun. Meet ‘The Jane’ – a gin, cucumber juice, fennel-infused SoCal kind of cocktail, created by Jonathan the mixologist at Piccolo Santa Monica where I held my long Covid re-scheduled City of Angels (aka, Los Angeles) book launch. A drink as feisty and original as her protagonist namesake. It was wonderful to be back in LA, a city where I previously worked. Years ago, during a two-year run on a crazy entertainment project, I’d fly […]
Recently, we watched the first episode of Murder in Provence, a cozy mystery series produced by ITV, airing on BritBox. A Cozy Mystery Worth Watching Set in Aix-en-Provence, France, the scenery will leave you drooling, nose pressed against the television, as cars wind through breathtaking lavender fields, or pull up in front of 16th-century chateaus. Then there’s the restaurant scenes where middle-aged characters (yay!) drink rosé and eat charcuterie during long lunchtime meetings, while the sun beams beatifically on the […]
The Exumas are a chain of 365 cays over 130 miles in The Bahamas, starting thirty miles southeast of New Providence. Great Exuma, at 60 kilometres long, is the largest and most populated island (about 7,000). Much of the beaches and sea in the area are preserved by the government under the Exuma National Land and Sea Park, protecting underwater limestone and coral reefs, drop-offs, blue holes, caves, and marine life. I snapped this picture […]
Recently I wrote about Anthony Broadwater, a man convicted of the rape of bestselling author Alice Sebold, the experience of which she wrote about in her celebrated 1999 memoir, Lucky, was exonerated. And in a stranger-than-fiction twist, the Executive Producer of the Netflix film adaptation of Lucky played a supporting role in the exoneration before he himself was fired from the production for raising questions. In a plot twist worthy of an Oscar, the project was then subsequently killed, […]
Toxic Truths: Lola Akinmade Åkerström & Helen Walsh Join us for this free, virtual event October 22 at 3:30pm. Registration HERE. Tune in to an engaging talk with authors Lola Akinmade Åkerström and Helen Walsh about their powerful debut novels, exploring important social issues, from racism, classism and fetishization; to contemporary feminism and toxic masculinity in the #MeToo age. In Nigerian-American writer and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s In Every Mirror She’s Black, three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm as they build new lives in the most open society run by […]
October 18, 2021, 4:30-6pm, Massey College,4 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON M5S 2E1 Please join us for this free hybrid event featuring Helen Walsh and Nalini Stewart in conversation, moderated by Doug Gibson. Registration for in-person attendance can be found HERE. Additionally, the event will be broadcast on Massey College’s YouTube Channel with access HERE.
Published September 7, 2021: 49thShelf.com “Is there anything more delicious than a chill up the spine as nights grow longer and shadows lurk?” Helen Walsh’s debut novel Pull Focus—a feminist thriller set behind the scenes at an international film festival—publishes September 7 in North America and October 7 in the UK. Autumn’s long shadows cut across the darkening sky. A director frames a close-up shot of a woman in an armchair clutching a book, legs curled […]
