News / Sort by date

I once saw an ad for a designer handbag that, aside from all its other irresistibly of-the-moment features, was "big enough for everything except your issues with your mother." We modern women still have enough of those to fill an old-fashioned steamer trunk. Writer Sarah Treleaven unpacks the maternal trunk with me in an interview for her "How to Be Happy" series. [more]

It's been more than 20 years since I gathered the courage to pick up the phone, dial a mental health clinic and say, in a rush, "I need help. How soon can I come in?" I had living with depression, on and off, ever since I could remember. Yet the subject seemed too shameful to talk about. So I'm honoured and delighted to be speaking at the Canadian Psychiatric Foundation's Silver Dinner on November 25 at the Four Seasons in Toronto. [more]

Let's say you're a woman with a thriving business---or an entrepreneurial dream you're determind to pursue. You're also the mother of a daughter with skills to share and a career to build. Can you bring her on board and still like each other in the end? More, Canada's magazine for women over 40, asked me to find out. [more]

Joseph Planta, a Vancouver journalist who likes nothing better than a frank conversationa about arts and ideas, first crossed my path last fall when he interviewed me during my book tour for My Mother's Daughter. Today Joe and I got together again at thecommentary.ca, his online talkfest, and the conversation ranged from the meaning of Palinania to the life lessons of writing a memoir. You can listen to the interview here. [more]

Let's hear it for paperbacks! They're small enough to slip into your purse and light enough not to stress your shoulder. You can read them on planes, on elliptical machines and while trying to stay balanced on a lurching subway car at rush hour. Plus, they're affordably priced for book clubs and gift lists. So if you've been waiting for the paperback edition of My Mother's Daughter, here's some good news: today is the day. [more]

When my best friend died of cancer this past winter, I was so unstrung by grief that one day I phoned her old number at the office, longing for the sound of her voice. Had I lost my mind? It seemed that way because I'd lost my personal historian, who cared enough to remember small details of my life that even I had forgotten long ago. And yet because she wasn't family, my bereavement went unnoticed by the rest of the world. "Losing Val," in the September issue of More, is my account of this life-changing, never-ending passage that every woman must face, sooner or later. [more]

It happens to even the best matched couple. You look at your beloved and loving spouse in his underwear and think to yourself, "He's a terrific guy but it's been a long time since I had the hots for him." I went looking for advice that makes sense (endorsed by experts but tested by real-life skeptics like you and me). You can read what I learned in the September issue of Best Health. The secret: dating your spouse. [more]

I've always enjoyed connecting face-to-face with readers, and my next gig promises to be the most rewarding yet. I'll be joining Giller Prize winners Vincent Lam and David Adams Richards when Read for the Cure comes to Oakville on October 15. [more]

Rona Maynard started out as a lowly copy editor with no qualifications except a lifelong passion for magazines. She rose to the Editor's chair at Chatelaine, where she attracted a new generation of readers by rekindling the spark of community. Intimate conversation was Rona's editorial trademark, and now she's bringing it to MagNet for a Q&A with D.B. Scott. Join her on Friday, June 6, as she looks back on the lessons of her eventful career, and forward to the challenges that face magazines in an era of brutal competition. [more]

Rona Maynard once viewed online friendships as a threat to the time-honoured graces of real-world friendship (the dinner date, the hand-written note, the phone call just to say hello). That was before she learned to use the Internet to deepen old ties and make new ones possible. Read more in the summer 2008 issue of Best Health, the new magazine from Reader's Digest. [more]

In "If looks could thrill," 50-something Rona Maynard finds a new beauty role model: a confident, stylish, unBotoxed woman who just happens to be over 60. [more]

An early Max Maynard landscape of the Cowichan Valley will appear in the Ottawa Art Gallery's new exhibiton "Deep Roots," on view February 2 to May 4. Rona Maynard's father is in distinguished company: other featured landscape artists include Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Edwin Holgate and A.Y. Jackson. [more]