1.) When did you first consider yourself a writer?
A.) When I was 10 and the
school librarian asked if we knew any Canadian writers. I said I was one.
She told me to come back when I published a book. I’ve always thought of
myself as a writer, but one of THE moments was when I had to mark that I was a
writer on my income tax return. I got paid $500 for a magazine article
that never got published. It’s the word “author” that I have trouble
with. It sounds so formal. I would much rather be a writer.
2.) What is the hardest part of writing?
A.) The “after-writing.”
You’ve been writing for months and months. The story is great, characters
believable, conflict builds and then is concluded, and you write the word END.
Suddenly you’re empty. It’s like your kids saying they don’t need you any
more, they don’t want hugs from you, their too heavy for you to carry when then
fall asleep on the couch. My stomach gets all empty like my heart has
just broken. I’m left holding a pen wondering what to do next.
3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?
A.) It was exciting of course. People could go and see the
cover I made, read the words I wrote, but at the same time something gnawed at
me saying, “yeah but it’s just an ebook.” It’s my unwillingness to join
the new world and be happy with an ebook. Printing for me is just not
visible in the financial future.
But yes, I was excited and
giddy. And then I had 3 sales in the first few hours and that was
great. Sure it was my Mom, her cousin on the other side of the world, and
the editor who paid me the 500 and never published my article, but it was
something. I wanted to publish more.
4.) In addition to writing, what else are you
passionate about?
A.) I’m a chef so cooking can
really crank my tractor. My day job is cooking so right now I get to do
both. Then there is my family that keeps me grounded. My kids are
my biggest fans. What did my son say about my book, “I’ve only read two
pages, but so far it’s really good.” He’s nine.
5.) If you could ask any author, living or dead, one
question, what would it be?
A.) “How do you get the voices to stop?” No, I would ask
Stephen King how he writes so much. I get that he gets paid oodles and
oodles so all he has to do is write, but he always seems to have a book coming
out.
Otherwise I would like to
ask every author if their characters talk to them and tell them the story or if
I’m just nuts.
Bio:
I started writing because my
school librarian asked if we knew any Canadian authors and I said I was
one. She told me to come back when I was published. I was 10.
Since then I have been published here and there, the librarian was at my first
book launch in an anthology, and Red Island: A Novel is my first solo
book.
I’ve moved across the country from
Thunder Bay to PEI to Saskatchewan with even a month long stint in BC.
I am always writing whether it be
in pen, on computer, or in the stacks of cardboard boxes hidden inside my head
where stories and ideas are stored until they are ready to come out.
Oh yeah, I’m also a Chef, father,
husband, and closet Glee fan.
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