I saw this short author self-interview, and thought it'd be a fun little writing exercise and a good way for you all to get to know a little more about my writing and reading history! Let's dive in!
What is the first thing – ever – that you remember writing?
There are quite a few little stories I can remember writing and illustrating when I was really young. One of the first that comes to mind is a story about a visit to the local fish store, Big Al’s, which was one of my favourite places to visit as a kid. There wasn’t much too it plot-wise… we drove to the fish store, looked at the fish, and went home. A true New York Times Best Seller. But the first “novel” I remember writing was called Tuffy, Tim, and Me go to Disneyland. Tuffy was my favourite stuffed animal when I was a kid, a bulldog, and Tim was his best friend, a grey weasel (who I had a rivalry with over Tuffy’s friendship). It was the first story I wrote on a computer, typed out in comic sans, because what other font would a seven-year-old choose?
What is the last book that made you cry?
It’s actually the current book I’m stumbling through, Sarah Winman’s Tin Man. It’s a short, 200-page story about the complications of love, unrequited feelings, and most poignantly loss. I should be finished it, it’s been about a month since I’ve started, but I’ve constantly had to start and stop because of the visceral emotions it bring out in me. Definitely a tear-jerker.
Which book is at the top of your current to-read list?
There are quite a few… I would like re-read André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. As for new reads, I’m looking forward to diving into Mitchell David’s Cloud Atlas and Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles.
Where do you write?
I do most of my writing either in the basement, tucked away in a corner in the kitchen; in my bedroom at my desk; or outside on the patio beside a tinkling water-feature my dad created (from scratch) which brings a level of ambiance to the atmosphere, if not a certain need to pee.
Which book made you a forever reader?
My reading history is a little strange. I skipped the “Young Adult” genre entirely and dived into The Lord of the Rings and the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen when I was in Grade 7. It wasn’t until high school when I went back and read a couple YA classics, like the Harry Potter series or The Twilight Saga (insert eye-roll here). But I’d have to say it was The Lord of the Rings that captured by attention and desire to read more as well as to write and create my own worlds in both fantasy and fiction.
What is a snack you couldn’t write without?
I tend not to eat much while I write, but I do drink Diet Pepsi when I write. I think a combination of the caffeine and aspartame gives me both the energy to pump out as many words as are needed and the concentration to keep going, as I have a brain that tends to wander from task to task completely forgetting what I was doing a moment before.
What are you currently working on?
Currently, I'm writing the fourth book in my fantasy series, A Chronicle of Crowns, as well as a short, little novel entitled As The Sea Is Cold, which is a gay love story of sorts between two friends who discover a place of affection and closeness between them that has always been there, but alluded them throughout the years of their friendship. And I am VERY excited about that new novel.
What was the hardest plot point or character you’ve ever written?
That’s an interesting question… I’ve had characters I’ve liked and meshed with seamlessly, and others who have been difficult to write simply because I couldn’t quite relate to them. I wouldn’t say those latter characters were hardto write, more so… boring. I think the hardest character I’ve written for is Dormelle Ashwood, one of the point of view characters in my fantasy series A Chronicle of Crowns. Dormelle looses everything at the end of the second book, and has since fallen into a deep depression filled with anger and grief. While this “mood" hasn’t necessarily been difficult or hard to write – in fact it flows out of me faster than any other character’s “mood” – it is emotionally taxing. The level of grief she experiences is so encompassing that it almost puts me into the same place of deep sadness and loss. And that’s never a fun place to be… it might be creative fuel, but it’s emotionally traumatizing.