Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I’ve been in Ottawa most of my life. My family moved here from Toronto while I was in high school and I’ve been here ever since, aside from a few years in graduate school.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I have always enjoyed writing, and even while quite young I wrote sketches about weird and wonderful adventures. Later in life, I worked for a few years as a free-lance technical writer. Though very different to writing fiction, I enjoyed this work greatly, and it reinforced my plan to spend more time writing. Along the way, I started writing fan fiction, which provided a wonderful opportunity to develop my skills. After the Doctor Who stories were published, I self-published two collections of original stories. Sad to say, I’m not involved with the local writing community, something which I intend to correct.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
I hope to become more involved with the local community in the near future, and then we’ll see.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
One thing that Ottawa provides is that the local library will stock your self-published book. I think that’s marvelous. I’ve also greatly enjoyed having the chance to chat with other self-published authors at Ottawa ComicCon.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
Many of my stories are set in Ottawa. Ottawa is a community of communities, and has many great and varied settings for stories. Why set a story in New York or Chicago when it can be set here?
Q: What are you working on now?
I’m currently finalizing
the paperback version of The Woman in Red. My next writing project will
be a novel-length thriller called A Familiar Voice, which continues the
adventures of a character I introduced in Something Special.
