Advice from the Wilde: Suck it Up, Buttercup

March 29, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Don’t quit your day job—at least so says Oscar Wilde in a recently discovered letter, advising a young writer that one of the most important things a successful writer can do is not depend on their craft for income. For those of us that would love to devote our time to that thing we are most passionate about, […]

Things that inspire me to write #74: Dear Teen Me

November 14, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

Adolescence—it is a brutal stage of life filled with anxiety and doubt but wonderful highs I could probably only achieve these days with illegal drugs. And it’s for that reason that I am always drawn to that period of life as the setting for my manuscripts. And what better way to truly connect to that […]

Things that inspire me to write #97: Running

October 21, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

My legs are pumping, my feet are pounding and my heart is dancing in my chest like one of those dapper kids at the Robson square swing night. I don’t know exactly why or how–maybe it’s the faster than usual movement of blood or the sudden uptake of oxygen I can always think much clearer […]

Things that inspire me to write #98: How I live now

October 21, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

We have all read books that changed our lives, and for me one of those was Meg Rosoff’s How I live now, which made me first realize that there was more to Young Adult fiction than Sweet Valley High–and that I might just want to contribute to it. Yes, it is that excellent. Even now, several years later, […]

Things that inspire me to write #99: Margaret Atwood

October 20, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

There is nothing quite like reading a really good author to fuel one’s creative juices–however that’s not why I have included Mrs Atwood here. What I really find inspiring about the lady is her attitude. I saw her for the first time yesterday at the Vancouver Writer’s Festival and was impressed by her humor and humbleness. Despite her amazing […]

Workshopping a manuscript and other forms of legal torture

March 12, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

I suppose, I probably should have gotten nervous when the first reader introduced herself by noting what a ballsy thing it was for me to put my work out to the parent/teen book group. Instead, I figured she was obviously referring to some other event she had witnessed that day, such as a man performing dental surgery with pliers, blindfolded, […]