MORE 'WRITING' POSTS
This book is my heart, a love letter to home and family and stories. It exists because I refused to quit.
If you asked younger me what a writer looks like, they never would have imagined that it could be somebody like me, walking in circles around a room, talking aloud to themself as they tell their computer a story.
I’m so grateful for my memories of library, and I’m certain that growing up in that book-filled environment is a big part of how I became an author.
Write down your goals and dreams, friends. They happen, sometimes in the most roundabout and unique ways. Put pen to paper with your deepest desires, and watch them burst into fruition.
I’m truly fulfilled now; teacher, librarian, author– I’ve done everything I set out to do when I was that 10-year-old writing about a gnome in New Jersey. I may be crossing the finish line later than most of the other participants in the race, but guess what? I still get a ribbon.
Much like how my main character, Harris, doesn’t want his wheelchair to be the first thing people notice about him, as the author, I don’t want disability to be the only takeaway from my book.
Verse novels have this unique ability within non-illustrated literary forms to convey a message both through words, like standard prose novels, but also through visuals.
One of my biggest fears for a long time was what if I run out of something new to say? What if I run out of ideas, or plot lines, or characters who feel real enough to write about?
I’m more determined than ever to create characters and stories that represent the identities and lives of people who have always been and continue to be marginalized. We deserve better.
I was working with the British Columbia Forest Service as a summer job that lasted only a few weeks. But the experience inspired my new middle-grade novel Fire on Headless Mountain and became a part of the story.
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