Back in my teens, I took a stab at writing, filling a shoe box with handwritten looseleaf pages and calling it a novel. I worked on it after school, evenings and weekends, but eventually I couldn’t get it to come together, and I lost interest and gave up. I’m not sure what happened to those pages, but it would be fun to take a look at them now.
During my career of working as a designer and art director in the advertising industry, I pursued something I’d been carrying around since I first read the The Tower Treasure. Every chance I got, I penned short story or screenplays in my spare time. When I retired early, I finally got the time to write every day, cranking out and submitting short stories to a variety of publications, finishing one, sending it out and starting on the next one. I experimented with different genres, first person, third person, etc., and, quite by accident I found my voice.
Getting some of those early short stories published gave me a boost of confidence, and I started putting together ideas for a novel. And after spending the better part of a year on it, I typed ‘the end’ and Ride the Lightning was ready to send off. Pretty sure my jaw dropped when the letter of acceptance and a three-book contract showed up from my publisher ECW Press a few weeks later.
After a couple more crime novels, I tried something different, and House of Blazes was released last October; it’s historical fiction set during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. And this coming October, Zero Avenue will be released. It’s crime fiction set in Vancouver amid the cranking beat of the early days of the punk music scene. Currently, I’m working on something new and enjoying the bit of snow Vancouver’s been getting lately.
I too am finding that this weather is good at keeping me at my desk - enjoy!
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