When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I was a writer before I knew I was a writer! When I was very small, before I knew how to read, I told stories to myself and illustrated them with pictures (often drawn on the wall, much to my mother's annoyance). I continued telling stories to myself all through childhood, until I was about 12, when I decided to tackle writing a novel. It was about Lawrence Jenkins-Hennessey who was kidnapped and bundled into the cargo hold of a freighter and transported to England. I never finished it, but it did teach me the rudimentary rules about a) having a well-developed plot and b) knowing in advance what you're going to do with your main character once you've got him involved in a bad situation.
I was writing short stories and more novels all the way through high school, so I guess I was probably about 13 or 14 when I decided that I really really wanted to be a writer. I went to a very progressive high school (for its day) and was allowed to submit a novella as my major project in my Literature class. I had excellent encouragement from a couple of teachers (thank you Mr. Williamson and Mr. Robinson!), so by the time I graduated from high school and went into University, I was pretty much convinced I was on the right track. But I didn't really consider myself a “successful” writer because I hadn't had anything published. I took a Creative Writing course at university where the instructor, Ken Mitchell, made sure that definition was kicked out of the way pretty quickly. He gave us all assignments to write something for the university newspaper – an article, an interview, anything. We all got our stories in print and Ken said, “OK, now you're all successful writers!”
Ken encouraged those of us who wanted to be novelists to try and get ourselves known first on other platforms, in order to build a good CV and also to bolster our confidence. That was the way you did it back in the 1970s, when novelists were reliant on traditional publishers to get their books into print. So I spent a few years as a freelancer, writing nonfiction articles for newspapers and magazines and the occasional short story. One of my short stories ended up winning first prize in a huge fiction competition in a national women's magazine, and I think that, more than anything, convinced me that I was well on my way to becoming a “successful writer.” But in my own mind, I still wasn't there yet!
I'd been working full-time as a travel agent (and writing in my spare time), and after that I took a couple of years off and went back to university to get my MFA in Creative Writing. That was one of the best things I ever did for myself – I was surrounded by other writers and immersed in workshops – and a couple of years after I graduated with my degree, I finally got my first novel published (it was one of the finalists in a major first-novel competition in Canada).
I think it was the publication of that first novel that finally legitimized my idea of myself as a “writer” because that was what I'd always aimed for and that was what had always been my goal, from a very early age. It doesn't dimimish any of the successes I'd had previously with my freelance articles and short stories. But I'd always wanted to be a novelist. And that was the moment when “novelist” and “writer” merged into the same golden ring. And I grabbed it.
Do you have a favorite movie?
I have several favourite movies that I could watch over and over again and never grow tired of.
a. Hope and Glory, about a young boy in suburban London during World War Two. I love the gentle story, the characters, the acting and the direction. It was written, produced and directed by John Boorman and was based on his own experiences of growing up in the Blitz in London.
b. Love Actually. You either love this movie or you hate it. I love it. I think it's one of Richard Curtis's best films. I really enjoy the exploration of the various iterations of “love”. And the acceptance of quirky complications and situations that might generally be considered unacceptable or uncomfortable. Plus I really like Bill Nighy.
c. The Tall Guy. Not a hugely well-known film – but it was Richard Curtis's debut as a screenwriter. The story's based on Curtis's experiences as straight man to his long-time collaborator Rowan Atkinson when they were performing comedy onstage in England. The situations are silly and the characters are all a bit strange (that's what I love about them) but it's an oddly satisfying film and hugely funny. It also features one of Emma Thompson's very very first film appearances, as the love interest of the hero.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I plan on writing a lot more Jason Davey mysteries. In Lost Time, Jason's rehearsing to go on tour with his mum's band, Figgis Green. In the next novel in the series (tentatively called Ticket to Ride), we're actually going to go on tour with Jason and the band, while Jason tries to solve yet another intriguing mystery!
Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
My main character in Lost Time, Jason Davey, has quite an interesting back story. He first appeared in my novel Cold Play (2012), working as a musician aboard an aging cruise ship in Alaska. First, a frightening, middle-of-the-night fire shatters his sense of security. Then an anonymous and delusional stalker from Twitter starts sending him messages from somewhere on board. Jason's wife was once employed by a beautiful, aging and eccentric actress who is now occupying one of the ship's luxury suites and it soon becomes murderously clear to Jason that she has more on her mind than her favourite stuffed monkey. And hard-drinking ex-rocker Rick Redding (who was once a member of Jason's parents' band Figgis Green) is in the stateroom beside the actress, and may know more about Jason's secret pedigree than anyone suspects. Finally, Jason is guided by his "guardian angel" Jilly - who he only knows as a constructed personality on Twitter. Jason and everyone aboard the ship must survive a trial by fire and ice on the journey to Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay.
So that's what Jason was doing before he became an amateur PI!
Thanks so much for featuring me and my Jason Davey Mysteries on your blog today! :-D
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