Author Interview
1. What would you consider to be your Kryptonite as an author?
My kryptonite as an author is verbs. When I write a first draft I just spew out the plot and don’t worry about tenses and grammar. It’s a real mess! But once I do the next draft, and the next, I live in fear that I haven’t addressed all the verb issues in the story. I’ve started stories in one tense then switched halfway through and not even noticed!

2. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
 I would tell my younger self to keep writing. I wrote when I was a child but never kept it up. Even when I was an adult I didn’t think of myself as a writer until very recently. I would tell my child self that writing is an option for a career and to keep writing for the love of it.

3. What is your most unusual writing quirk?
I don’t know if this is a quirk but I write in bed every morning. It started one particularly cold winter where I kept waking up far too early. So I got into the habit of making coffee, grabbing a bowl of granola, and going back to bed. I hoist my laptop onto my stomach and just start writing. I find it less distracting than being upright at my kitchen table. I usually write until lunchtime then move to the kitchen table for the afternoon.

4. If you could own any animal as a pet, what would it be?
I have always been a cat person, and I currently have a Devon Rex cat named Ripley. But I’ve always wanted to have a horse. I rode when I was a kid, only because my big sister was obsessed with it. I was dragged to a local ranch and forced to learn. Just because she spent her allowance on horse lessons, I had to spend my allowance on horse lessons. I was terrified all the time. My sister could jump on a horse and ride it bareback—I held onto the saddle horn and cried. But over the years I’ve had the opportunity to take a few horse rides and have come to appreciate them so much—they are such beautiful animals. I went a few months ago with some friends and was amazed that I still knew how to ride. And I felt confident. So now my fantasy is to live on a ranch and have horses.

5. What creature do you consider your "spirit animal" to be?
I’m obsessed with birds, in particular the mighty eagle. I’m fortunate to live on the west coast of Canada where nature abounds. Even in a city of two million people, I have eagles flying above my place every day. We have an abundance of salmon streams in the city that have had their habitat restored, so the eagles nest in local parks. I walk my neighbourhood a lot—writers gotta think things through! I’m always amazed when I look up and see the eagles soaring overhead. I always think that no one else notices them. A couple of summers ago there were two mature eagles perched atop a nearby highrise that overlooks my patio. They sat there for hours, and I felt they were watching over me somehow.

6. What is your favorite genre to read?
Even though I write middle-grade novels, the books I read are way, way out of that genre. I’m mad about thrillers and mysteries. Especially stories with female protagonists. I like to solve puzzles, and reading these books keeps my mind sharp (or so I tell myself). I love Tana French, Ruth Ware, and Gillian Flynn. I’m drawn to the psychological aspects of these stories, the character flaws, not so much the killing and the gore.

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