The Truth About Dandelions

1. What type of books do you write?
It seems easier for me to tell you what type of books I don't write. I don't write YA, or Urban Fantasy, or Romance, or Mysteries, or anything that neatly fits into a genre, unluckily for me. As much as I loved the Twilight series and books like Bridget Jones' Diary, I want to go deeper with my own writing. I write books and short stories that attempt to make my readers think, and think deeply. I believe the genre of my writing has been called Literary, but I find that's really a catch-all term. My characters vary widely, but what they do have in common is that they all learn something about themselves.

2. What is the latest book you have written?
Last month I was thrilled to win first prize in the Alice Munro Short Story Competition for a piece called "Water Treatment," a story of a man learning how to cope with his own guilt regarding the death of his wife. As sombre as that descriptor is, it's actually, I think, a very uplifting story.
Alice Munro Festival

More to the question though, the latest book I've written is a novel called, The Truth about Dandelions. You can read the back blurb here:
Blog Link

The Truth about Dandelions is, at its heart, a love story. Mara, a university student struggling to face a tragic past and the religious hypocrisy of her father, makes bad decision after bad decision. She sleeps around and hates herself for it. When she finally meets Jack, a handsome, shy computer programmer (who also happens to be a virgin), her downward slide into depression is halted, but for how long? The Truth about Dandelions has been described as quirky and fun in parts, haunting and provoking in others. Personally, I'd call it Chick Lit with Edge.
On Sale at Smashwords
On Sale at Amazon
On Sale at Wolf On Water

3. When did you start writing?
I suppose I've been writing stories since I was little, but it was when I was travelling alone overseas in my early 20s that I really started writing seriously. Being alone and in a country where you don't speak the language makes an already shy person feel even more introverted, which is how I must feel to write well. I don't know if it's the same for others, but I do my best writing when I am feeling thoughtful and even a bit melancholy. Still, it wasn't until the birth of my first son several years later when I really became very productive with my writing and got up the nerve to start submitting stories for publication.

4. Why did I start writing?
It wasn't for the money, I'll tell you that. (ha ha) I started writing because I loved doing it and also, because I felt I had something to say. The first story I ever started writing seriously was actually based on a card game my sister and I made up as children. It involved a deck of cards and a lot of love triangles between the kings, queens, and jacks. I've since abandoned that story but I might come back to it some day.

5. Who are your influences?
My influences are the world around me. Every day I see something that gives me an idea for a story. I'd like to say that my parents were my influences, but I'm not sure that's true. They gave me the worst thing a writer could have, actually, which was a happy childhood. :)

When I was young, all the stories I wrote were different versions of popular fairy tales, The Secret Garden, or To Kill a Mockingbird. When I got to university and started reading J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, I think my writing got a bit darker and less heart-warming. I love the subtle humour of Jane Austen, the quirkiness of Chuck Palahniuk, the depth and wisdom of Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot, and the quality of craft of Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Now, I hope that my writing has found its own voice.

6. What can we expect from you in the near future? Book signing events, other details
The Truth about Dandelions is on sale for the month of October. I'm also excited to have an essay published in SEEK IT: Writers and Artists Do Sleep, being launched by Red Claw Press, November 8 in Toronto. My next novel, The Daughter of Herodias, is a modernized version of a Bible story and delves into family secrets, corporate corruption, jealousy, lust, and first love.