I've been writing for almost all my life, from short stories to novelettes. My first memories of writing happened on a yellow legal pad in pencil. I would lie on my stomach on the rug in our living room while my parents and siblings were watching television. Inspired by Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond, I created a globe-trotting international spy named Matt Parnell. I found it fun to put Matt through endless dangers and challenges, from bad guys to love interests.
While in junior high school, I once told the librarian that I wanted to write a book, and she was quite dubious, and I have always remembered her saying, "That's quite an undertaking. She was absolutely right.
Eventually, I came across a friend who shared the same interests, and we would spend summer vacations and evenings writing together and sharing our writing dreams. Our association and friendship lasted for years before we went our separate ways, but I've always cherished our time together. Writing and learning about the craft.
All through high school, I would spend my evenings reading the works of Alistair MacLean, Ian Fleming, Leon Uris, and others. They gave me the hunger to create stories as intriguing as theirs. I would also attend English literature classes and creative writing classes. At the age of seventeen, I completed my first screenplay, Grips of Evil. My style for all stories up to that point was to write them out by hand and later type them out properly. This was another step where I was able to do the editing of the story. That was also the point at which I first found my love for the horror genre.
I enrolled in art college, and that was the direction I finally took my career, and I have spent my working time as a graphic designer, yet the love for the written word has always been a part of my life.
While attending college, I loved to go in at six am and do some writing on a comedy entitled 'Usher,' based on my part-time job as an usher for a local movie theatre. I would sit in the cafeteria, drinking free coffee and writing feverishly until later in the morning when people would start to filter in, and I would stop my story and start my socializing for the day.
After college, and while looking for my first full-time job as a graphic designer, I would haunt a downtown Calgary hotel in the mornings for their endless coffee, delicious breakfasts, and a quiet place for me to write another comedy screenplay called 'The Two-Bit Private Eyes.' Here, I tended to make a fool of myself while sitting alone at the table and laughing at my own written jokes.
Again writing the first draft by hand, I completed my first full-length novel, 'The Ghosts of Mount Royal,' at twenty-two years old. It was a step that brought me great pride and some respect among my friends. On a personal level, it was a big step and told me that I was actually able to do it.
In later years, I would devote more early mornings and many lunch hours to writing and editing my screenplays on my laptop computer. They made me happy to work on, but there was always a love for the novel. One day, while working on an acrylic painting, something came over me, and I put my paintbrushes down, went downstairs, and began to write 'Night Beings.' Since then, I've completed 'Angels,' 'Ghoul,' 'The Bridge to Abaddon,' and 'Shadow Presence.'
To date, I still haven't finished the painting.
