Story title: “Lorraine and the Loup-Garou.”
1. How did you hear about Blood Is Thicker, and what convinced you to spend days (weeks? months?) crafting a story about the attempted murder of a character by a member of their family on leap day?
I heard about Blood is Thicker via a Facebook post. I can’t remember which site flagged this call for submissions because I am linked to a very eclectic selection of writing sites.
2. What was the writing process like? Did your story come out with a bang, or did you struggle to make something of the premise?
I had been working on final tweaks on several novel manuscripts and was sick of reading work I’d already read dozens of times before. For a change, I set myself the challenge of writing a short fable. “Lorraine and the Loup-Garou” was an unusual experience in that what I submitted to Blood is Thicker is very close to what poured out that first afternoon. I did ask two writer friends for feedback, which resulted in me adding in more description, but what I submitted was only the second draft. I don’t usually work that way. I am an over-writer and write far beyond the allowed word-count. My fine-tuning comes in cutting and rewriting draft after draft. This fast experience was a blast!
3. How long have you been writing, and what are some of your writing goals and/or successes so far?
I have been writing since I was a child, and have been a working journalist and editor, technical writer, and film and TV screenwriter and story editor for almost 30 years. I loved working on documentary and drama film and TV projects, but when my husband and I moved from Vancouver to a small British Columbia Gulf Island a few years ago I finally had the time and energy to work on fiction and narrative non-fiction novels. I continue to do contract writing and story editing. I’m also not ready to give up working with writers, which I’ve done as a film school instructor, story editor, and screenwriting workshop presenter in British Columbia, other parts of Canada, Mumbai, India, and Shanghai, China. I love working with writers.
4. What’s your favourite line or passage in your submission, and why?
“The problem was I was running out of French movies.” That line always makes me grin. What a hoot to think of a character finally deciding to make a life-changing decision because of a lack of movie choices.
5. What’s your writing routine?
I start my day making a pot of coffee. In the winter, I make a fire in the woodstove (our heating source), and in the summer I sit on our deck and listen to the birds while enjoying my first steaming cup. Then it’s off to my desk or the kitchen table, where I read emails as a warm-up before settling in to write. I write four-plus hours a day, at least five days a week. Evan and I do long-distance hiking for our holidays (400 km on average, our longest has been 1600 km) so we are always hiking — or trudging up and down hills — to keep in shape. Hiking mornings mean I start writing later in the day, which I’m not as keen on as I seem to slow down in my creative output in the afternoon.
6. What do you do for a living (or if you’re retired, what did you do), and what do you do for fun?
I am semi-retired, but continue to do contract writing, story editing, and film school curriculum development. I did biology research fieldwork initially then switched over to creative writing and journalism, then found work in the film and TV industry writing scripts, developing documentary and drama productions, and teaching screenwriting. For fun, I travel, write, read, and have thankfully married a man who also has nomadic feet. We have travelled a lot with our kids, including backpacking around the world for 12 months, and living for a year at a time in different European countries.
7. If you could have a lunch date with any person living or dead, who would it be and why?
Oh, the first of two tough questions in a row. Sue Monk Kidd is my first choice, with film editor Thelma Colbert Schoonmaker a close second. In my mind, Schoonmaker is one of the greatest film editors (Raging Bull, Woodstock, Goodfellas, Shutter Island, Hugo…). In the film and TV world, the editor is the second writer on a project, and I am in awe of her ability to put hundreds/thousands of feet of film into a cohesive, compelling story.
8. What’s a favourite book that you’ve read in the past five years? Notice we didn’t ask you to name your ultimate favourite. We’re not monsters!
I’m finding that question equally hard to answer. I stood in front of my bookshelves and narrowed it down to five, though even that’s a bit of a cheat, as two of them I recently reread. If you must have only one then I’ll begrudgingly put them in a sort-of order: A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge (brilliant YA); The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd; The Conversations, by Walter Murch, and The Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje (best book for writers to read), anything by Louise Penny, and most recently, The Marrow Thieves, by Cherie Dimaline.
9. What else should readers know about you?
I have felt blessed to travel as much of the world — and as often — as I have, especially when our daughter and son came along too. I spent three months a year in the Northern Quebec bush on the Kaniapiskau River 1300 km northeast of Montreal, where my parents owned and operated fly-in fishing camps. We relied on one bush plane every week or two to bring us fresh food, the all-important mailbag (which contained a new box of books from the Montreal Library), and an enthusiastic new group of anglers. I have worked in three different worlds: doing fish and wildlife biology research in isolated parts of Canada, as a film and TV scriptwriter and story editor, along with teaching screenwriting and filmmaking for many years. I love teaching, and believe breaking down elements like the mythic structure, story, plot, characters, and dialogue for teaching purposes in turn made me a better writer. The students also kept me on my toes. There is nothing more humbling, challenging, and inspiring than being a teacher.