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After becoming famous in elementary school for short stories set in Toronto's smelly but atmospheric Kensington Market, where my father owned a fish store, I decided that writing was my future. Fast forward to Carleton University in Ottawa, where I studied journalism, but quickly decided that fictional people were more interesting than real ones. (Especially politicians. Ugh.)
After completing an Honors English degree at the University of Toronto, I landed a job as an editorial assistant at Harlequin Books, where I rapidly worked my way up to the position of Associate Editor, and won a Romance Writers of America award for excellence in editing. No, I did not meet Fabio.
While working at Harlequin, I published a romance novel of my own (What Friends are For, a Harlequin 'Superromance'), and made the decision to leave full-time editing to write and freelance critique. I also dipped my toes in the magazine world, publishing a popular literary 'zine' called Slush.
In April, 2004, after meeting a lot of really depressed literary novelists through Slush, I decided to have some fun, and wrote and published Wanted: An Interesting Life for Harlequin's new 'Flipside' line of romantic comedies. Meanwhile, I'd married and raised two kids--by now, tweens. When I fell in love with the books they were reading, I knew I had to try my hand at a young adult novel. The result was I Was a Teenage Popsicle, a cool and crazy chick lit/sci-fi/action-adventure hybrid which promptly sold to Berkley/Penguin in a two-book deal. Popsicle and its sequel, Beyond Cool, were recently optioned for television by Toronto-based Fresh TV, producers of the fabu toons 6teen and Total Drama Island.
I am still happily juggling novel writing with freelance critiquing across all genres for publishers, literary agents and individuals. I love my life!
*Photo by Greg Dean, Signature Studios
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