I grew in Calgary, Alberta. I dreamed of being an author. I assumed everyone wanted this. In fact, I am still astounded by people who don’t want to be writers. Could there be anything more amazing than being a writer?

I lived in Calgary for a long time, and I did a lot of things there. Jobs like:
Forklift Operator
Fairy Princess
Joan of Arc
Belly Dancer
Museum Interpreter, which eventually took me to Ottawa.

There, I became more boring (read: more grown up) in Ottawa, where I worked as the manager for the Parliamentary Tour Program. The job itself was pretty great; there was a time when you could walk up to the person at the front door of our Parliament buildings and ask for me by name, and they knew who I was. I reminded myself of this fact on bad days. And I got to meet cool people, both famous and not-so-famous, and I learned to love ice skating on the canal and nighttime cross country ski trips into Gatineau Park. I lived with a roommate who became one of my dearest and wonderful friends and he always will be. Our apartment was amazing, where we spoke French and English simultaneously, quizzing each other on idioms and expressions while we did the dishes, and occasionally reenacting the French Revolution with a barricade made of couch cushions and old clothes.

Then I found the MA in Children’s Literature in Vancouver, and realized that there was a place to fulfill my childhood dream of writing full-time (at least for a while). So off I went to Vancouver, where I discovered that passions lead places; and wrote a novel for my thesis. This story became my first published novel with Scholastic Canada!

Other than writing, I teach for The Creative Writing for Children society, where I teach creative writing to kids (just in case that wasn’t clear from the name).  I volunteer regularly with a group called The Writers’ Exchange.

Other things about me:

I have to remind myself that I should read books that have covers that aren’t blue. I love blue covers on books. Or covers that have pictures of water.
I have two brothers, one older and one younger. If you mashed their personalities together, they make up Arthur Bean. They don’t know this, so please don’t tell them.
If I wasn’t an author, I would want to be a ballet dancer. The problem there is that I quit ballet when I was eight. So since I can’t be a ballet dancer, I would want to be a famous actor. I really like the idea of being famous, even though I would probably hate it if it ever happened to me.
I’ve travelled a lot! My favourite countries that I’ve visited are Turkey, Bali, and Germany.
I really like making lists.

I’m a sucker for stationery. Smooth, white paper. Pencils that are perfectly sharp, with a good eraser at the end. I have two drawers in my desk devoted to journals and pencils I’ve fallen in love with while travelling. Luckily, I also use a lot of journals. I have five different journals on the go right now. It’s… a bit excessive really.