I sometimes think I lack sticktoitiveness (a real word I made up). I started university studying chemistry, going so far as to get a degree and a publication in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry before switching to Social and Political Thought. Instead of doing aPh.D. (I had a four year scholarship), I ran for political office. After twelve years in the public service, I worked in arts for eleven years -- six as a writer/actor and five as an arts in education administrator. Then, I moved to the Senate to work as a policy advisor to a Senator for 15 years. Half way through that I bought a publishing company and ran it for eight years. Now I'm retired from everything but writing.
My writing career has shown the same tendency to shift and shimmy like a jalopy with transmission problems. My first serious writing was for the stage, starting in Yellowknife with Hemingway Crosses the Mackenzie. After moving to Calgary, I had a number of plays produced in local theatres and on CBC radio. I won a few contests and almost made the big time before switching to writing science fiction in the mid-90s. I stuck with that for the next twenty years (and am still writing 3-5 short stories a year but once again my interests have started to change.
This year I published the first two novels in the Max Anderson mysteries, set in Paris between the Wars. The first is called In the Shadow of Versailles and is, for the month of October on sale as an ebook. It is also available in print. The second, By Dawn's Early Light is only available in digital form though a print book is coming soon. I'm about a third of the way through the third book, working title: The Glare of Truth.
But wait, there's more. I've started making notes for a mystery set in Rome in the time of Sulla the Dictator (roughly 100-80 BC). No title yet, or even an outline, but it's percolating away in my hindbrain. I plan to have the first one (it's a series) sometime in 2022.
Now, if I can just resist the lure of poetry (for the art) or screenwriting (for the money), I should be fine.
My writing career has shown the same tendency to shift and shimmy like a jalopy with transmission problems. My first serious writing was for the stage, starting in Yellowknife with Hemingway Crosses the Mackenzie. After moving to Calgary, I had a number of plays produced in local theatres and on CBC radio. I won a few contests and almost made the big time before switching to writing science fiction in the mid-90s. I stuck with that for the next twenty years (and am still writing 3-5 short stories a year but once again my interests have started to change.
This year I published the first two novels in the Max Anderson mysteries, set in Paris between the Wars. The first is called In the Shadow of Versailles and is, for the month of October on sale as an ebook. It is also available in print. The second, By Dawn's Early Light is only available in digital form though a print book is coming soon. I'm about a third of the way through the third book, working title: The Glare of Truth.
But wait, there's more. I've started making notes for a mystery set in Rome in the time of Sulla the Dictator (roughly 100-80 BC). No title yet, or even an outline, but it's percolating away in my hindbrain. I plan to have the first one (it's a series) sometime in 2022.
Now, if I can just resist the lure of poetry (for the art) or screenwriting (for the money), I should be fine.
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