My inspiration for On Stand By was at first very personal; having lived in Japan for a year and half and gone through my own narrative in trying to adjust to being back in Toronto the journey of Sara and myself had some similarities. As I became more involved in the project and deciding that I wanted to see this writing project all the way through Sara’s character and the world I had created for her became clearer, more distinct. With each edit, and there were many, I started to become more connected to my characters, I understood their motivations and their quirks. I struggled with hurting my characters and causing them strife but to my publisher’s wise advice a story without strive and toil is not much of a story at all.

On Stand By was my re-introduction to writing prose, for the past 7 years I predominately wrote screenplays with aspirations of selling a television series or feature. Writing in prose seemed more organic to me, I had relinquished the parenthesis, my writing group and embraced the flashback and went at creating on my own. On Stand By at its core is about finding home and peace with the choices we’ve made in life and being hopeful that our strength will allow us to let go when the time is right. 

Join me on July 22 @Bedford Academy to celebrate the release of my first novel - On Stand By.