What drew you to submit your work to RED SKIES?
I woke up one morning to find your Twitter account following me and took a closer look
to see what you were all about. After reading through your submission guidelines and
seeing what Red Skies was aiming to include and where the profits would go, I decided
that I had no reason not to participate.
What writers have inspired you?
It’s hard to count just how many writers inspire me, considering how the list is always
growing. Off the top of my head, I can point fingers at Nicholas Eames for the relatable
humour he brings to the table of fantasy-writing, Sylvain Neuvel for the unique style of
his Themis Files Trilogy, and Frank Herbert for the overall impact his Dune series has
had on the industry and my personal interest in science fiction.
What projects are you currently engaged with?
I’ll be honest when I say it’s been hard to find the inspiration I need in order to engage
with the projects I have sitting on the backburner. 2020 has been a year of immense
change and near immeasurable stress, and I tip my hat to anyone who’s managed to
stay productive over the course of its uncharted journey. Be that as it may, I still have
my eyes set on finishing some short stories and hopefully seeing them published in the
future.
How have you maintained your artistic skills during lockdowns?
By applying my energy to different, albeit related sources of creativity, primarily. I’ve lost
myself in the worlds of other writers through reading, helped my friends build upon ideas
of their own imagining through world-building sessions, and dabbled in exploring how
the relationships of characters grow and change by participating in Tabletop-
Roleplaying Games.
As a student of the Algonquin College Professional Writing program in Ottawa,
what interested you in the course? Did you prefer the creative classes or the
more theory based publishing side of the program?
It might sound disingenuous to say that everything about the course felt interesting to
me, but that’s the truth of it. Writing for a living has been a dream of mine since the tail
end of high school, and every step I’ve taken since then has been in pursuit of that
dream. And after dropping out of the college’s Journalism program for severely
underestimating just how important regular human contact is for their field of work, I
decided that applying to the Professional Writing program might turn out better for me.
And I’m very happy that I took that chance, as it introduced me to new ways of thinking
and so many like minded, creative people.
Your piece submitted was based on anxiety, and you managed to give the subject
a very unique voice. What do you think has changed about it, compared to
months pre-pandemic? What inspired this particular topic?
I’m just one voice among many, but this pandemic has handed my own demons enough
fuel to keep me burning until we’re all well into the New Year. People are afraid because
there’s this invisible threat that’s robbed us of our old sense of normal and replaced it with this new, terrible present we all find ourselves living in. For me, it’s been incredibly draining. I wake up in the morning, though at this point it’s closer to the afternoon, with all my energy already spent because of everything I worried about the night before. My anxiety doesn’t need to misconstrue a conversation I had with my friends or dig into my deepest set insecurities, because there’s new material for it to read off to me every single day.
And I guess, in a roundabout way, that’s ultimately what inspired me to write about it for
Red Skies. What I mean is that the hope I had in writing this piece was to reach people
who are suffering and help reassure them that things are going to be okay. Like I said,
I’m just one voice among many, but nobody deserves to live with anxiety.
Comments