It may seem odd for a writer to admit he was involved in fan fiction, but I wouldn’t be writing without the sixteen years I spent writing and editing Doctor Who stories in front of a small and helpful audience. I have written for and edited such fanzines as Myth Makers and, of course Trenchcoat, a fan fiction magazine I created following the adventures of my own version of the eighth Doctor. I celebrated and commemorated this fannish output with a special Farewell Project.
I am currently working on an older young adult fantasy novel entitled The Night Girl, featuring Perpetua Viktoria Collins finding work in the bowels of Toronto’s financial district as administrative assistant to a company of goblins. Her boss isn’t a troll, but some of the clients are.
Other projects include a short story entitled Sealwife, and an “action travellogue” set in Montreal called Mount Royal
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In August 2001, I decided to write my first stand-alone novel: a story about a young woman in a fight with fiction. I was partly inspired by Madeleine L’Engle and her characters Meg Murry and Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I liked the chemistry between them, but I was miffed that she jumped from A Wind in the Door, with Meg at 16 starting to fall in love with Calvin to A Swiftly Tilting Planet with Meg at 24, married to Calvin and pregnant with his child. Madeleine, you missed a few steps!
I started writing The Unwritten Girl (originally titled Rosemary and Time) because I knew that if I wanted to follow the relationship between such characters more closely, I’d have to do it myself. Quickly, however, the story became much more. Having Rosemary travel into the Land of Fiction to rescue Theo, her older brother, opened up new worlds for me to explore, and I’m glad I did.
The Unwritten Girl was accepted by the Dundurn Group and released in May 2006. It’s sequel, Fathom Five will be published in April 2007. For further details, you should consult the official Unwritten Girl website.
With luck, there may a third story following the adventures of young Rosemary Watson and Peter McAllister of Clarksbury, Ontario. The Young City takes the young couple to the streets of 1884 Toronto. A draft of this story is finished but undergoing revision. Whether or not it sees print depends on how well the first two books sell.
The Unwritten Girl was shopped around to eight publishers before finally finding a home with the ninth. You can follow the progress of this journey as I have my hopes raised, dashed and raised again. Such is the life of a writer: