Arriving in 1948 makes me a post war baby boomer close to the onset of
the boom. I couldn't stand school but understood its necessity.
Surprisingly I found writing difficult in primary and high school.
Figuring out what to write stymied me. Looking back I could say I
suffered from a long term bout of writer's block.
While in high school enthused about the camera club's project to make a
movie I saw that the group needed a script. Without one nothing would
come of the enthusiastic plans. I wrote it. We made the movie. We showed
it in the school auditorium for a small admission fee and made a
profit.
When I went to Ryerson I took creative writing classes. I got involved
way to heavily with the extra curricular theatre activities. Every year a
theatre group produced a show called RIOT (an acronym for Ryerson
Institute of Technology). In my second year I joined the team of writers
for that show. I did that for the remaining two years of my course and
the year after that.
The RIOT show goes far back in Ryerson's history and as far as I know
they are still doing them. It is a comedic, musical, satirical revue. As
part of the writing team I wrote on my own, with small groups and with
the entire team. Material included one liners, blackouts, monologues,
comedic sketches and songs. I found it quite thrilling that people
laughed at jokes I wrote.
Much later on when I worked in a hobby shop I joined a model railroad
club. After a year or so as a member they elected me to the executive of
that club and I served as secretary. As secretary I wrote a monthly
report on club meetings and another on monthly display of models that
members brought to meetings.
Some time later I built a radio control boat and was invited to join a
model boat club, The Capital Marine Modellers' Guild. I volunteered to
produce a newsletter for the club. I did that for about ten years.
During the time I produced that newsletter I wrote most, not all, of the
material for it. I wrote about everything I knew about model building.
At about that time I decided to write a novel. With an old Underwood
portable typewriter - it weighs thirty-five pounds - I wrote 'The Cats
of Gavrillac.' I will have to change the title because I can't use
'Gavrillac.'
I then got involved with the Bytown Fire Brigade, a historical society
dedicated to preserving Canada's firefighting history. I used to take my
father to that group's meetings. They were fun loving people and had
great parties so I joined. After a year or two I volunteered to produce a
newsletter for them. I produced a monthly newsletter called 'The Bytown
Trumpet.' It had a minimum of eight pages each month. Again I ended up
writing most of its content.
One day in 1996 while helping with drywall installation at the Bytown
Fire Brigade headquarters, Will Brooks, who had recently joined, asked
me what I thought the organization should be doing. I told him I wanted
to see a monument built in Ottawa that would honour Canada's
firefighters who had been killed in the line of duty. He thought that
was a great idea and that we should make it happen.
From that meeting we formed the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial
Development League, which quickly grew to four members. From complete
ignorance and a strong desire to succeed we floundered for some time
until a series of circumstances, including the attack on the World Trade
Center, we eventually contacted the National Capital Commission (NCC)
in Ottawa.
After two preliminary meetings with that organization and some soul
searching discussion we took steps to bring into existence the Canadian
Fallen Firefighters Foundation/Fondation canadienne des pompiers morts
en service. On May 28, 2003 Will Brooks, Georges Potvin and I signed the
incorporation documents for that organization.
One of the many tasks I took on for the Canadian Fallen Firefighters
Foundation was the production of its annual publication 'Courage.' I did
write material for that publication but happily most of the material
came from other sources than myself. I did that for three years.
To make a long story short, The Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial
now stands on Wellington and Lett streets in Ottawa, honouring more than
a thousand firefighters who have died in the line of duty.
Somewhere in that time period I obtained a copy of Final Draft, software
for writing screenplays. It was expensive so I figured I better use it.
I did. I wrote the screenplays, 'The Girl and the Gladiator' and 'The
Clone.' I decided to take another stab at writing a novel and wrote 'The
Outlaw.'
Then my Facebook friend, Anna Haston, encouraged me to get involved with
Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month. That activity involves writing
a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. Thanks to Anna's encouragement in
2010 I wrote 'The Seven Second Kiss.' I sent copies of the first draft
of that to a number of people and received a very positive response from
my friend Amanda Greef. That encouraged me to rewrite it and edit it
for publication. I hope you like it.
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