So, where to start?

As I write this in May 2008, I'm looking back at my previous bio, from way back in 2004, which seems like an incredibly long time ago. In the past four years I've evolved a lot and so has my writing. I'm a lot less inclined to be abstract these days and a lot less interested in adding random artistic flourishes to my stories. I think it has a lot to do with having graduated university and coming to terms with the fact that I probably don't have it in me to be "literary", so to speak.

When it comes to influences, I'd say that William Gibson's Neuromancer is still responsible for the fact that I write what I do. However, I've done a pretty fair amount of reading since I first opened that novel way back when I was 16. I like to think it shows (though, admittedly, I think it does moreso in my unpublished stuff than in anything that's currently available to the world). If you'd asked me back then what kind of novel I'd like to write, I definitely would've said Neuromancer. These days, though, I'd much rather write something more akin to Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, Jack Womack's Random Acts of Senseless Violence or Kelley Eskridge's Solitaire. If you haven't read any of those and you're a cyberpunk fan (or just a science fiction fan - hell, even a mainstream fiction fan who wants to give SF a try), make it your business to pick them up at some point. All three books have a couple things in common -- they're all Earth-bound stories, they all have a really detailed, interesting depiction of near-future Earth, and they all have incredibly well-written characters. I'd argue that China Mountain Zhang, in particular, could rival most LitFic books in that last regard. This is all a roundabout way of saying that what I want to write these days is science fiction that's mindful of today's issues and tempered by a literary mindset.

What else is there to know about me? Well, I have an unhealthy addiction to chocolate milk, I'm a night-owl, I always have mints on my person, my drink of choice is rye and Coke (that's rye, not rum), and even though I really like shopping, I've never spent more than ninety dollars on a single article of clothing.

Oh, and I'm Canadian. I think that explains a lot.