About me:
I was born on February 29th - Leap Year Day - in 1964 in
The upside: Three years out of four I get to spread the celebration over two days. My un-birthdays require fresh cake on each of February 28th and March 1st.
The downside: I haven't found one yet (two cakes!!).
I used to have brown hair but when I turned 17 it started turning grey. Now it’s completely grey, so I dye it. Lately, I’ve been blonde. But I'm thinking it might be time to embrace the grey...
I love basketball. But I never played. I only found out I loved basketball nine years ago, when I went to my first game. It changed my life. I bought season tickets to the Toronto Raptors and whenever I travelled to the
I also love running. That’s one of the reasons I made the character of Deirdre a runner. I think running is one of the greatest things ever. I have arthritis in my knees so I have to go to the gym to build muscles that will take the strain off my knees. I don’t really like going to the gym but it’s the price I pay for getting to run. I'm not fast but I love it. In May 2006 I ran my fastest marathon, finally breaking the four-hour mark thanks to my friend Carrie. She ran her slowest marathon ever, just to stay with me, and make sure I crossed the finish line in 3:55:39. That's more than half an hour slower than Carrie's normal pace. That's friendship.
In October, 2008, I ran the Dublin Marathon. I'd been travelling all over Ireland, researching the next installment of Hazel Frump's adventures (even missing the Raptors' home-opener!) and I thought it would be a fun thing to do while I was there, and a great way to see parts of Dublin I might not otherwise visit. It was amazing!
I live in
I always wanted to write books but it took me years to get around to it. To be honest, I was scared to try. And there were so many other fun things to do that I could pretend that I didn’t even want to try. I didn’t like high school, so I skipped grade eleven and finished early. After university and then journalism school I worked as a reporter for a wire service called United Press International and that was more fun than you can imagine. I got to cover stuff like the
I also wrote for some newspapers – The Ottawa Citizen (just for one summer) and The Financial Post (off and on for a few years). My last job at the Post was the best. I wrote about biotechnology. I dropped science and math back in high school, so you can imagine how cool it was to learn about recombinant DNA-based drugs and stuff like genetically modified canola. We didn’t have a medical reporter so sometimes my articles were more about medical stuff than biotech - I was the first person in
I stopped working for a while after I had children. I had three and they take up a lot of time (in a good way). When they were older and at school I did a little freelance writing for magazines and eventually I decided to try to write a children’s book. The Mystery of the
FAQ:
Where do you get your ideas?
I think writing is like playing a pretending game, only instead of acting it out, you write it out. Ideas are everywhere, and everybody has great ones. Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Whittling away at the ideas until you have just what you need is harder.
Why do you write?
I do it because I like it. And I like it because it’s fun but hard at the same time. Most of my favourite things are fun and hard at the same time. Like training for a marathon or coaching a basketball game. If something is too easy, it’s just not that interesting. But if it’s too hard, I won’t stick with it either. The first time I ran a marathon, the race director had some advice for all the first-time marathoners. He said: “If a marathon was easy, everyone would do it. But if it was impossible, no-one would do it.” That’s corny and kind of self-evident but it’s one of those things that sticks with you.
I think writing a book is a lot like running a marathon. Except after you finish, instead of a medal and a bagel, you get emails and letters from people who read the book and want to tell you what they think of it. And that is so much better than a medal. Or a bagel.
Do you have any hobbies?
I go to all the Toronto Raptors home games. If we had a WNBA team I would go to every game. So it’s probably good we don’t have a team. I sit way up behind the Raptors’ bench and bring my binoculars so I can read the computer screens at the play-by-play desks and keep track of interesting things like each individual player’s shooting percentages, and the team’s points in the paint and second chance points. I also bring a radio so some of the time I can listen to the guys at the FAN 590 – Eric and Paul. If you’re ever stuck somewhere and a game is on and there’s no TV, listen to the radio. Really good play-by-play people narrate the game so well you can see it. Really.
My favourite Raptor ever was Alvin Williams because he loved the game and always came to play. (Also, because he had arthritic knees, just like me.) Right now we’re lucky – there are a bunch of guys on the team who play like they love the game, especially Chris Bosh. He's been so much fun to watch, as he's grown from a gangly kid with tons of potential into an NBA superstar and a witty, multi-talented grownup.
I retired my Alvin Williams jersey after the team let him go, and sometimes I wear the jersey of Candace Parker's big brother Anthony. but it's not the same. The thing I liked the most about AP when he joined the roster was that he talked to his teammates. When I’m coaching it drives me crazy if my players don’t communicate.
But as much as I love the Raptors, I hope you know that Steve Nash is one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game and you must always cheer when he comes to
I guess I should stop talking about basketball. What other hobbies do I have? I run. I’m not very fast but I’ve run four marathons now and a bunch of half-marathons and a lot of 10k races. I run outside all winter long. If you start feeling cold, you just speed up! It’s kind of funny when you come inside and take off your jacket and there’s a layer of ice on your shirt. I run inside a lot during summer because I don’t like the heat and the smog in the city. And if I'm in the country... bears! Many people tell me that I should run outside in summer and inside in winter. I don't get it.
What do you read?
I read a lot. I have three newspapers delivered to my house everyday: The Globe and Mail, the New York Times and The National Post. I wish there was a way to get The Guardian delivered to my house everyday too. I buy magazines at the newsstand and my favourites are The New Yorker and Slam magazine. I check in on lots of blogs – mostly basketball ones - and I wonder how they have the time to keep them up to date!
Mostly I read books. I like lots of different books. Some of my favourite children’s authors are (in no particular order) Elisabeth Enright, E. Nesbit, L.M. Montgomery, Peter Abrahams, Rumer Godden, E.L. Konigsberg, Janet Lunn, C.S, Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Kit Pearson, Natalie Babbitt, Matt Beam, Don Truckey, Eva Ibbotson, Christopher Paul Curtis, Marsh Skrypuch, Sarah Ellis, Matt Duggan, Philip Pullman, and Ken Oppel. In the young adult category I like Norma Johnston, Joan Bauer, Emily Pohl-Weary and Laurie Halse Anderson. When it comes to grownup books I love mysteries by writers like Ian Rankin and Giles Blunt, and funny books by people like David Sedaris, David Lodge and Roz Chast. One of my favourite books ever was by a British author named Jonathan Coe. Non-fiction books are great, too. Michael Lewis writes some of the best non-fiction books for grownups. So does Roger Angell. They both write a lot about sports…
What about music?
It’s impossible to choose a favourite. Right now my Ipod is playing lots of Saving Jane, Elbow, Yellowcard, Handsome Furs, Pink, The Hold Steady, and the New Pornographers. But I also love Stars and Broken Social Scene and Feist and the Arcade Fire and REM and Sloan and Modest Mouse and the Constantines. I like the soundtrack from Easy Rider and the all-musical episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I like anything by Handel, Hayden or Bach. I like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane and all the Marsalises. I like singers like Maureen Kennedy and singer-songwriters like Sarah Harmer and Joni Mitchell. When I was little, we bought songs one at a time. They were called 45s. Then you stopped being able to buy just one song, and you had to buy albums, or cassettes, or CDs. Finally you can buy songs again, only now they’re called tracks and you download the digital file on your computer. I have single tracks by musicians like Nelly, Arctic Monkeys, the Fray, Delays, Snow Patrol and Spoon.
Do you watch TV?
Yup. Of course, I mostly watch shows aimed at grownups, so you shouldn't necessarily go by what I like. Still, how can you go wrong with Dr. Who? (My entire family is obsessed with Daleks and sonic screwdrivers!) And television programs like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report have actually helped keep me from depression and despair - although they're on so late at night they lead to sleep deprivation! Over the years, other favourite shows have included Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Inside the Line, MI5, and the Office (U.S. and British). Sometimes I watch "Terminator - the Sarah Conner Chronicles" but the truth is the show is a bit too violent for me.
Above Photo: Jill Goodman
