When I lived in Miami, Florida, in 1976, I joked with
friends that my next stop would be Prince George, British
Columbia. It made for a good laugh. In 1978, I came to
Canada, specifically to PG, to visit friends I knew from
college days in Iowa. And, here I am today. No joke.
My life has been marked by migration. I was the first
born in a family of four. Our roots were in Astoria, in
the borough of Queens, New York City, third generation
Irish on my father's side and first generation German
on my mother's. I was then, and I remain, “always
late”: My dad had to sail for Antarctica with Admiral
Bryd before I arrived at St. Alban’s Naval Hospital.
Age 3, I developed chronic asthma. For my health, when
I was six, we moved to Miami, Florida, and I began school.
My dad worked for Campbell's Soup Company, and we were
transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, for a year. We moved
back to New York City for the next two years, and then
I did grades five to nine in Detroit, Michigan.
When I was ten, my grandfather gave me my first typewriter,
a hulking black manual Remington. I created my first book
of poems and wrote short stories. I wanted to be “a
writer.” We moved again, and I finished high school
in Roselle, a suburb west of Chicago, Illinois. I graduated
from Central College in Pella, Iowa (BA in political science).
I worked for a few years in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as
assistant buyer for Dayton's department store, followed
by a variety of casual jobs. In 1969, my family moved
back to Miami, and I joined them a few years later. There,
I worked as a legal secretary and lived in an enchanted
bungalow in Coral Gables. Summer, 1978, my life was at
a crossroads. I had been accepted to the University of
Florida College of Law, but not until the winter semester.
So I took an extended holiday and headed my lime green
Pontiac Ventura north.
In Prince George I found a home: married (Dave Woods),
gained a son (Shane), and had a daughter (Sara). I found
a vocation: teaching (Diploma in Education, Simon Fraser
University). Writing courses renewed my desire to write
and propelled me to join the Prince George Writer’s
Bloc, which led to membership in the Federation of B C
Writers. Pursuit of a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
at UNBC led me to Lynda Williams. As a Senior Laboratory
Instructor, she was first an advisor and then a member
of my review committee. Lynda introduced me to WebCT,
which I used in my thesis: Writing on the Web: Online
Technology and the Writers’ Workshop in the Junior
Secondary Classroom. Our relationship grew beyond
academic boundaries as we shared a love of not only writing
but a love of science fiction.
Fall, 2001, I attended the Creative Writing program at
the University of Miami. I had the good fortune to work
with Sandra Jackson-Opoku, author of Hot Johnny and
the Women who Loved Him, and Fred D’Aquiar,
poet and author of Feeding the Ghosts.
In the spring of 2002, I joined the staff of Prince George
Secondary. For the first time I had the opportunity to
work with senior students in Writing 12. The writing workshop,
as prefaced in my 2000 study and modified by U of M practice,
has electrified the classroom environment. This year,
it was so successful that several students continued to
meet every Wednesday at lunch time after the semester
ended.
Today, I like to write but spend too much time reading.
My work with students has increased my own fervor, and
my own writing life has accelerated. The creativity and
ebullience they exhibit is an elixir to help keep the
demons of age at bay. A long and winding road to reach
this time in my life, to be sure, but what a lovely place
to be!
