NWT Arts

I am a literary artist, focusing mostly on writing fantasy novels. I wrote my first story when I was in grade 4, and I’ve been writing ever since! I have written three novels, but only one of them really stuck out as something I felt was worthy of being read by others. My first published novel, The Naidisbo, is a coming of age fantasy story. I created an entire world called Torekan. It took 5 years to write because I was working and completing my Masters at the same time.

My background is in mental wellness and addiction recovery. That kind of job can be a little heavy sometimes. A good way for me to get everything out of my head and relax at night is to write things down and escape into my own world. I came up with the idea for Torekan many years ago. It’s been brewing in my mind for a long time.

I’m a very methodological person. When I come up with a story in my head, I will sit down and map it all out until it becomes this giant vision board of the story I imagined. I trace the paths the different characters take to see how they intertwine with one another. I then use that map to write the story, which is a very systematic and logical process.

I was definitely inspired by reading a ton of fantasy novels with elemental magic systems. I also liked the themes of coming of age novels, so I thought: why not take the struggles and injustices of our current world, like racism, prejudice and inequality, and apply them to that fantasy world. I can bring these issues to the table through these concepts and ideas.

My biggest inspiration is my partner Josh. We are both avid readers. We have reading competitions every year just to see who can get through the most books. He often will read my writings, and has been helping me notice where my ideas aren’t really following through from an exterior point-of-view. From a literary perceptive, some of my favourite authors are Nicholas Eames and Brandon Sanderson. I don’t know how they do it, but they don’t seem to have walls around the creative worlds that they come up with!