On Thursday 4 October I presented the inaugural TSJ Future Writer Award during the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2018 at London South Collegiate Institute in the Thames Valley District School Board.The recipient for the 2017 / 2018 year won for excellence in writing in one or more of the following genres: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Science Fiction, Horror. Details about the prize and the award can be found here.
The first ever recipient of this award is Grade 12 Graduate Victoria Harvey. I hope Victoria continues with her writing and works hard to one day become a published author. Congratulations Victoria! Good luck to you in the future.
I always loved writing creatively and really began to explore it as a passion starting in 1982 / 1983, my Grade 8 year. My teachers in Grade 8 and 9 provided great encouragement. When I was 17 years old and in Grade 12, I made the decision to pursue it with vigor and to one day be published. It took twenty-five years of intensive work — I did not tell my friends nor most of my family during this period — before I finally succeeded with THE FURNACE. I was forty-two years old in 2012 when Carina Press picked up this book and I landed my agent Carolyn Forde of Westwood Creative Artists. In my letter to Victoria I wrote the following: “Work hard, cherish rejection, and never give up. Success comes from failure. Always remember this.”
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