Lewis, Maddy, Tim, Amanda, and Xan. Christmas,  2003

I live near Perth Ontario, about an hour southwest of Ottawa. I moved to Eastern Ontario from Toronto in 1988 with my wife, Amanda Lewis, and our three children: Alexander (Xan), Magdalene (Maddy), and Lewis. These days, Xan is living and working (and spinning disks) in Toronto. Maddy is in Europe auditioning for ballet companies and Lewis is in his last year of high school, looking forward to spring and the Sears Drama Festival – his favorite time of the school year. Amanda is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama. She is also an artist, calligrapher and the author of five books, including the award winning, Jumbo Book of Paper Crafts, published by Kids Can Press, in 2003.
     We live on 76 acres of rough and tumble land. It’s a landscape that has figured prominently in my writing over the last fifteen years. I designed the house we live in, finally putting to use three years of architectural training received at the University of Waterloo back in the late sixties and early seventies. That was before the school decided that maybe it would be better if I didn’t design anything that people were actually going to enter…
     I left Waterloo and joined a rock band in Toronto. To find out more about my days with Boogie Dick, check out the autobiographical sketch for some of the painful details.
     I decided to return to Waterloo to get a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. I joined another band, there, Alabaster. We were primarily a cover band, doing songs by the Beatles, Cream, Neil Young, The Band, Credence Clearwater, Elton John, James Taylor, to name a few. We also did some original tunes, which got me writing, though it was still only a pastime.
     I met Amanda the summer I graduated from Waterloo. It was 1974 and my favourite professor from school, Virgil Burnett, asked if I would look after his beautiful old, house in Stratford for the summer. There was a beautiful, young woman he had asked to look after his horse. I fell in love with her. (Not the horse, the girl). Amanda was working at her grandmother’s bookstore by day and at the Avon Theatre by night. At the end of the summer we couldn’t imagine being apart, so we moved to Toronto, where she was entering her second year at York University in the theatre program.
     I found a job as a book designer with PMA Books. It was my first brush with publishing but on the other side of the table, you might say. Carol Martin and the folks at PMA Books were great. I liked living in a world of books and book talk. Canadian literature was on fire. It was an exciting time. It was also my first full-time job. And my last. I lasted a whole year and a half. Pretty good, eh?
     Amanda and I took off for Europe in 1976 and when we returned I started up my own graphic design firm with Michael Solomon. In 1978, I decided to go back to school to do an MFA at York. The summer that I graduated from York, I was so bored with school that I wrote my first novel, Odd’s End. It was just something to do – like going on a summer holiday when you don’t have any money. Odd’s End won the Seal First Novel Award. There was a $50,000 prize. I decided that this writing thing might be fun.