Hi!

My name is Sam.  I am a writer from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.*  I’ve enjoyed reading and writing from a young age.  I started reading by age four and by grade one had started writing short stories (mostly plagiarized from some of my favourite books, I was later embarrassed to discover).  In grade three, my teacher even offered to find a publisher for my writing (although nothing came of that…it was nice of her to encourage me!).  Somewhere along the way, I’ve decided that the kid in all of us is smarter and wiser in many ways than our adult self.  As kids we knew what we enjoyed and we just did it.  As adults, we allow too much traffic into our decisions.  We do what we think we should.  And end up unhappy and unfulfilled.  So I am going back to writing.  My five year old self knew a thing or two about me.  Whether my writing gains a following or not, I will be able to say I did it.

So, here it is….

This website will serve three main purposes:

1) to showcase my writing through short stories and poetry

2) to provide readers with a sample of the process I undergo in writing my first novel.  I’d like to gain insightful and constructive criticism along the way

3) FUN!

I hope that this website will be both useful and entertaining to you as well as a tool for me – to help me stay the course.

*For those that are interested in my writing credentials, I have a good amount of prior experience in print journalism – both writing and editing (paid and volunteer) and currently my bread and butter is in policy analysis.

photo: Myself and one of my oldest friends around age five.

photo: CHEERS!    At the bar in Boston.