What would you say are the biggest challenges that you face?

Keeping level-headed about my career. One day you feel over the moon, the next you are down in the dumps - it's hard to manage sometimes. I'm trying to flatten things out, so that the ride is more like a little kids' roller coaster ride, gentle and smooth, as opposed to something called Hell Raiser or Death Drop.

I just try to keep things in perspective and keep on writing. Like I said, I'm happy when I'm doing just that.

What is Getting to First Base with Danalda Chase about? How long did it take you to write it?

Along with being about a baseball-obsessed boy who's suddenly interested in girls, the novel is actually about change, acceptance, and looking for the right person from the inside out.

It usually takes me about six months to write a first draft, and then the real work begins. After about another six months of my own editing, there is all the work one must do with their editors (see below).

The book has two editions. It came out in Canada in spring 2005, and Dutton (Penguin Putnam) will publish it next spring (2007).

Which aspects of the work that you put into the novel did you find most difficult?

Juggling two edits for two different publishers — one in Canada, one in the U.S. — was more challenging than I thought it would be. While the essence of the story is the same in both books, there are many significant differences. My head was spinning a little by the end of it all.

Which did you enjoy most?

The true enjoyment in the experience came when the idea first struck me walking in downtown Toronto, and then when I proceeded to write my first draft. There's nothing like the excitement of creating a new fictional world.

What sets the novel apart from Can You Spell Revolution?

The main subject matter in Getting to First Base with Danalda Chase is baseball and girls, and it is a more emotionally subtle book.

Can You Spell Revolution? is more direct. It is about trying to radically change things in one's junior high school life and finding out what power and revolution are all about. Check out the review and trailer for Can You Spell Revolution? linked on the website.

Both stories take place in junior high and try to approach serious issues in a lighthearted way.

How did the idea behind Earth to Nathan Blue come to you and how long did it take you to write the novel?

Since I began trading in imagination, I've been curious about young people who have inner imaginative worlds. For the most part, these worlds seem to be distortions of what is going on in their own lives.