Heather MacKenzie-Carey

I try to spend 20 minutes a day sitting down in a quiet space putting sometime to paper. I often turn away from the computer and use pen and paper for this. If I have a "great idea" that 20 minutes could turn into hours. If I'm working on a book I give myself deadlines and am more focused to get a chunk of the book done each day.

I remember the first story that was every read to me. It was "Wee Gillis" by Munro Leaf. In reality, it probably wasn't the "first" book read to me, but perhaps it was read to me the most often, and certainly it was the first book I learned to read. I can remember sitting on my Grandmothers knee feeling the warmth of the wood stove in her big farmhouse kitchen while I waited for the cookies to bake. My Grandmother patiently helped me read through all the long names Wee Gillis had in the beginning of the book. To this day, the smell of ginger cookies takes me back to that place and fills me with a sense of love and security.