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Canada, one of the most mufti-cultural countries in the world. Although my travels all over North America is a big influence, growing up Canadian means embracing all cultures, languages, and different dialects of English, in order to be respectful to my friends, neighbors, teachers, the list goes on. It's never forced or out of obligation in Canada, it's just what we do. Out of that experience, a fascination with different cultures was born. So, to me, writing a story based in Tennessee is just the next level. We'll see where I'll go next.

Well, two books at once for now.

Cottonseeds, I still don't know exactly where the idea came from. Young lawyer type of guy, older guy in prison, mysterious daughter, a bunch of other stuff happens, cottonseeds floating on the wind. The initial idea anyway. The time and work I've spent on Cottonseeds has been about piecing together all these little ideas into an organized plot. It's possible a poem that's studied in many Canadian schools called The Cremation of Sam McGee is also an influence, kinda brewing in the back of my mind. As one section goes, “Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms an blows.” Where the rest comes from, I'm not really sure. I think Cottonseeds is the sum of all my influences.

The Ash Garden started as a very simple idea. I came across an old occult saying. The unicorn died giving birth to the dragon, thus the Garden of Eden fell. I was intrigued by the phrase and thought, what if the Garden of Eden was a real person? What would she be like? What kind of life would she have? It occurred to me one day that she would be completely insane. It's like that old joke from the 1960's, if Jesus came back now they would throw him in a mental institution. So that's when I started writing.