Standing on the outside

Lately, people keep asking what my book of short stories is about. It's a question I struggle with, because each story is different, and each piece is an exploration of a separate issue.

But there are commonalities. Like most writers, I have my obsessions.

The collection is called If You're Happy, and happiness is certainly a theme. How people imagine happiness, the ways they achieve it, and how they are hindered in reaching that goal.

I'm also fascinated by wild weather and natural disasters, so there are stories involving a melting glacier, an earthquake, a tornado, a violent storm, a tsunami, a blizzard and a sinkhole. I've just written a new story with an erupting volcano.

But most of all, my stories revolve around loneliness or isolation. The characters are people who don't completely fit in, or feel like outsiders in some way. It's a subject close to my heart, because I've often felt on the outer, especially as a child.

I was a gawky kid who read a lot of books, had weird hand-me-down clothes and a bowl haircut (see picture, aged ten or eleven). I was overly earnest. I had no siblings until I was eight and a half, so I spent years playing on my own, and had no idea how to 'fight back' if picked on in the playground. We moved to Australia when I was nine, and I was mocked for my Canadian accent, my tendency to cry easily, and my very white skin in the land of tans. I felt odd and lonely much of the time. It wasn't until high school, when I met other kids more similar to me, that I found good friends and realised I wasn't so hard to like, after all.

I really hope readers enjoy If You're Happy, and find stories that resonate. I especially hope that anyone who feels lonely, or who feels they sometimes don't belong, can take comfort in knowing this emotion is universal. We all feel awkward, or on the outer at times. We feel alone even when surrounded by others. We chase happiness, it slips from our grasp and then we grab it again. And in the end, we're all just trying to find our way in this wild and turbulent world.