MICHAEL BRYSON

Michael Bryson for DESK SPACE

DESK SPACE Who?

MICHAEL BRYSON Trapeze artist and Pokemon apprentice. [My qualifications for being a step-father.]

DS When did you start writing, publish your first book (or when are you publishing your next)?

MB When I was in public school, maybe grade three, I made a couple of issues of a family magazine. I only remembered that years later, after I had been the publisher of The Danforth Review for some time. My first book was published in 1999: Thirteen Shades of Black and White (Turnstone Press). I think they managed to sell a couple dozen copies.

DS Where do you write (at your desk/outside/in bed)?

MB Now that I have a laptop (which I like a lot better than I thought I would), I can move around. I don't have a special place, but I do have a desk. Really, I write wherever I am. Sometimes I'm better with pen and paper.

DS Why do you work where you do (at you desk because it is a quiet space/outside b/c it helps you think, in the park b/c you can smoke, etc)?

MB Barbara Gowdy once said in a course I took that it was good to re-read your work in different settings, like in bed, on the toilet, in the morning, etc. So that you could get different insights into it. Moving around helped to refresh your thoughts. I did that already, so of course I thought it was brilliant advice.

DS What are you working on now?

MB I'm trying to get into a novel about an infamous recent murder in Toronto, though it seems it's really a book about fathers and daughters. I've still got a long way to go!