Featured Author: Robin Stevenson

Bibliography at Orca

[New!] Benched: When Cody and his friends accept a challenge from a local gang to steal a park bench, their main concern is keeping themselves on the gang's good side. Cody learns that the stolen bench had been dedicated to the father of the English teacher who sponsors the school newspaper—the paper that Cody has just started writing for—and he's worried about the consequences. As the gang applies pressure for more from Cody and his friends, he realizes they've crossed a line, and now he has to figure out how to make it right.

Interview

Why do you write, and why children's books? Writing is in my family history—all the way back to the mid-1800's. My great-great grandfather wrote a book on church organs and my great-grandfather left poetry for my grandma and great-aunt every morning. My grandma wrote poetry in rhyme and my dad has written poetry and novels. Ever since I was eight years old, I have written, too. I feel compelled to create stories and poetry. I have always worked with this age group (children/YA) and I feel I have a good understanding of their world and their struggles. I have been creating characters for years and I now finally have the time to put them into stories.

What kind of research do you do before writing a book? Sometimes I research on the web to access more information. I know the world of this age group so well because I've been a Behaviour Resource Teacher and worked with at-risk students for my whole career. I guess you could say I've done "on the job" research. Although my former students don’t appear in the stories—their resiliency and strength of character inspire my work!

Do you put your family and friends in your books? My step-son got a small feature spot in this one (I asked him for his own lines) and he will likely show up in others for a cameo appearance, but I don’t typically put family or friends into the story.

What is your favourite (or funniest) childhood? The summer my sister and I went from summer camp to summer camp and then to California. We enjoyed Great America, even though my aunt just bought a new car and it took us nearly three hours to find it after we’d finished a full day on the rides. Then we took sailing lessons at Glenmore Lake in Calgary and I spent almost every afternoon upside down in the water. I had the knack for capsizing!

Biography

Cristy Watson is a teacher who loves reading and writing poetry and YA novels. She was born in Calgary, Alberta, and has lived in San Francisco, Kamloops, Comox, North Vancouver and now resides happily near the beach in sunny White Rock, British Columbia. Cristy hosts open-mic readings at her local coffee shop and likes to enter writing contests, especially ones where there is a challenging time limit. One day while walking around the ponds near her home, she discovered that one of the park benches went missing overnight...and the idea for Benched was born. This is Cristy's first novel in the Orca Currents series.