Authors and Illustrators

Featured Author: Meg Tilly

Bibliography at Orca

First Time (Orca Soundings): Haley and Lynn are best friends. When Lynn meets Chad, a player several years older, Haley feels left out. She tries to be happy for her friend, but when her mother's new boyfriend starts making unwanted advances, Haley finds she has no one to tell. Not wanting to upset her mother's happiness and finding that Lynn is drifting away, Haley has to face her tormentor alone and face up to some very hard truths.

Interview

What are you working on now? I am working on an untitled novel for adults. It is very different from my usual fare, a stretch for me, and I'm not sure if it is really good, or abysmally bad.

What inspired you to start writing novels? I started writing because I needed to. I never dreamt, when I first picked up the pen at age thirty, that I would become a published author.

What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you recently as a writer?? I have had the privilege of reading at many wonderful schools. Yet reading at the Calgary Girls School for Wordfest last fall, stands out as a highlight for me. The reason it was different from my other school visits was that and all the fifth grade classes had either read or were part-way through my novel, Porcupine. A forty-five minute talk stretched into two hours and still the girls hands were flying into the air, their faces alive with enthusiasm and questions. Afterwards, the girls crowding around telling me how much they loved Jack and her story.

It was a school visit that I will treasure always.

How do you deal with writer's block?? I make myself write anyway, whether I feel like it or not. And then, after an hour or two of slogging away, something generally gives. But sometimes it doesn't and those days are depressing!

Biography

Meg Tilly is the author of two adult novels, Singing Songs (A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, 1994) and Gemma, both published with Syren Book Company. Her first YA novel, Porcupine, was released by Tundra in Sept 2007, and was shortlisted for a BC Book Prize, The Canadian Libraries Association Best Children’s Book 2008, and Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award 2008. It also was an Ontario Library Top Ten Best Bets 2008. First Time is her first book published with Orca. Tilly is a former actor whose films include The Big Chill and Agnes of God, for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. At present she is working on an untitled adult novel. She lives in Vancouver, B.C with her family. Website: www.officialmegtilly.com