I’d like to welcome Don Sawyer to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Things you never want to run out of:

Diet Dr Pepper, although my doctor tells me I should drink more water, so I guess water?

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Televisions. Life is too short.

A few of your favorite things:

Saxx underwear, a good imperial stout, any book by Ursula LeGuin, mixed nuts (no peanuts)

Things you need to throw out:

Half of my clothes and all of my university essays

Things you need for your writing sessions:

My computer, quiet space, inspiration, focus

Things that hamper your writing:

AC/DC (though I love them at other times), feeling unmotivated, time, fatigue

Hardest thing about being a writer:

Moving a reader toward identification with your characters and their conflicts when all you have to work with are clumsy, limited words. Sometimes it feels like trying to build a fine watch while wearing heavy work gloves.

Easiest thing about being a writer:

Finding things to write about.

Note: both of these were provided by my eldest daughter, who knows me pretty well. (Though I did think she went a bit overboard with the second question!)

Words that describe you:

Focused, serious, principled, committed, caring, sensitive, persistent, passionate.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t:

Impatient, judgmental, obsessive, stressed, grouchy (only sometimes)

Favorite music or song:

Werewolves of London

Music that drives you crazy:

Anything that doesn’t have a beat and is easy to dance to.

Favorite beverage:

Toss up: Dr Pepper and a good stout (that complies with the Bavarian Beer Purity Law) Something that gives you a sour face:

Sour beer. They shouldn’t be allowed to call these things beer.

Something you’re really good at:

Socio-political analysis

Something you’re really bad at:

Making small talk

Last best thing you ate:

Fresh peach pie with whipped cream

Last thing you regret eating:

Too much peach pie with whipped cream

The last thing you ordered online:

David Samson’s book Our Tribal Future: How to Channel or Foundational Human Instincts Into a Force for Good

The last thing you regret buying:

Shoddy woodworking set for my grandsons

Things you’d walk a mile for:

A great English pub

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room:

A bar with Fox News on the ubiquitous TVs

Things you always put in your books:

Empathy, ethics, justice, passion, compassion, friendship

Things you never put in your books:

Overt eroticism

Favorite places you’ve been:

The Gambia, Ghana

Places you never want to go to again:

Florida

Favorite books (or genre):

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Left Hand of Darkness, The Poisonwood Bible

Books you wouldn’t buy:

Anything by Ayn Rand

Favorite things to do:

Explore human diversity through travel and interaction with other cultures

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:

Attend a Trump rally

Best thing you’ve ever done:

Have kids

Biggest mistake:

Not having my OCD diagnosed earlier

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

Riding on the back of a crocodile at the Paga Crocodile Pond in northern Ghana

Something you chickened out from doing:

Not a lot

The nicest thing a reader said to you:

(Letter from a student): I would like to acknowledge how much I really enjoyed your novel, Where the Rivers Meet. This novel was the first book I’ve ever read and actually finished.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you:

I don’t think I’ve had many crazy comments. Some are naïve or reflect a lack of knowledge of writing and the writing process, but crazy? I can’t think of any really.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done:

Developing the West African Rural Development training materials for grassroots development workers and training a brilliant group of facilitators in both Ghana and The Gambia.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it:

Jamaica Climate Change Action Training for Youth. Ending of funding and change of government meant this promising program was never fully implemented.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:

Watching an elderly Native Indian woman who could not pay for groceries be humiliated in a grocery store in Lytton, BC. That scene was incorporated in my YA novel Where the Rivers Meet.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:

One of the main characters in Running loses his father in a hunting accident he blames himself for. The trauma affects him deeply. This was not me but based on the experience of one of my good friends, Bob Garrison.

About Don:

An educator and writer, I grew up in Michigan and came to Canada in the 1960s, where I more or less flunked out of a PhD program in Modern Chinese History. This turned out to be a blessing as it opened up a world of opportunity and experiences I never contemplated. From teaching in a small Newfoundland outport to training community workers in West Africa to teaching adults on a First Nations reserve in British Columbia to designing a climate change action course for Jamaican youth, I have worked with youth and adults from many cultural backgrounds and in a variety of locales.

Inevitably, these experiences have made their way into my writing. I have authored over 12 books, including two Canadian bestsellers: the YA novel Where the Rivers Meet (Pemmican) and the adult non-fiction Tomorrow Is School and I Am Sick to the Heart Thinking about It (Douglas and McIntyre). The first book in his Miss Flint series for children, The Meanest Teacher in the World (Thistledown) was translated into German by Carlsen (hardback) and Ravensburger. My articles and op-eds have appeared in many journals and most of Canada’s major dailies

I was never a very good boxer, but I continue to train in the ring and walk in the woods whenever my hips don’t hurt too much. I currently live in St Catharines, Ontario, with Jan Henig Sawyer, my very tolerant wife of 54 years.