David and I

One of my daily tasks is to promote Counios and Gane on social media. I also have a smartphone that does things like gather up pictures that fit into a category. The phone shows me the photos in what feels like a “look what I did Ma” moment. This morning I saw a nice little collection of photos of David and me over the years and I thought it would make a sweet little promotional post for C&G.

Cute.

As I was reminiscing through these photos, the story of each image came back to me.

The earliest photo was a photo of a photo I had on the wall of my stairway. It was from roughly 1999. My sister, David, and I all lived together in my old house. We would have monthly theme parties that became bigger and more elaborate as the months of that year progressed. If I remember correctly the theme for the specific party the photo was taken was wrapped stuffed or rolled. This applied to drinks, food, and dress code. In that image, David and I were on my living room couch, which was not in the living room. It was outside. We had taken it into the backyard for the party. It was the kind of thing you did when you were in college—you know, before you had actual money to spend on actual patio furniture, or the patio furniture was the inside-the-house furniture. I was lucky enough to have a sofa and also lucky enough to have a lack of concern for what happened to it.

It was the time before the word selfie was commonplace. David grabbed a camera and held it over our heads. We both looked up and he snapped the photo. I think the film went to the drugstore and the photo came back. It was one of the first pictures we took together. At that time we didn’t know how our careers would wind into one.

We didn’t know a lot of things

We didn’t know that we’d be writing feature-length scripts or that we’d be meeting with producers with the hopes of the scripts becoming more than just words on paper. We didn’t know that one of our scripts would be workshopped by Superchannel. We didn’t know that the film industry would fold up in our province.

We didn’t know that to problem solve that, we’d turn to genre fiction and write an internationally award-winning YA mystery series—the Shepherd and Wolfe Mystery Series.

What we knew

I can’t speak for David but what I did know was that David was a great collaborator when it came to the parties. He always brought his best game. I did know that I appreciated and valued David’s feedback when I was directing the school theatre productions. I knew how well we got on creatively and how fun the creative process could be. He managed to breathe life into school projects that felt like they were flatlining. I knew that he was as idea-generating as I was. I didn’t know a lot of those types so I knew that working with this individual could work for me.

Things the photos reminded me of

I was reminded of our humble beginnings as friends, the evolution of that to in-laws and later writing partners, and how life can change so drastically in great ways I couldn’t even imagine in 1999. Our workspace and work habits looked a certain way then, mostly meeting in David’s office, usually after I was done teaching. I was reminded of road trips to book signings and readings to cities and towns in our province. I recalled the excitement of nomination and shortlist announcements for awards as well as the thrill of winning.

I thought about those times when we’d find a minute to go hash out a story problem while we left friends and family at the campfire with drinks and snacks. There were book sales, markets, television appearances, radio interviews, presenters at conferences, moderating interviews, as well as sitting on discussion panels. These photos are just a few of the journey we’re on. David has always credited me for taking time to celebrate the achievements of Counios & Gane. He’s right. Life should be celebrated.

In the simplest language, it’s been awesome.

And even simpler—I can’t wait for what’s around the next corner.

With my whole heart, I believe there will be more.

As always, thank you for reading lovelies.