COME. The storyteller beckons us to journey with him through space and time into the lives of a cabinetmaker, an Indian princess, a grandfather and his grandson, a dragon-slayer, and a scarecrow. And that?
If you go to my website at mikemasonbooks.com, you'll see my tag line: "Purveyor of Fine Sentences." I write sentences, not books. Someone once said that a writer's job is to make good sentences and the rest will take care of itself. So I try to make every sentence true and beautiful. As the sentences accumulate and start heading in a direction, books happen. (Maybe my website should be mikemasonsentences.com?)
This is not just a philosophy of writing but of life. It's moments that count, more than the grand scheme. Live great moments and the rest will sort itself out.
My first great moment happened in 1952 when I came into the world in Peterborough, Canada. By age eleven I wanted to be a writer, and although I got many things wrong in life, one thing I got right was to hang onto the writing dream and pursue it single-mindedly. After earning an M.A. in English from the University of Manitoba, I spent my twenties doing odd jobs to support my writing, from garbage-collecting to journalism to library work.
In 1982 I married Karen, a family doctor. We spent our first year of marriage studying theology at Regent College in Vancouver, and we've lived in British Columbia ever since. We have one daughter, Heather, born in 1987, who is pursuing dance studies in Toronto.
In nearly three decades of writing, I've published five devotional books, two collections of short stories, and now a pair of fantasy novels, The Blue Umbrella and The Violet Flash. I'm currently working on a collection of my Christmas stories, and also on a book of a very different sort, an account of heavenly visions entitled Adventures in Heaven.
Turning to novel-writing at age fifty has meant a radical change. In many ways I had to learn my craft all over again and work through many fears and insecurities. The result, however, is deeply satisfying, and now with more novels on the way I have a renewed sense of challenge and joy in my work.
All in all I enjoy a simple life filled with family and friends, our dog Shelby, books, music, and prayer.
