I have known I was a writer since I was six or seven years old. It has been my other language. If I seemed like a shy nose-in-a-book kid, I was, until you read my writing; and then I was a big, loudmouth, fast-talking, vibrant and vibrating, opinionated little being. One side of my life was black and white, and the other side, colour. I lived in books and devoured the words of other writer’s like it was my only food. It was my principal connection with the outside world, and thank goodness for them, the writers and the words, otherwise it would have been a lonely place indeed.

Thankfully through The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, I was able to converge those two worlds and fit more tidily inside of myself. I can communicate with the world, and the world can see what I see. My new book: People Like Frank and Other Stories From the Edge of Normal is a prime example, where most of the short stories were written early in the morning (Stella taught me that), during last November’s Flash NaNoWriMo, in that dreamy kind of state, when the house is quiet and where the writing flows straight out of me, from my molten core.

Jenn Ashton will appear in the Literary Cabaret on October 16, 6 p.m. PDT.