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History

1973-1990

Born, raised, educated in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, child of a Rhodesian expatriate father and a tenth-generation Canadian mother.

1988

Writes first novel, possibly the worst work of fiction in the history of the English language, although in his defence he was only 15 years old. One of his fondest hopes is that no page survives.

1990-1995

Enrolls in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, aka "the MIT of the North." Occasionally attends classes. Sells an article to Dragon magazine, his first paid writing gig. Writes second novel. In 1995, spends four months at a work-study placement in New York City. Writes a whistleblower article for UW's student newspaper; his employers initially threaten him with a libel suit, but later apologize.

1996

Finally, and reluctantly, awarded a degree. Voted "Most Likely To Invent A Weapon Of Mass Destruction" by his graduating class. Promptly moves to California to work in the burgeoning software industry. Writes third novel.

1997

Quits after eight months of work and travels for four months through Japan, China, Indonesia, and western Canada. Moves to London and finds a job at a small Internet consultancy. Writes fourth novel. Sells travel articles on Hong Kong and London to Toronto's Globe & Mail.

1998

Quits after eight months of work and travels for four months on an overland truck trip across West Africa. After trip disintegrates spends two months visiting relatives in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Returns to Toronto and takes a job at a small Internet consultancy.

1999

Quits after eight months of work, moves to New York City, and takes a job at a small Internet consultancy. Tries to write two novels simultaneously and winds up writing two unfinished halves.

2000

Quits after eight months of work, moves to grossly overpaid consulting job. Barely survives the excesses of the Internet boom's east-coast epicentre. Quits after four months and travels for three months in India and Nepal.

2001

Returns to New York City for three more months of obscene yuppiedom. Lives in the legendary Chelsea Hotel. Quits, moves to Montreal, and writes the first draft of Dark Places / Trail Of The Dead (then titled Death On A Shoestring) in 25 days. Spends entire remainder of year wrestling with much longer and less well-behaved novel, now consigned to the proverbial trunk.

2002

A winter of discontent and poverty; ill-gotten gains all squandered, and no IT jobs to be had. Finally finds gainful employment in Toronto. Sends out Shoestring to American and Canadian literary agents and collects over 100 rejection slips. Quits after six months, travels through Australia and Papua New Guinea for six weeks, and comes to rest back in London.

2003

Sells the book. Goes skydiving to celebrate. Survives. Flees England and travels through the Balkans, for research, and Egypt, for fun. Returns to North America and spends summer gallivanting around West Coast. Attends Burning Man. Moves to San Francisco for the autumn and writes first draft of Blood Price.

2004

Inexplicably decides to return to Canada for the winter. Survives and promptly resumes his pinball lifestyle; March in Los Angeles, April in Australia, May in South America, June in Toronto, July in London. Spends a deliriously great if unproductive autumn in Paris, then returns to India for a month of research. Visits Sri Lanka, and leaves only two weeks before the terrible Boxing Day tsunami.

2005

Learns from his frigid last year and returns to La-La-Land, aka Los Angeles, for the winter. Halfheartedly tries to flog a few screenplays to Hollywood. Hollywood isn't listening. Returns to his home and native land, and is promptly invited to Iraq by a friend working there. Turns this into a gig for WIRED magazine, and spends a week there doing research dodging mortars in the Green Zone and LSA Anaconda before escaping on a cargo plane. Summers in Montreal, then flies off to Nairobi and spends the autumn slowly zigzagging from there to Cape Town, ostensibly for research.

2006

Regains his Canadian street credibility by wintering in Montreal. Commences beating his head against what he is still calling "the verdammt Africa Book." Clandestinely moves to New York City for April to work on a Very Secret Pet Project. Returns to Montreal and the verdammt Africa Book. Jumps ship come autumn for a quick circumnavigation of the planet via airplanes and, more interestingly, the Trans-Siberian Railway, followed by a connecting train to Tibet. Escapes from the Himalaya, returns to Canada for his sister's wedding.

2007

Remembers how cold Canada's winters are and promptly flees to sunny Los Angeles. In March, whirlwind-tours through England, Spain, Florida and Haiti. Ducks back to Montreal for a couple of months, then returns to California for the balance of the year. Finally finishes Africa book, now more popularly known as Night of Knives.

2008

Moves to England for the winter. Endures the resulting scorn of all the English, but it's worth it to live in a building where Joe Strummer once lived. Returns to Montreal for the summer. Endures the resulting scorn of all the Montrealers, but it's worth it to have missed the winter. At this very moment sits and writes in an apartment with a view of Parc Mont-Royal, trying to remember how exactly he managed to wangle more than a decade of interesting itinerancy. He's looking forward to the next ten years too.