AUTHOR. OVERTHINKER. BAD INFLUENCE.
SO APPARENTLY I HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT MYSELF
HI, I'M MEG.
I spent most of my life trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Which is funny, because I knew the answer when I was a kid. I wanted to write books.
Then, naturally, I spent years doing approximately everything except that.
I have never been especially good at sitting still.
01 — FIRST THINGS FIRST
MEG, MEAGAN, WHATEVER.
Writing an About Me page is, objectively, terrible. So let's start with the important stuff.
My name is Meg. Technically, it's Meagan. I answer to both but I will look at you like you're insane if you use the latter.
When I was 10 years old I watched Father of the Bride II. In the end, Steve Martin comments, "The doctor is named Megan? No Megans are doctors!"
That was it - my name was officially one that I hated. I tried to go by my middle name in my late 20s/early 30s, but it never caught on. I struggled to respond to it; Colin never got on board. The only option was to shorten it and go by Meg, like Family Guy. I guess it suits me, who knows.
02 — A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEVER STAYING PUT
HOME HAS BEEN A LOT OF PLACES.
I was born in London, Ontario, and apparently took that as a challenge to see how many places I could live afterward.
London
Petawawa & Renfrew
Kingston & Strathroy
Maple & Mimico
Costa Rica
Toronto-area chaos
More moving
Trent Hills, Ontario
03 — PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CRISIS
SERIAL CAREER COLLECTOR.
I spent much of my adult life figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I've wanted to be an actor, doctor, psychiatrist, lawyer, soldier, cop, correctional officer, soccer player, scuba diver. Random things that caught my ADHD's attention, and lost it just as quickly. I told myself that in the interim, I would do sales.
That translated into a career path that was less “ladder” and more “choose your own adventure.”
Eventually, I landed in a career that rewards curiosity, stubbornness, talking to strangers, figuring things out on the fly, and a healthy tolerance for chaos.
Sales. I landed in sales.
Which, in retrospect, tracks.
GO SLAY THE DRAGONS.
Nashville, Tennessee • Finding the best advice in the most random places.
04 — BACK TO THE BEGINNING
I ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE.
Before the jobs, the moves, and the deeply questionable decision-making, there were books.
12 years old, sitting in the musty bookshop downtown Port Carling, where I spent summers with my grandmother. Consuming mass amounts of R L Stine books and daydreaming about writing my own stories. That was the first job I ever wanted, to be an author.
Then life happened.
I grew up, built a career, moved around, started a family, accumulated responsibilities, and found increasingly creative ways to convince myself that writing was something I would get back to eventually.
Eventually finally happened.
I wrote Choke.
And apparently that was all it took to completely derail the rest of my free time.
05 — THE PART THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS
LIFE IS MESSY.
Somewhere along the way, I met Colin, built a family, and learned that the best parts of life rarely look anything like the neat version you imagine ahead of time.
My life is loud, busy, occasionally ridiculous, and usually overscheduled.
It's also incredibly beautiful.
I like stories that understand people can be deeply flawed
and still worth rooting for.
Because life is far from perfect, regardless of what social media would suggest.
A FEW THINGS YOU DIDN'T ASK.
I guess this is where I tell you my hobbies and shit.
I am almost always reading something.
I collect careers, hobbies, and Pokemon cards.
I have never met a rabbit hole I didn't want to investigate.
I write complicated women on purpose.
I believe fictional men should come with warning labels (not unlike real men).
I am probably working on too many things right now.