Volunteer role: West Coast Editor contributor

Company name: West Coast Editorial Associates

Website: westcoasteditors.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Jodie Foster, I’ve been told.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Sometimes you just have to leap.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
My husband’s emails. He is the funniest writer I’ve ever read.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Chips and dip.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Em dash.

What is your dream vacation destination?
The Scottish Highlands or the Cornish coast, for a walking tour.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Is this a trick question? Am I supposed to answer “See whether it uses Canadian or U.S. spelling; check for a consistent approach to the serial comma”? Seriously, though, I would substantively edit it. There are certain parts I don’t want to see recorded in black and white.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
The shoreline at the end of Simon’s Point Trail, outside Louisbourg, Cape Breton.

What is the last book you read?
American War, by Omar El Akkad.

What are your favourite book genres?
There’s so much great CanLit; I try to keep up with it. I like character-based fiction the most, especially if it contains surprises. And good narrative non-fiction is hard to beat.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Jodie Foster (see above).

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Peter Frampton, Led Zep, the Doors, Zep. Music was a big deal for me. Only rock, NEVER disco. I had Zep posters, T-shirts, bootleg recordings, the whole deal. A super-fan.