D.G. Valdron

D.G. Valdron: I'm very private, and quite reclusive. But apparently, as a writer, you have to put yourself out there. So here goes.

I’m a wayward Maritimer. My dad was a mechanic, my grandfather was a carpenter, and between the two of them, it left me an arsenal of skills, a work ethic, and a practical approach to life. Growing up, we did everything and worked on everything from retreading tires, to small manufacturing, to construction, to running cement, doing carpentry, running a drive-in theatre and working on cars. We raised chickens. There was always something to do. We were all involved, the whole extended family. I’ve had the usual assortment of quirky writers jobs, mechanic, carpenter, projectionist, cook, waiter, woodcutter ditch-digger, journalist and school teacher.

These days I’m a lawyer working in the field of aboriginal rights, I’ve been doing that for a while, I’m good at it, and I like to think I make a difference. Let’s face it, anyone who wants a career in the arts needs to have a day job to pay the bills. And I’m trying to write a bit here and there. I think I’ve been a writer my whole life, even when I wasn’t writing. Even when I quit, I always come back to it.

As a writer, my earliest memory is dragging my brother, in his high chair, over to a blackboard so I could draw Batman adventures for him. Even back then, I knew I wanted to tell stories. No matter where I’ve gone, what I’ve done, that storyteller has always been in me, struggling to get out. I published my first story when I was thirteen. Just like Ray Bradbury. Actually, I published two of them. So Bradbury can suck it. Like everyone, I drifted through life a bit, but after my grandfather died, I did some hard thinking about what I really wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a writer, that's who I was. So here I am.