Young adult and sci-fi/fantasy author Erin Bow had a simple message for students at Lucky Lake School on Tuesday, May 9;Â if you're not afraid to fail, you can do anything you set your mind to.
The native of Omaha, Nebraska was on a tour of Saskatchewan schools talking about her journey to becoming an author as part of TD Bank Group's Children's Book Week, and she spoke to the Grade 6-12 students about her early beginnings in life, including all the things that led her to becoming a poet and author of young adult fiction.
The outgoing Bow has had a number of professional turns in her life, describing herself as a "physicist-turned-poet-turned-author of young adult novels that will make you cry on the bus."
Erin studied particle physics in university and worked briefly at the European Centre for Nuclear Research near Geneva in Switzerland. She said that while physics was an awesome experience, she remembered that she always wanted to write books.
"I actually write full-time, which is a dream come true for me," she said, touching on becoming a successful author.
Bow has four novels; Plain Kate, Sorrow's Knot, The Scorpion Rules, and The Swan Riders, as well as two volumes of poetry on her list of written works. And while she enjoys success now, she told the students that it was a long journey of realizing that writing was something that she could make a living at.
"It took me a long time to realize that all those little scribblings, notes and poems could be something I could end up doing," she said.
But it wasn't a smooth road to finding that success. Erin showed the students a version of one of her books that included a cover letter from her editors that pointed out all her mistakes, and she said that kind of criticism, while difficult to hear, would help shape her as a published author.
"Your first draft is going to suck," she said. "Creative people tend to be harder on themselves, and they need to learn to be softer."
Before ending her presentation with a Q&A session and reading from one of her books, Bow said that as far as taking advice from other writers is concerned, she can only tell people to not seek it in the first place, and she encouraged the Lucky Lake students to give their voices a platform of some kind, whether it's on a written page or some other form of medium.
"My only really good piece of writing advice is to ignore all the writing advice you get," she said. "Your voice is worth hearing, so it's good to get it out there."
