FAQ's : Frequently Asked Questions!

Want to know more about Cora? Here's the scoop!

When and where I was born

I was born January 14, 1936 in the t.b. sanatorium at Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan -- my mother had tuberculosis and wasn't allowed to hold me until I was five months old when I finally left the san.

Where I went to school

I grew up on my grandmother's farm near Fort Carlton in Saskatchewan and attended the same one-room school that my mother had as a child. I took grade nine by correspondence and then went to Stobart High School (actually it was grades one to twelve) in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.

Where I live now

I am presently living in Edmonton, Alberta but in the summer of 2004 I married Earl Georgas who has homes in Ontario and Florida. So now I divide my time four months in Edmonton, four months in Sauble Beach, Ontario, and four months in St. Petersburg, Florida. When I'm away from Edmonton I spend my time writing. Back home I catch up with family and friends. I still travel a lot doing research.

What I like to do in my spare time

Reading tops the list but I consider it part of my `job' -- wonderful to have a job where you have to do what you like best! Being with my grandchildren is probably how I spend most of my free time. Travelling, which includes visiting museums and learning about the history of the place, is something I love to do and wish I could afford to do more. I wish I had more spare time.

My first book (and how it happened)

Julie began as a short story I wrote during a writing class with Rudy Wiebe when I was at university. The trouble with Julie was that I found the character so interesting that I kept writing more about her and the story got longer and longer. Until then I hadn't thought that I could write a novel. It had always seemed to be an enormous task, especially since my stories and articles were always under ten pages. The character of Julie still fascinates me, which is why I did a sequel and will probably do another book about her.

Where my ideas come from Everywhere. The come from everything from dreams and grandchildren (Julie) to family history (The Doll) to news stories (Julie's Secret) to Canadian history and grandchildren (Ghost Voyages) to stories people have told me (Summer of the Mad Monk) all interspersed with memories of childhood. What and who has influenced me The books I've read all my life and my grandmother, mother and aunts who allowed me to develop my imagination during that wonderful farm childhood. The King James version of The Bible and The Book of Common Prayer which I think contain the most beautiful writing ever done. Shakespeare and all the poets my mother quoted to me as a child. And the man who helped me find my writing voice -- W.O. Mitchell. How I work I'm incredibly lazy, so I have to write to a very rigid schedule. No sleeping in, no missing a day when I'm working on a first draft of a book. I'm a morning person, so I write every morning, seven days a week and don't quit until I've produced a certain number of pages. I do incredible amounts of rewriting but I'm less structured on that and usually there are deadlines involved to keep me in line.

My favourite book when I was young

Lots of favourites - Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Jack London's Call of the Wild, L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Mary Ohara's My Friend Flicka, Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known and when younger the Thornton Burgess books. As you can see there were a lot of animal books.

My favourite book now

Lots of favourites. William Mayne's The Jersey Shore probably tops a list that includes Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Teribithia, Diana Wynne Jones' Time of the Ghost, Margaret Mahy's Catalogue of the Universe, Robert Newton Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die, Joan Aiken's Midnight is a Place and anything by Patricia Wrightson. Top Canadian favourites would be Welwyn Katz' Whalesinger, Brian Doyle's Angel Square, Martha Brooks Paradise Cafe and Tim Wynn-Jones' Some of the Kinder Planets. Oh dear, I've just thought of ten or fifteen more.