(10/20/05) Hit Teacher is my third novel. It's the story of a public school teacher in New York City who moonlights as a professional assassin. He's tenured and his rote, boring and inflexible teaching style (he's been teaching history for 16 years at the same school) contrasts with his skill and creativity at killing people. Of course, as must happen, his two worlds collide and he must reassess his role in both.

Hit Teacher was supposed to be a lot funnier than it has turned out to be so far. It still has some light humour in it, but it also has kind of a dark, melancholy undertone that I can't shake out of it. I think that the reality is that teaching is just such a brutal and crushing job in America today that it's very hard to make it funny, especially when you're working in it!

I'm currently still writing the rough draft. I'm closing in on 200 pages and expect to be finished by the end of the summer of 2004. This one has been the toughest one yet to get out, even though I was quite inspired at the beginning. I'm still figuring out what the problems are, and that has been interesting and productive, but ultimately I'm just not enjoying writing it that much.

(UPDATE 2/2006) Well, I wrapped the rough draft of this up a lot later than I had planned, due to moving to Montreal, starting school (french and computer science) and looking for work. I think there were two stories fighting in there, one a potentially interesting story about crime and action and another my own personal struggle with leaving teaching. I think the two might have ended up destroying each other but the pages are there and I'll go back at some point in the future and see if there is anything worth salvaging.

Novels

  Incorporation

  Survivor Island

  Hit Teacher

  C.E.O.

  on deck...


Screenplays

  Matter


Short Stories

  The Pointe


Other Writing

  Canadian Cyber-serial

  My Quick Life

  The Force Movie Reviews

  Corner Store article
  (w/Brian Morgan)