About Me

My name is Kimberly Joy Peters.  I was born in Brantford, Ontario, and lived in nearby Paris, Ontario until I was ten years old.   I have one sister, Laurel, who is just thirteen months older than me.  I drove her crazy.  She liked to play games, I always wanted to read.  Some of my favourite young adult authors were Lois Lowry, Judy Blume,  Zibby O’Neal and Lois Duncan.   I dedicated this book to my sister partly to make up for all those times I didn’t want to play Monopoly, but also because she is a strong, independent woman whom I admire. 

 

I spent my teenage years in Kitchener, Ontario.  One summer at the end of high school, I received a bursary from the Government of Canada to spend six weeks in Quebec, learning French.  The program was “fantastique” .  When I got back from Quebec, I attended the University of Waterloo, where I graduated from the English, Rhetoric, and Professional Writing Program (I’m still not sure what that qualifies me for).  I also did a minor in French.   

 

As an adult, I married my husband, Randy, and moved to a small community in Central Ontario.  After a few years of doing odd jobs, I went back to school at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where I earned my Bachelor of Education (“teacher’s qualifications”).  I currently work as a French and Art teacher for the Durham District School Board.  Some of you are already thinking that makes me boring, but I really try very hard to do a good job.  

Like Caitlyn, I enjoy art, and I love goldfish.  I had one fish who lived for twelve years, and my current pond fish, Dasher and Blitzen, are almost five.

 

I spend a lot of time with my dog, Spencer, and although I never appreciated sports when I was young, I have learned to scuba dive and snowblade as an adult.   Maybe I’m just trying to recapture my lost youth…

 

Did you notice that the “Links” picture on the homepage has an island in it?  My cottage is on that island!

About Writing

Writing has always come very easily to me.  I suspect that it has something to do with reading a lot, as well as my family’s Irish heritage, and their love of storytelling.  Unfortunately, I somehow grew up with this crazy notion that great things are only achieved through hard work —blood, sweat, tears, that sort of thing — so I never really considered myself a “good” writer until one day in high school, when my principal stopped me in the hall.  Now, I know you’re thinking that principals of high schools with 2000 students don’t stop anyone unless they are in real trouble—I thought that, too—but it turned out that my English teacher, Chris Kingston, had shared my current events journals with him, and this principal, Robert Chilton (whose son later went on to write the bestseller The Wealthy Barber ), was impressed enough to stop me in the hall and tell me that I had a real talent for writing, and I should do something with it.    Teenagers never listen, though, do they?  So I went to university, and enrolled in Sociology...for about a week.  Then I switched to English (see above) because I wanted to try the co-op program and make $500 a week at a cool job like my boyfriend.   I never got $500 a week, (because I wasn’t a math major) but I did end up with some neat jobs, including working at the Metropolitan Toronto Police Museum (where I got to write a lot of the information still on display today) and  OWL and Chickadee magazines.   While I was at the Police Museum, my boss mentioned that she was entering the Toronto Star Short Story Contest .   Back then, first prize was $10,000 so I decided to enter, too!  I didn’t win that year, but I made it an annual ritual to write one story during the Christmas holidays so I could enter by January 1st every year.  Finally, in 2000, on the day I graduated from teacher’s college, I found out I was a “runner-up” - I’d placed in the top ten, out of more than 2500 entries.  I only won $200, but seeing my story in print was a major thrill.

It was after that that I decided I should start working on a story idea I’d had for a long time—one about a challenging teenage relationship.  I wrote about forty pages.  And then I stopped.  I just didn’t think publishers accepted books from average people.  Then my good friend Kirsten Koza wrote a book about her experiences at summer camp when she was eleven years old—and a publisher accepted it!  Seeing that someone I knew could write a book and get it published gave me new motivation.  I finished Painting Caitlyn, sent it to Lobster Press, and they called me back a month later.  The moral of the story is this:  TRUST YOURSELF! 

info@kimberlyjoypeters.com

In Memorium

When my best friend Honey died, I was broken-hearted.  She’s the dog described on the back of my book, and on the front page and in the “About Me” section of this website.  She’s the dog who was the ring-bearer at my wedding, my teddy-bear at night, and the reason I got up and walked around the block every morning.  She was almost fourteen years old.

What’s New?

October, 2008

Posing as Ashley, a ’spin-off’ from Painting Caitlyn., is out!

Okay—I’m giving myself a bit of break here, and (sorry!) we’ve decided to postpone the “as yet untitled”  book # 3 (also about Ashley), until next fall...the spring deadline was just too tight for me to do it the way I wanted.  

 

Okay—I have to say it, now that Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is out in theatres, and Twilight is coming in December:  Painting Caitlyn was right there with Nick and Norah AND New Moon on both the YALSA Quick Picks and 2008 Teen Choices lists—what great company I keep!

 

Introducing Spencer….

...and Sam

Sammy Cat is 18!  His family, who loved him very much, was moving to New Zealand and worried about taking him on the 27 hour plane ride...so he searched for a new home through Friends of the Animals, and came to live with me during the summer of 2006.  This dude is old, but feisty!  He learned very quickly how to work the cat door, and you can see him here enjoying the sunshine.   

Spencer Orea Straeten (S.O.S!) is a Border Collie/Lab cross, which means he’s either a BLAB, or a Lollie Pup.  We found each other last summer through Petfinder.com, where he was  accurately described as ‘affectionate, playful, and a big baby who needs a lot of attention’.   We initially thought he was about 2 1/2, but it turned out that he was much younger—he’s a real clown!