Michelle Berry and me at the Random House Canada Student Award in Writing held at the Faculty Club at the University of Toronto.

Lee Gowan and me at the Random House Canada Student Award in Writing at the Faculty Club at the University of Toronto.

On November 21, 2012, Mike and I went to Toronto. We stayed at the Toronto Thompson Hotel and on November 22 we arrived at the Faculty Club at the University of Toronto for the Awards Ceremony for the Random House Canada Student Award for Writing. I was a finalist in this competition and invited to do a reading from the story I had submitted. It was pretty nerve-wracking reading in front of a room full of writing talent like that but I got through it and managed to do some great networking. I got to meet Michelle Berry – an award winning author and my online instructor. She was a great motivator in getting me to submit a story to the competition in the first place. I also got to meet Lee Gowan, who heads the creative writing program at the School of Continuing Studies at the U of T (and is also an award winning author).