TJ Skarbo

About Me

Learning consists of daily accumulating.
The practice of the Tao consists of daily diminishing;
decreasing and decreasing, until doing nothing.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It cannot be gained by interfering.

Tao Te Ching

Since the age of ten I have written...a snippet here a short story there. It seems I have always been working the wordsmith loom.

I am a Canadian writer, I live on the west coast, and the sea has always been part of my life. I live not two minutes away from the waves and froth, and I often hear the bark of seals off my back porch. Something I hold most sacred. There are many quail, rabbits and frogs here which delight me whenever I am lucky enough to see them.

I am an island girl through and through, I moved away once to Calgary Alberta and now that I am back I know I will never move again. The island and everything it offers is too ingrained in me. When I was away, I could hear the call of the sea and forest beckoning me back, deep within my soul.

When I can smell the forest or the sea on a warm summers breeze there is no other place I would rather be. No other place I could truely call home. (Not that Calgary didn't have its own wonderful smells and sounds...the leaves crunching underfoot and the smell they would radiate in the fall was just one)

I write about all sorts of different things...but I would have to say short stories are my favorite. There is just something about being able to sit and read a story to its completion in one sitting that draws me. Perhaps it is the challenge of creating a lovable or unlikable character in so little time, I don't know.

I write some poetry although I will not say that I am any good at it. I know a little about technique, very little actually and just write what I like or what I feel. If it works great, if not I hit delete.

I am working on a novel as well, an adult, young adult fantasy of sorts...this will be my first attempt at such an undertaking and to this date I must say I am a little too shy to put it out for prying eyes yet. It keeps me busy, which is something I am sure any writer would want...

Why do you write?

I write because frankly if I didn't I would be in trouble. Deep trouble. I would be subject to nights full of tossing and turning as I searched for my slumber. I would be a sleepless zombie woken at all hours of the night. You see when I get an idea, it is like a child having a tantrum until I pacify it with a bottle of pulp, or give it a ream of paper to chew. The idea will be there, bouncing about in my head until I give it the words it deems appropriate. Only then will it stop screaming in my ear, the text, and words of meaning seem to lull the ideas to sleep. Then and only then, can I get some shuteye of my own...