Dear Jo

Christina Kilbourne was born in Southwestern, Ontario, but spent her elementary and high school years in Muskoka, a resort area two hours north of Toronto. She currently lives with her husband, two children and various four-legged creatures near Mount Albert, Ontario.

Christina wrote:
I wrote the first draft of Dear Jo at a novel writing marathon to raise money for adult literacy. The event was 3 days long and I knew, going into it, that I wouldn’t have enough time to write an adult length book. So I decided to write a book for a younger audience. At that same time a young girl went missing in Toronto, near where I live. Her name was Holly Jones and she was found dead a few days later. I was so distressed, I knew I had to deal with it through my writing. That is when Max’s name and voice came to me. Several of her journal entries echoed through my head. So I combined my distress over Holly with Max’s voice and wrote an early draft of Dear Jo.

Because friends are so important to young people, I realized it would be interesting to write from the point of view of the best friend of a young person who goes missing. I hadn’t seen or read a book from that point of view before and using a journal format was a perfect fit. It was during my research and editing of the book, after the marathon, that I focused the book on internet predators. The more I read about the issues facing on-line youth and the cases involving internet predators, the more I knew I had to make it a central theme of the book.

I have been intrigued by writing since I was in public school. I can\'t really explain why I enjoy it so much, but I do. Almost nothing else brings me the same sense of satisfaction as writing. I know there are other people out there like me, but it\'s sometimes hard to find each other. For those of you who do like to write, I have a couple of tips. First - write, write, write. The more you practice the better and faster you become. Second - read, read, read. Reading is like fuel for writing. If you don\'t read, your writing tank will soon be empty. The last tip is the hardest but probably the most important - find someone to share your writing with. Without feedack, you will never improve your skill. So don\'t be shy. Find someone (preferably someone besides your mother) and as many someones as you can to read your writing. Find out what they liked about your writing, what they didn\'t like, what parts of your writing made them feel which emotions. Then take that feedback to improve your next story. Don\'t let your hurt feelings get in the way of writing a second draft or a whole new story. Learning to write well is a long process, but it comes with many rewards.

Contact Christina at:
Email:tkilbourne@hotmail.com
Website:www.christinakilbourne.com