Q: When did you decide to become a writer?

I have loved literature, both stories and poetry, from a very young age. Over twenty years ago I felt a strong urge to write. I started writing “cowboy” poems and performed with my husband, Alf Epp, at the Maple Creek Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Alf would sing cowboy songs and I would recite my poems. It was a lot of fun and very “old-timey.”

I then took fiction writing classes through an outreach course at our local university. From there I joined a writer’s group and also, I visited the Saskatoon Library Writer in Residence. I visited several WIRs over the years and then was accepted into Guy Vanderhaeghe’s short fiction class. By then I had a repertoire of writing, a short novel, poetry, and short stories. In 2013, I applied, and was accepted, into the University of Saskatchewan’s Master of Fine…