Goodreads asked Stephen Fenech:

How do you get inspired to write?

Stephen Fenech At age fifteen, my friend, Sean and I went for a little walk—a 250 km walk, from Toronto to Honey Harbour in Georgian Bay. At times we were going to kill each other—and probably would have, if we could muster the strength from our wrecked bodies.
We still managed to take verbal potshots at each other. Whenever Sean pulled out a small notepad to chronicle the trip, I’d ridicule him. Despite my badgering, he kept on writing.
In the end, we survived the elements—including a tornado, the strain of the long march, and each other.
A month later, Sean presented me with his journal. I read the whole thing in one go, laughing out loud at parts, amazed at how well he had captured every moment.
Not only did he prove me wrong, he inadvertently spurred my own writing career. Okay, writing professionally didn’t happen overnight, but reading Sean’s account of our adventure was definitely the seed. When a feature of mine was published internationally, I called Sean to thank him for ignoring me.

flag