Volunteer Profile: Tiffany Sloan

Volunteer role: Treasurer

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
YouTube videos of cats falling off things.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The period. Not everything has to end in an exclamation mark!

What is your dream vacation destination?
Riding the Trans-Siberian Railway. A wildlife safari in Tanzania. A penguin-spotting cruise in the Antarctic Peninsula. So many to choose from!

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Burn it! No spoilers, please—I’d like all the plots twists to be a surprise.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Any patio in Vancouver with a view of the sun setting over the water.

What is your favourite book genre?
Historical fiction.

Volunteer Profile: Roma Ilnyckyj

Volunteer role: Past chair and event volunteer

Company name: Talk Science to Me

Website: talksciencetome.com

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Playing Candy Crush.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Transpose: I love drawing that fun little curve.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Take my baby to track his roots through Ukraine and the Philippines.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Put it on a shelf without reading it.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Jasper National Park.

What is the last book you read?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, by David Shafer.

What is your favourite book genre?
Detective fiction.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
AFI.

Volunteer Profile: Rebecca Coates

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor copy editor

Blog: grammarlandia.com

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Slug days, when I just read all day or waste time online and do nothing productive or of redeeming social value whatsoever.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Where would we be without the caret?

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The em dash. We’re in a codependent relationship.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Somewhere cold! I don’t do tropical.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Burn it to avoid spoilers.

What is the last book you read?
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison.

What are your favourite book genres?
I like fantasy and science fiction, but I also enjoy a good mystery.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Janeane Garofalo.

Volunteer Profile: Nancy Tinari

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor contributor and copy editor

Company name: Nancy Tinari Edits

Website: nancytinariedits.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Fictional—Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
To be humble in all ways.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Word jokes and clever and funny fiction.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Hope Makes Love, by Trevor Cole.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate. Except I don’t feel guilty.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Dele.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Ellipsis.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Vienna.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
I would be afraid to read it. I don’t want to know the rest of my life ahead of time.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Serene. Because it is.

Who are your favourite poets?
Sharon Olds, William Blake.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
4321, by Paul Auster.

What are your favourite book genres?
Literary fiction, biography, memoir.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Led Zeppelin.

Volunteer Profile: Meagan Kus

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor copy editor

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Kate Winslet.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Do not spit over the Cliffs of Moher (it blows back up).

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Ricky Gervais.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, by Claudia Kalb.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Non-fiction.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Netflix and cake.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Begin new paragraph.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Spain.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Read it once and cringe.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Sagacious. It sounds beautiful and slightly mysterious.

Who is your favourite poet?
Shel Silverstein.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
The Dinner, by Herman Koch.

What are your favourite book genres?
Satire and history.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Frances McDormand.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
U2.

Volunteer Profile: Marianne Grier

Volunteer role: Branch chair and event volunteer

Company name: Marianne Grier Editing

Website: mariannegrier.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
I’ve been told I look like Kylie Minogue (I don’t see it!).

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
I love those awful “10 worst spelling mistakes” lists that pop up in my Facebook feed.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
I like stet. If only we could stet things in real life!

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The question mark.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
I’d throw it in the ocean.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
A cottage by the water in Nova Scotia.

What is the last book you read?
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Michelle Williams.

 

Volunteer Profile: Maggie Clark

Volunteer role: Publications chair, managing editor of West Coast Editor, and event volunteer

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
I have actually been told at least once that I resemble Emma Watson! But I’ve mostly been mistaken for the character Anne from Anne of Green Gables

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
I think the most important lesson I ever learned is that educating yourself is important, whether you experience it from school, books, or life lessons.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
It’s easy to make me laugh! Friends, family, strangers, comedy movies, television shows, video games, and so on can all make me laugh at times.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
For editing purposes, the best book I read in the last year was Practical Grammar: A Canadian Writer’s Resource, by Maxine Ruvinsky. For leisure purposes, the best book I (re)read in the last year was any one of the Harry Potter books.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure is going to the bookstore to buy more books when I already have so many other books that I need to read!

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
My favourite proofreading mark has to be the caret! I love when I can find just the right word or symbol to insert in a sentence that clarifies meaning to readers.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
My favourite punctuation mark is the Oxford comma! I like how it allows writers to avoid confusion in lists.

What is your dream vacation destination?
I think my dream vacation destination is split between revisiting Venice and exploring Japan for the first time.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Like the character Dustfinger in the book Inkheart, I would try to avoid knowing how my story ended, but I would still be tempted to know about it.

What is your favourite word? Why?
My favourite word is grace, mostly because it’s the name of my feline friend, but also because I love how it sounds graceful.

Who are your favourite poets?
It’s been a while since I read a lot of poetry. But I would say that my favourite poets probably are Edgar Allan Poe, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
My favourite place in Canada is Victoria, British Columbia.

What is the last book you read?
The last book I read was the fourth volume from the graphic novel series Ms. Marvel.

What are your favourite book genres?
Admittedly, I really enjoy the fantasy genre, but I’ve been broadening my horizons by reading from a variety of genres, such as science fiction and historical fiction.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
I think (and would love it if) Emma Watson would play me in a biopic of my life. She and I share similar ideas about trying to help society, so I think she would play me more accurately than other actors.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
I have listened to many bands in my teen years, but if I had to pick one to be the soundtrack for those years, I would pick the band My Chemical Romance.

Volunteer Profile: Lynne Melcombe

Volunteer role: Event volunteer

Company name: Lynne Melcombe Communications

Website: lynnemelcombe.com

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
To stay in the present.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
My little dog, Tessa.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
The Serpent and the Rainbow, by Wade Davis.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Non-fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Netflix, especially Star Trek. I watch all the series over and over.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The much-maligned em dash.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Ireland.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Not possible. By the time my life is finished, I’ll be dead. What would I do with a book then?

What is your favourite place in Canada?
West Coast of Vancouver Island.

What is the last book you read?
Year of Yes, by Shonda Rhimes.

What are your favourite book genres?
I like literary fiction and creative non-fiction equally.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Depends. 14–15: Alice Cooper. 16 on: The Eagles.

Volunteer Profile: Lynn Sackville

Volunteer role: Secretary

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Liv Ullmann.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
“Take your enjoyment wherever and whenever you find it. Things could always be worse!”

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Political satire (Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah).

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Lullabies for Little Criminals, by Heather O’Neill.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Staying in my pajamas all day reading.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Stet.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The mighty comma.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Paris, New York, Barcelona, or any highly walkable city.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Read each chapter shortly after the events unfolded, as a way to reflect on them and fit them in a broader context. I’d be tempted to look ahead but hope I wouldn’t!

What is your favourite word? Why?
Mist. I love the sound and the image (soft and grey), and I like mist itself.

Who is your favourite poet?
I don’t have a favourite poet, but I do have a favourite poem:  “Jenny Kiss’d Me,” by Leigh Hunt.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
My cabin on Salt Spring Island.

What is the last book you read?
Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance.

What is your favourite book genre?
Literary fiction.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Laura Prepon.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Bob Dylan.

Volunteer Profile: Lindsay Vermeulen

Volunteer role: Refreshments coordinator, West Coast Editor contributor, and event volunteer

Website: lindsayvermeulen.ca

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates in Downton Abbey).

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
You never really know what’s going on in anyone else’s life—strangers or even close friends—so assume the best of everyone, and give them more credit than they may seem to deserve.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Silly cat videos and my silly cats.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate cake for breakfast.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Delete—I like getting rid of extra fluff, and it’s fun to write out. Whee!

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Either the semicolon or the interrobang (mostly for the name).

What is your dream vacation destination?
Istanbul.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Read up until the present and then put it back on the shelf. I’ve always preferred surprises.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Mellifluous—it sounds and feels like its meaning.

Who are your favourite poets?
Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
The Waves, by Virginia Woolf.

What is your favourite book genre?
Literary fiction.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Emma Watson.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Stars, Death Cab for Cutie, Barenaked Ladies.