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 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 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.

Volunteer role: Programs chair

Company name: West Coast Editorial Associates

Website: westcoasteditors.com

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Greed is not good (unlearning what I learned in business school).

What is the best book you read in the last year?
By Gaslight, by Steven Price.

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

What is your guilty pleasure?
British detective shows on Netflix.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Malta.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
A particular spot on a particular beach on Lake Winnipeg.

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

Volunteer role: Event volunteer

Company name: Bluestocking Freelance

Website: bluestockingfreelance.wordpress.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Rachel McAdams, Natalie Portman, and Kristen Bell (but I sure don’t see it).

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
To be true to myself and not compromise on my values.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
My partner, always.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Birdie, by Tracey Lindberg.

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

What is your guilty pleasure?
Baked goods.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Delete! (Said in the voice of a Cyberman.)

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Anywhere hot and sunny: the Mediterranean, Bali, Zanzibar, Morocco…

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?
Throw it away.

What is your favourite word? Why?
When you discover new words all the time, it’s hard to pick a favourite.

Who is your favourite poet?
Andrea Gibson.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
The Lower Mainland.

What is the last book you read?
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.

What are your favourite book genres?
Drama, thriller, dystopian/science fiction/fantasy.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Kristen Bell.

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

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor copy editor

Company name: I Can Edit

Website: editican.wordpress.com

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Follow your intuition.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab.

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

What is your guilty pleasure?
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Mint chocolate bar.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Delete mark.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Question mark.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Mongolia.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Adventure, because, I think, with every adventure comes a great story.

What is the last book you read?
I am Woman, by Lee Maracle.

What are your favourite book genres?
Science fiction and fantasy.

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

Volunteer role: Event volunteer

Company name: Juniper Editing & Creative

Website: juniperediting.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Pass!

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Life is short but also long; do what you can to get to where you want, but know that you’ll get there either way if you just keep trying.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
In this order: my husband, cats, cat videos, all happy animals, all happy animal videos.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Very difficult to answer, but Difficult Women, by Roxane Gay, is one of the most brutally honest and moving collections of short stories I’ve ever read. The way the stories hop from one (extreme) genre to another—from dark, devastating realism to fairy tale and back again—is very artfully done. It’s no easy feat to fit such potentially disparate work into a cohesive whole.

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

What are your guilty pleasures?
I’m all for indulgence and a little luxury—a lazy Sunday morning that becomes an all-day read-a-thon, strong coffee, tart pastries, a bottle of good gin, a plentiful fire in the grate on a cold day—though I do my best to avoid guilt in my life at all times. 😉

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Delete. It’s swirly and feels whimsical to shape.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The semicolon. It promises to reveal something to the reader without using superfluous words to do so. I think of it much like a keyhole; what’s on the other side is often very rewarding.

What is your dream vacation destination?
French Polynesia, please.

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—and edit—it!

What is your favourite word? Why?
Articulate: it’s a noun, an adjective, and a verb. It’s supremely onomatopoeic (one must be articulate even to say ar-tic-u-late) and is an act and a quality that both people and objects may own.

Who are your favourite poets?
John Keats, Charles Baudelaire, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Maya Angelou, Anne Sexton.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver Island, my home.

What is the last book you read?
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, by Heather O’Neill. #ReadtheNorth!

What are your favourite book genres?
Literary fiction and classics.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Anyone with a sense of humour, I imagine.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Blink 182.

Volunteer role: Professional development committee member

Company name: Q Book Editing

Website: joelbain.com/bookeditor

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Haley Joel Osment.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Our ability to stomach the truth doesn’t change whether something is the truth.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Puns and wordplay.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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

What is your guilty pleasure?
Hawaiian pizza.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Delete.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Naples, Italy.

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 read it and then decide if I wanted to share it with the world. 😉

What is your favourite word? Why?
Bozo—such great syllables together. Always makes me laugh whenever I hear it.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
What’s So Amazing About Grace?, by Philip Yancey.

What is your favourite book genre?
Biography.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Jesse Eisenberg.

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

Volunteer role: Volunteer coordinator and event volunteer

What is the best book you read in the last year?
I’m currently rereading Grimms’ Fairy Tales. I love the absurdity of some of the stories. I recently read one about a hot dog who was a cook and used her body to stir the soup.

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

What is your guilty pleasure?
Rooster’s Ice Cream or cake from Trafiq Café & Bakery. Both in Vancouver.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
The delete symbol, because you get to make a little swirl.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The period.

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?
While I’d love to read about my earlier life and see how much I remember, I would not want to know the future. So I’d probably burn it.

Who are your favourite poets?
I don’t really have a favourite poet, but I really liked White Stone, by Stephanie Bolster. I also really like Gregory Scofield.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
The last thing I finished was an audiobook of Elena Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child.

What is your favourite book genre?
Romance novels with captor/captive fantasies.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Claire Danes (but hopefully with not that much crying).

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

Volunteer role: Member services chair

Company name: Red Pencil Confidential

Website: Coming soon!

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

What are your guilty pleasures?
Fancy loose tea and new essential oils for my diffuser. When I feel that afternoon slump coming on, I use one or both to keep me on track.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Reverse words or letters.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
I find myself using em dashes quite regularly. I like the elegance of the extended line.

What is the last book you read?
Jar City, by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason. It’s the first book in the Detective Erlendur series.

What is your favourite book genre?
Mystery. The first chapter book I ever read was a Nancy Drew mystery. I’m currently working my way through various series set in northern Europe and the U.K.