Nice to Meet You

My First Newsletter on Substack

I’m migrating my newsletter to Substack. It won’t be any work for you, dear reader, don’t worry.

For others who might discover me on Substack but haven’t known me previously, hello, bonjour.

Maybe it would help to tell you a bit about me:

I originally trained in theatre performance and spent 10 years as an actor in the Before Days. I did some theatre, I shot two movies with CBC and had a bit part on Street Legal (remember Street Legal?), and shot 3 beer commercials even though I have never drunk beer in my life. But the whole time, I was a closet writer. Being a writer seemed far too magical for me to ever be able to call myself such a thing.

Here’s a picture of me from one of the two films I shot with the CBC, The Private Capital—this is me playing an Ottawa débutante with co-star David Cameron. Yes, it was effin’ cold that day, shooting exteriors in Ottawa, I think. The two women acting as human earmuffs were the ever-awesome people from hair, makeup and wardrobe.

Then my husband, Kirk—you’ll hear more about him in a sec—got a gig playing a 7-foot dragon on a TVO/PBS show called The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon.

[That’s Kirk on a break on set. Being the dragon was an exhausting job, and it was 5000 degrees in that costume. Kirk would get velcro’ed into the suit, with his arm straight in the air up the dragon’s neck, and his hand holding up the head of the dragon, which weighed, I think, 7 or 11 pounds, I can’t quite remember. They had a PA whose job it was to run onto set once they called “CUT!” and unvelcro a dripping Kirk as fast as possible, and supply him with endless cold water bottles and Freezies.]

Anyway, with Kirk as Dudley, we suddenly had enough money for me to take 6 months off, write a screenplay, and submit to Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre. I was one of 5 screenwriters from across the country, and the CFC’s big advice—repeated almost daily by the programme director, Kathryn Emslie, was ‘you must never go back to your old way of earning a living.’ So I took the shot.

Kirk and I got our TV writing first gig together, writing 2 episodes of Dudley, and I have worked as a full-time writer ever since. Now I make a living as a writer, story editor, consultant, and producer, across multiple platforms. I have written kids, tween, teen, and adult TV, live action and animation. I wrote for Degrassi, The Next Generation (an episode of which very kindly earned me The Alliance for Children and Television Award for Excellence), and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Fun fact: On Degrassi, I was writing for Drake before he was Drake.

I have been involved in dozens of TV episodes, both live action and animation. I’ve also written several movies for streaming, including Love at Look Lodge (aka Falling for Look Lodge for Hallmark), Cupids on Beacon Street (City TV/Amazon Prime) and the story for Ice Wine Christmas (Lifetime). And I’ve story edited two award-winning features for theatrical release.

I was Executive Producer and a writer for the comedy ZARQA on CBC Gem, and Supervising Producer for Nickelodeon’s Make It Pop, writing many of the show’s episodes. My other TV writing credits include The Smart Woman Survival Guide for W and Cosmo TV, Wingin’ It, earning me a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Writing in a Children’s/Youth Program, and the animated Anne of Green Gables.

My first novel, At Last Count, was released by Invisible Publishing in 2022, and is available at bookstores around the world. It was a finalist in the 2025 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writing Prize in the romance category and was named a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2022, a summer reads pick by the Toronto Star, a CanLit book club pick by Zoomer magazine, and an Editors’ Pick by 49th Shelf.

It is also available in eBook and audiobook formats. I was awarded CMF funds to develop it into a dramatic TV series. That development is still in progress, but wish me luck because it would make a really lovely TV series.

My second novel, a contemporary fiction/romance called Lost in France, was released in June 2026, distributed by Penguin Random House. It will come out in the UK via Bedford Square Publishers in 2027. And it has been optioned for TV. Yay!

“A cozy mother-daughter adventure that will have you dreaming of owning your own one-euro home in charming Mirabelle. Loved it!”
—Chantel Guertin, bestselling author of Two for the Road

Oh, and I co-wrote The Gymnastics Book: The Young Performer’s Guide to Gymnastics (Firefly) with former gymnast and NBC Colour Commentator Elfi Schlegel. It will not come as a shock to you to learn that I was not the gymnast in that co-writing situation—but this wonderful book for youth has provided royalties since the time it was published 26 years ago. It’s currently in its third edition, which even impresses me.

For the theatre, Kirk—an internationally known fibre artist specializing in knitting, actor and writer—and I co-run A Yarn or Two Arts Collective, dedicated to creating arts experiences that explore form and interdisciplinarity, and generate public discourse, empathy, and compassion. Together, we co-wrote The Knitting Pilgrim, a one-man multidisciplinary show and three-time Fringe critic’s pick which Kirk has performed over 120 times in 6 countries.

We also co-wrote Spycraft, a two-act, four-actor espionage thriller about a middle-aged Canadian woman who spies on the Nazis for Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive by knitting code into socks. That one toured Ontario in 2025.

Last but not least, Kirk and I have two wonderful kids. And that’s me—so far, at least. I hope you’ll stay tuned for more.

It’s nice to meet you.

Upcoming Events

My next 2 Lost in France book tour events are:

Fellow structure nerds, you might enjoy this

Script Breakdown with Nia Vardalos

Join The Writers Guild Foundation online on September 14 at 7pm ET/4pm PT for a special edition of WGF Library Script Breakdown celebrating the upcoming 25th anniversary of My Big Fat Greek Wedding with writer and star Nia Vardalos.

WGF Librarians Javier Barrios and Lauren O’Connor will take an in-depth look at the My Big Fat Greek Wedding screenplay, examining description, dialogue, character voice, and text. As we go through the pages together on screen, we’ll learn about Nia’s process for writing this beloved film.

The Zoom webinar starts at 4:00 pm PT. RSVP today!

Remember she’s Canadian, friends. She wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 2002. It was a sleeper hit, grossing $368.7 million worldwide against its $5 million budget, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2002. Based on a one-woman show she created about her life in Winnipeg marrying a non-Greek man, Hollywood execs and celebrities saw it, including Rita Wilson, who herself has Greek heritage. Wilson convinced her husband, actor Tom Hanks, to see it, and his production company, Playtone, ended up producing it, with Nia in the lead role. It was shot in Toronto and Chicago, and nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. (source: Wikipedia).

Until next time, keep reading and writing.

Claire

Upcoming Events

Fellow structure nerds, you might enjoy this

“Unfortunately, my taste in libraries requires me to book a ticket to France.”