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Blaine LeRoy
I was born in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada, in May of 1971 and raised by my father's parents from the time I was 2 years old. I had a very difficult childhood; developing a rare form of ...ver maisI was born in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada, in May of 1971 and raised by my father's parents from the time I was 2 years old. I had a very difficult childhood; developing a rare form of glandular cancer at the age of six, the majority of my early years were spent back and forth to the Hospital in Vancouver to receive treatment. My initial prognosis was two years with treatment, but I overcame the odds and went into remission at 10 years old. Being a sick kid precluded me from getting involved in sports, as I didn't have the stamina to keep up and was prone to injury, so by the time I went into remission I hadn't developed the skills to go out for organized sports like hockey. I was drawn to academics and the arts and fell in love with music and drama. I play five instruments and have sung lead in my own bands over the years, as well as performing in many musical theatre productions.My last year of high-school, I started working as a radio dj at the local country station and that lead to a job at as afternoon drive announcer at a station in Courtenay on Vancouver Island after graduation. I spent two years there before finally emerging from that faceless little world of playing other people's music to standing front and center with a microphone singing my own. I eventually moved to Nanaimo, BC, started a band and began performing up and down Vancouver Island in the local night clubs. Everything seemed to be going very well, we were booked solid, had a strong following, were writing our own music, and looking to take the next step to the recording studio, and then the rug was pulled out from under me. Twenty years after my initial cancer diagnosis I was diagnosed with Chronic Myloid Leukemia, potentially caused by my exposure to radiation from my childhood treatment. At the time, the only sure cure for the disease was bone marrow transplant, and having no full siblings, I have two half brothers from my father and a half sister from my mother, my only option was for an unrelated marrow transplant from the donor list which carries a 50/50 chance of success.My life spiralled out of control for a little while and I lost my way for a bit. Then I met my future partner of 15 years and we moved to the east coast together to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. In May, 1999 I entered the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax Nova Scotia and started my transplant procedure. I received my donor marrow on May 14, five days before my 28th birthday, and began down the long road of healing. In the first year of that recovery I had to stick pretty close to home while my new immune system built itself up and I nearly went crazy at first having no artistic outlet. I learned to paint with acrylics, and taught myself 3d computer animation.I devoured everything written by my favorite authors within a few weeks, and found myself searching for new things to read. While chatting on a Jack Whyte reader's forum a friend there suggested I write my own novel and I decided to give it a try. I combined my personal experience with bone marrow transplant with my love of vampire fiction and began writing Transfusion of Darkness in early 2000 and a year later I had a novel length work of fiction that felt like a large dose of personal therapy.I took a very half-hearted shot at finding an agent, but found the process extremely discouraging as most were only interested in hearing from writer's who were published and the only way, it seemed, to get published was to have an agent. I found it to be a very frustrating catch 22 that I lost interest in wasting my energy on so I tucked my novel away and occasionally shared it with close friends and family.All these years later I find myself living in Calgary, Alberta happily working in the landscape industry and still enjoying my artistic endeavors. The internet has changed the art world is unimaginable ways, and the access to tools and information has made some industries far more accessible to the "regular" guy. Talented singers can now film themselves on their phones and upload to the internet to find their audience and writer's can skip the agents thanks to sites like Smashwords. So I decided it is time for me to set my creation free and turn it out into the world for others to enjoy.ver menos