Featured Author Wayne Van Sickle As a child, Wayne Van Sickle dreamed of learning how to speak all of the world's languages and mastering every musical instrument known to man. Unfortunately for him, not a single person in his family could speak anything but English, and none of them could carry a tune either. After years of hard work Van Sickle has become competent with a guitar, and through great perseverance he taught himself French while living in Calgary. He once worked with a private Mandarin teacher for a month, but soon abandoned that ambition after an embarrassing attempt to speak Mandarin with a shopkeeper in Calgary's China Town. The first book he ever wrote was a German language guide to Algonquin Provincial Park - a language he can neither read nor write. Wayne has traveled extensively in both North America and abroad. One of his more memorable trips has already been featured in the Summit Studios anthology I Sold My Gold Tooth for Gas Money, and is the tale of a mountaineering expedition to southern Florida. (Yes, we know there are no mountains in southern Florida. Apparently he didn't.) You can now find Wayne in the recently released A Beaver is Eating My Canoe, where he details an adventure of the wild kind while camping on Vancouver Island. You can also find him in the pages of I Learned Kung Fu from a Bear Cub, where he describes how he (accidentally) sent his friend to Alaska without toothbrush, passport ... or pants. Wayne and his partner Val recently moved to Akalvik, Northwest Territories, where they are working as teachers. < Back to Writer Spotlight Main Page
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