order to explore greater job opportunities for his brother. At this time, Huser finished grade twelve and began university. Completing two years of study, and having then settled into teaching junior high, he nourished his love for movies by obtaining a part-time job reviewing films for a popular Edmonton magazine, The Edmontonian. After three years of teaching, Huser realized he wanted to be an artist and enrolled at the Vancouver School of Art. Finishing a year of art school, Huser decided he would rather live in Edmonton, and he returned to teaching. It was his love for reading and writing that pushed him to be a teacher-librarian in elementary schools. When Huser was thirty three, he adopted a seven-year-old boy named Casey and from 1969–1970, he took part in creative writing seminars, at which time he began working on creative writing during his spare time. When he retired from teaching in 1996, he continued working on a young adult novel, Touch of the Clown, and he was hired back by the school board to make novel study packages for grades 3 to 7 students. In 2008, Huser moved to Vancouver, where he worked as a sessional for UBC's Education and Creative Writing faculties. Huser lives alone in his Vancouver home where he continues to mentor writing students and work on his own projects. Works Huser is a library-consultant-turned-author whose books have gained recognition and awards. His first novel Grace Lake (published in 1989 by NeWest Press), developed from an Edmonton Journal prize-winning play and was nominated for the W.H Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. His second novel, Touch of Clown, published by Groundwood in 1998, was awarded a Mr. Christie Silver Medal. Huser's third novel, Jeremy's Christmas Wish, was published in 2001 by Hodgepog. In 2003, Huser wrote the novel Stitches, which in the same year won the Governor General's award presented by Adrienne Clarkson. The book also achieved the Alberta's R.Ross Annett Award. In 2006, Groundwood published Skinnybones and The Wrinkle Queen, which was awarded a Governor General's silver medal. Aside from his novels, Huser has made an impact as the founder and developer of Magpie, an Edmonton Public Schools quarterly that showcased writing and graphics by students. Influences Huser reflects: "I'm often so influenced by books I read, books that are powerful and moving, that...I find myself thinking, ‘Oh, wouldn't it be great to write something like