Published: October 11, 2007
PJ Haarsma, Author of The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 chats with Judyth Piazza
By Judyth Piazza 
I began writing late in life. Thirty-eight felt late for me but I think I reached a point where I would try anything. It was very hard to get up in the morning and do what I was doing back then. I had a small production company, I made a movie and now I was shooting corporate spots for clients like Hewlett Packard and Nokia. I had been shooting stills or film for advertising clients for fifteen years. I was spent.
I began reading quite a bit then, trying to spark some creativity into my work again. This is when I began journaling. Next I started writing little stories, mostly about growing up. And then one morning JohnnyT appeared on my page. At first JT was just a bunch of little ideas. I'd always been a science nut, I have a degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, so I began attaching little tidbits of science to some of the ideas. My wife Marisa encouraged me to keep going and ten months later I finished the first draft.
A lot about The Softwire comes from my own experiences growing up. No, I never traveled on a seed-ship to Orbis but I did feel like I was a slave working in my parents ceramic factory as a teenager. In the summer I would slug 50lbs+ molds around while standing in a room with kilns firing at 1400 degrees. It wasn't fun and at the time I really resented my parents for it. I felt used and not in control of what I wanted. Probably like a lot of other kids my age then but hey, what did I know, I was fourteen.
Writing is my life now. I do it everyday. I think about my stories when I go to sleep and again when I get up in the morning. Writing and working on the Rings of Orbis (the game I created for the book) are the only things I do now and I love it.
For More Information: http://www.thesoftwire.com/
Source: The Student Operated Press
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