20 QUESTIONS

1 .What is your full name?

Michael Wade Crummy.

2 .Where and when were you born and where do you live today?

I was born in Buchans, N.L., back in the Ming Dynasty. And I live today in St. John's, out in the East End.

3 .What is one thing you would like people to know about you?

I'm married to a seabird biologist and author Holly Hogan.

4 .What will people be surprised to learn about you?

People will be surprised to learn that I am married to seabird biologist and author Holly Hogan. She could clearly do better. She mostly works at sea now, doing sea bird surveys and that sort of stuff. And her book Message In A Bottle is mostly about her life at sea. And also about the issue of marine plastics.

5 .What is the hardest thing you've done?

The hardest thing I've done is writing my first novel, which was a complete nightmare. It was a year-long disaster and I only finished that book because I didn't want to quit. That book is called River Thieves.

6 .Can you describe one experience that changed your life?

The experience of being with my father while he was dying of cancer. I think that changed my sense of what I was capable of in terms of being there for someone else and I don't think I would be married and a father to my stepkids now if I hadn't gone through that.

7 .What is your greatest indulgence?

I don’t have a lot. But probably a couple of pints just about every evening.

8 .What is your favourite television series?

Of all time, I was going to say "Better Call Saul", but further back than that was actually "Da Vinci’s Inquest", the CBC show I still think that's one of the

best shows I've ever watched.

9 .What is your favourite movie?

Of all time, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Just one of the best scripts ever written and my favourite movie ending of all time.

10 .What music do you like to listen to?

I have become kind of an algorithm listener. That's incredibly lazy, but it's also like I don't listen to anything for very long. I'll find an artist who I absolutely

love and I will play the sh*t out of it. Until the algorithm suggests something else or I get sick of what I'm listening to, and then I'll move on.

11 .How do you like to relax?

evening, With a pretty couple much. of pints I have every started doing yoga very regularly. Which should be relaxing, but it feels like work. So,

it’s still the pints for me.

12 .Who would play you in a movie about your life?

We once had a babysitter who thought I look like Hugh Grant. I’m not sure I can see it but I’d take it.

13

.What is your greatest fear?

Climate collapse. Economic apocalypse. Donald Trump in the White House. All of the disasters that are looming over us. In my personal life, there's hardly anything that really worries me.

14 .What is your greatest joy?

One of course is the writing. And that’s fairly new, I always thought of writing as a fairly tortured process. I always loved having written, but the process of writing was never not something I would say I really enjoyed. But as I get older it feels more and more like that’s something I really love spending my time at.

The other thing is the is the family, having time to spend with my wife Holly and with our kids, and our dog and our cat .

1 5 .What is your most treasured possession?

I was stumped by this one when I did 20 Questions 25 years ago. I’m going to say our little house out in Western Bay. It was something that Holly forced me to sign on to about 20 years ago and it's become the place I love spending time the most.

Twenty-five years ago, I said my computer.

16 .What is the best advice you got from a parent or mentor?

It was advice that was actually given to my brother, but I have taken it on as kind of my mantra. It was my dad's best man. Harry Fowler showed up at the house one day when my brother was being corralled into some job by my mother down in the basement.

And Harry said, ‘Now my son, f--k it up. And they'll never ask you to do it again.’

17 .What would you say is your best quality? And what would you say is

your worst quality?

My best quality I would say is that I’m fairly laid back, and it’s hard to get me really upset. I’m pretty good at rolling with stuff.

My worst quality is probably that I’m a lazy son of a b-tch and I'm quite happy doing nothing and that it's fine for me, but I think that's hard for the people around me sometimes.

18 .Where is your favourite place in the world?

Our little place in Western Bay is the place I'd love to be more than anywhere else.

19 .What advice would you give your 12-yearold self?

Now my son, f--k it up. And they'll never ask you to do it aga in.

2 0 .Which three people would join you for your dream dinner party, living or dead, doesn't matter?

I’ve never had any desire to spend time with someone I don’t know. My dream dinner would be my wife and our two daughters.