Ontario correspondent publishes teen romance

By Doug Koop  |  Editorial Director

Mags Storey signs a book at her launch in Toronto.

Add novelist to the list of Mags Storey's writing accomplishments.

ChristianWeek readers are already familiar with our Ontario correspondent's news and feature articles, which have graced every edition of this newspaper since she joined the team last fall. You already know how versatile her writer's instincts can be, moving effortlessly from hard news to touching personal stories to clear analysis with the tap of a key.

And now she's a published novelist--of teen romance, no less. If Only You Knew (Kregel) was released in February. More than 80 people came to the launch party and had a rip roaring good time at the Small World Café in Toronto.

"The wonderful thing about becoming a writer is that you can suddenly take all those horribly embarrassing moments from your past that you wished you'd never, ever lived through, and turn them into fiction," she writes in a blog post at MagsStorey.com. The scene from her life is hilarious (and embarrassing). The fictional replay is more believable.

In an online review, John Bowen of the Wycliffe Institute of Evangelism (who claims that he doesn't read very many teenage romances) credits Mags with making God "an interesting character, a character you might even get to like...

"So I like this book for its honest treatment of growing up, but particularly for doing this very difficult thing, of describing people figuring out what to believe, and getting to know God in a way that is not syrupy or clichéd and (even--if it doesn't sound too odd) very religious. That's quite a feat."

Mags describes herself as a writer, editor and journalist. Born in Canada, she grew up in the United States and the Middle East before studying journalism at Ryerson in Toronto. She has worked with a variety of publications, including several years as a reporter and editor with the Christian Herald newspaper and Families Together magazine in the U.K. She now lives near Toronto with her husband Mike and their two daughters.

ChristianWeek congratulates Mags on the publication of her first novel. We wish her every success, as long as she keeps writing for us as well.

*****

Mystery deepens: Another message arrived after last month's column on the "mystery caller." In fact, two voicemail messages were left. Alas, the second (presumably much longer) was inadvertently deleted before I had a chance to listen to it. I wait with bated breath.

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