Welcome!

My name is Stephen G. Parks. You’ve probably never met me and that’s fine. It’s a big world and you haven’t met most of its inhabitants. I’ve lived an unusual life, on four continents and in communities both well-off and under-developed.

I grew up in a region of Canada known as Southern Ontario. It was a place of many opportunities. I volunteered at the local community cable TV station, learning camera work, lighting and how to wire a mic.

Later, in university, I started my own newsletter, making fun of the student politicians and the school’s rather staid newspaper. When a group of students decided to start a second newspaper, they sought me out and asked if I wanted to participate. Within 2 years I was the editor.

After uni, I fell into the position of editor of a weekly entertainment paper, helping them transition to desktop publishing. I becoming the production manager for a small chain of non-editorial papers. Again, I led the transition from traditional paste-up to desktop publishing. This was where I learned Photoshop. Once we were successful, we were bought out by a large competitor, and my team was let go en masse.

Fortunately, I had trained myself on html. I landed a position with a new company that would become one of Canada’s top new media firms. This was where I was mentored in User Experience Design.

There I would have stayed if not for a personal tragedy. Reevaluating my life, I realized that I had two goals to achieve. The first was a nebulous “Go to Africa and make a difference.” The second was to become the author I’d always wanted to be.

Since then, I’ve lived an unusual life, on four continents and in communities both well-off and under-developed.

One common thread throughout my life is that I’ve been a storyteller: I drew my own comic books as a youth; I wrote fiction as a teen; I was a journalist in university and beyond; later, I defined information flows as an information designer; I communicated language as an ESL teacher; and I’ve shone a light on some very deserving people as a communications specialist and fundraiser for educational charities in Africa.

Now it’s time to focus on my stories. And I’ve got a number to tell…