Danika
wrote her first book, Brace Face, at 6 years old.
It was a gripping tale about how a young girl
overcame the brutal taunting of her elementary school classmates. She sold 4 copies door-to-door and
spent the money on ice-cream.
She began her second book at age 14 (a gripping tale about how a geeky teenager overcame the brutal
taunting of her high school classmates) but it was going to take too long to write, so she switched
to poetry (Plan B).
As a senior in high school, she wrote her final English exam
essay on Moby Dick in the form of a ballad. The praise from her
teacher convinced her that being a poet was the quickest way to fame and
fortune. After obtaining her B.A. in English from California Lutheran University,
she decided she better have a Plan C while her poetry career was developing, so
she stayed at CLU for a teaching credential in Language Arts. She later received
her M.F.A in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
, where she explored experimental and performance poetry.
She began an
on-going collaborative writing project called The 3:15 Experiment, and convinced dozens of poets to
join her so she would feel less lonely when up writing in the middle of the night.
In 1995 Danika moved to
Seattle and decided the next best way to fame and fortune was working in
non-profit arts administration (Plan D). She co-founded the Northwest SPokenword LAB
(SPLAB!)
and established the
first teen poetry slam in Washington State. She went on to direct the Seattle Poetry Festival and the
Emerging Voice artists-in-the-schools program.
While in Seattle she began working on Plan E, which was to become a rich and famous screenwriter.
She
received her Advanced Certificate in Screenwriting at the University of Washington and moved to… Canada.
Since moving to Vancouver,
BC, six of her short scripts have been produced (three of which she
co-produced and two of which she directed) and she has co-produced and directed
a children’s music video. (Rumor has it her feature script Limbs
will be filmed in Fall 2008.)
After completing her sixth feature film script, Danika decided to go back to her original Plan A and finish
her second book.
Because she
supports recycling, and it was easier than starting a story from scratch, she
decided to adapt of one of her own screenplays. In 2006, her novel Brigitta of the White Forest
was born.
Danika hopes that one day soon she will become an overnight success.
P.S. In addition to writing every
day, Danika is Director of SoMedia's IAM
Network of Internet TV sites, teaches at Vancouver Film School, and is President
of Women In Film and
Television Vancouver
. Sometimes, she
forgets to eat and to sleep.