SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Following his retirement in 2007, David Malcolm wanted to start focusing on his love of writing, and what better way to do this than apply to be the writer in residence at the Yellowknife Public Library?

The Yellowknife Public Library's latest writer in residence, David Malcolm, works on a story in the Writer's Room. - Charlotte Hilling/NNSL photo

"I though to myself, well, if I can become a writer in residence, that will allow me to focus on writing, by helping other people with their writing," said Malcolm.

The 69 year-old took on the position in early June, and since then has been dividing his time between mentoring budding writers and working on his various projects.

He currently helps about five aspiring writers – ranging from teens to retirees – who are working on projects from fiction to non-fiction, to memoirs. And he's impressed with the calibre of writing.

"The quality of most people's writing is better than they think it is. People are their own worst critics. The topics they're writing on are great," he said.

However, Malcolm is not just about literature, he also gives up his time for general tutoring.

"Because of my science background I've offered to help mentor people who simply want to improve their skills in physics and math," he said.

Malcolm, an engineer by trade, wrote in an academic capacity for years, but it wasn't until his 30s that he started to dabble in poetry, and his 50s when he got serious about fiction and non-fiction writing.

To date he has written several chapters for encyclopedic and reference-type books, but his first two major projects are being worked on currently.

One of his projects is his first novel, which he conceived of during the 3-Day Novel Contest that took place over the last Labour Day long weekend.

"It was a very interesting experience. I ended up only writing 64 pages, but it was a good enough story to try and develop into a novel," he said.

The story centres around the adventures of an unemployed scientist who has a very serious alcohol problem. The story sweeps from Saskatoon, and goes as far north as Tuktoyaktuk.

However, his major focus is an investigation into practical sustainable living in the North, which he intends to develop into a book.

"It's really looking at how we can minimize our dependence on outside resources and our consumer society – looking at it in terms of food, housing, energy. All the aspects of human security," he said.

The book will be fact-based, but he has not yet decided whether to keep the book purely non-fiction or make it creative non-fiction.

"It would mean that I may add characters and dialogue to the book, but I haven't decided yet," he said.

Malcolm said environmental issues creep into the bulk of his work, both fiction and non-fiction.

"I think it was my interest in climate change and the environment that got me interested in non-fiction writing ... But I use some of my own experience and knowledge in the areas of environmental science and so on, in order to spice up my fiction writing," he said.

While he was not a big writer as a child, Malcolm read "everything I could get my hands on," and became environmentally conscious at a young age after being introduced to the works of Ernest Thompson Seton, a wildlife author and artist.

"I fell in love with all those books ... He wrote a lot of non-fiction, but he also wrote a lot of fiction, or creative non-fiction," he said.

Malcolm will be writer in residence until the end of March 2010, at least. However, after that time he may be spending some time in Ecuador in an engineering consultancy role if a hydro project in the area is approved.