Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, who writes under the pen name Melissa Yi, recently released the ninth book in her murder medical mystery series of books, White Lightning. The book was inspired by a play she wrote while attending a playwriting class at George Brown College.
White Lightning follows the story of Hope Sze, a medical resident who is on vacation with her fiancé as well as her co-worker and friend, Tori Hope, as the group are enjoying their time by the fire when they notice something that doesn’t belong inside. Their discovery sends Hope and the others into an adventure of mystery and murder.
Melissa Yi’s latest novel is based upon a class project she did while at GBC.
Yi said that the play she based it upon was for a ten-page play assignment she had to write for her course at George Brown. The play was focused on early historic London and the children who would clean out people’s chimneys.
Yi decided to enroll in the playwriting course due to its professor, Rosamund Small. Small is a playwright who has worked on various projects outside of George Brown. She was a member of the Soulpepper Academy, a resident at the theater company Outside the March, and a junior story editor for the CBC and Netflix series Workin’ Moms. Her play Vitals was awarded the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Play.
“I’ve always wanted to work with her, So I was excited that she had a class George Brown College,” said Yi. “I wanted to work with somebody who was actively writing plays now and not studying Greek theatre. I wanted to work with people who were contemporary.”
When asked about advice she might have for current students at George Brown who are looking to be authors, or those who have an interest in writing, she said: “Being a student is a great time because you’re learning by definition, and you’re surrounded by other people who are interested and hopefully passionate about the same things as yourself.”
She said that managing your time and finances can be hard as a student. She was always told that her field wouldn’t be profitable. Yi said that this was a huge reason why she ended up doing two tracks, one in medicine and one in writing.
“I believe that if I put as much work as I had into my writing as I did with medicine, which was day and night, then I could have had some success with it. And then I just had to work at another job to support myself,” said Yi. “If you love what you’re doing, keep doing it. But just be sure you have a way to keep a roof over your head”.
Yi appreciated that George Brown College offered the playwriting course online, as it made it far more accessible for someone like her who was around four to five hours away from Toronto. She was thankful that it enabled her to experience new things and meet new people.
