The transition from poetry to television writing is not quite as big a leap as some, including poet and Gemini writer nominee Esta Spalding, might think.

Spalding, who is nominated for two Geminis for her writing on Da Vinci’s Inquest, is a former Toronto native. She moved out west with her husband several years ago. In search of a job, she applied as an office assistant in Vancouver writer/producer Chris Haddock’s office. She included some of her poetry books in her application. ‘Chris invited me to come to writer meetings and hired me as a story editor.’ A year later, she was on the writing team.

‘He was looking for people who didn’t think inside of the typical structure of television. My writing was very narrative, filled with cinematic images. It has a montage feel.’

Being a screenwriter taught Spalding to not be attached to any part of the process. ‘Chris is always pushing what he’s writing. Not just rewriting lines, but the whole intention of the show. You have to be able to question a script long past the point where you’re sick of it.’

Last year, Spalding left Da Vinci’s as the publishing deadline for Mere, the novel she wrote with her mother Linda Spalding, approached. Recently released, the book has received very positive reviews and now Spalding is busy working on two screenplay adaptations. ‘They combine my knowledge and love of literarture with my experience in scriptwriting,’ she explains.

One adaptation is a Triptych Media production of Barbara Gowdy’s Fallen Angels; the other a screen version of Merilyn Simonds’ book The Convict Lover, based on the true story of a young girl who conducts an epistolary love affair with a prisoner at the turn of the century.

She picked the projects partly because she loved the books, and also because she thought they would work on the screen. ‘You have to feel you want to live inside the book and bring it into the physical world. Screenplays have to be enacted through gesture,’ says Spalding.

She also found time to play, writing two episodes of the kids show The Zack Files, an experience she calls ‘amazing and inventive.’

There is also talk of Mere being made into a film. Spalding is mulling over suggestions she write the screenplay. What she is doing now is enough. For now.

As she says, ‘I am so excited to get up in the morning and sit at my computer and work as a screenwriter.’