Home town: Timmins, ON
Current home base: Timmins, ON
While attending Georgian College and studying Interior Design, a Professor brought to my attention that I had a talent for writing. The notion to write though came to me in 2008 while working through mental health problems.
Publications
- A memoir titled Loving A Drummer, published in October 2012 with Blurb.ca under the pseudonym Aprilstar
- A memoir titled The Montpelier Reaching, published with lulu.com in March 2014
- A book of poems titled Rikka Shai: Here to Stay, published with lulu.com in April 2014
- …..And They Said She Can’t Play Guitar, published with blurb.ca in July 2014
- A memoir titled Exposed: Poverty Survival Handbook, published with Blurb.ca in January 2015
- Rikka Shai: Behind The Music, published with Blurb.ca in October 2015, is a mixture of non-fiction, memoir, poetry and entertainment
- Vanished: The Story of Studio Slicks, published with lulu.com in November 2016, is my first fiction attempt.
My latest release is Rikka Shai: Behind the Music 2, published with Amazon in November 2017.
I am also a musician, having released my first album in 2011. To date, I have 200+ songs in my collection, with four sixteen-song albums available for download on Apple Music. My stage name has evolved over the years, beginning as Aprilstar, then Rikka Shai in 2013. Now, I publish and record under my real name, Erika Pankiw.
Find me on Twitter via @RikkaShai
I’m also on YouTube: