HS PAISLEY IS IN LOVE WITH STORIES. Growing up in a bi-racial blended family in Toronto, Canada, Paisley can remember well the shelves of books around the house. More importantly to her, she remembers the extensive collection of books on tape. That’s right, books on cassette tapes. She was obsessed. Listening to those stories, and writing her own, Paisley was hooked. From Harry Potter to Anne Rice, Jurassic Park to Kinsey Millhone, Paisley loved them all. But her love of stories is not what she’s best known for. At the age of 18, Paisley left her hometown to play basketball for the University of Ottawa. She graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts and three All-Canadian awards to her name. After university, she played a year of professional basketball in Germany. While there, she began to write her first full length novel. In the fall of 2014, Paisley hung up her basketball shoes, and went back to school. She spent a year in college before deciding to focus on her writing. A couple years later, Paisley realized she wasn’t done with basketball, and started training again. In the fall of 2016, she signed her second professional contract, this time in France. Basketball gave Paisley the freedom to write nearly full time. In her final year of professional basketball, Paisley self-published her first novel, Magic Required. Now, living in Ottawa, she works as a personal trainer and Crossfit coach. She still listens to audiobooks, no longer in cassette form, and writing whenever she can, but she is also investing her time in a few other areas. Paisley is an assistant coach with a local u19 Boys basketball team, she wrote a musical to the songs of her favourite band, and she recently started a YouTube channel. Paisley actively shuns the idea of staying in your lane and actively encourages others to do the same. Ignore the nay-sayers and “don’t let the muggles get you down.”