About the Author
I grew up in
Kingston,
Ontario, the youngest of five children. I studied political science at
Queen's
University and environmental studies at York University before moving
to the Ottawa area to work in the conservation movement.
Working on environmental issues was interesting, frustrating, and rewarding. But eventually, I quit office life to raise children and write freelance - both of which I still do. I sometimes miss my old work and feel like I should be doing more with my life. Sigh.
I live in Quebec with my husband, Geoff, and our children, Sawyer and Daimon. We live with our old dog, Charlie, and our young cats, Isis and Playdoh. We have a little house with a big yard full of rodents, rabbits, and the occasional fox and falcon. It is inspiring.
I write reports for corporate clients to help pay the bills. I enjoy all kinds of writing, but I get irritable if I don't take the time to write fiction regularly. I think up stories while walking my dog, exercising, and staring out of windows.
I like to write funny things and sad things. I'm not much good at any other kind of thing. I don't always understand what I write until I've written it and read it back a few times. When I write something well, I feel more like its witness than its creator.
Odds and Ends
I like yoga, drums, and swimming with flippers on my feet. I quilt by hand in front of the television while watching So You Think You Can Dance. I make good cookies and great salads. I take awesome photographs of mushrooms.
I love wildlife, music and museums. I don't care about houses, clothes, or celebrity gossip. I hate fashion magazines, but I sometimes read them in waiting rooms and find them hard to put down. I love to read aloud (books, that is, not fashion mags).
If I had to choose between books and music (only one for the rest of my life), I'd choose music. (Because I can make up my own stories, whereas I'm hopeless at every instrument I try, and no great shakes on vocals, either.)
