I grew up in rural southern Ontario, exploring the forests there and imagining what the lives of the animals that lived there were like. A student trip to the reef in Belize in first year university got me hooked on studying marine invertebrates. There was something marvelous about studying animals that had all these novel ways to breath, eat, move around and reproduce. Upon moving to Calgary, I had the opportunity to spread my enthusiasm for these strange creatures to university students at the University of Calgary. Since then I've worked at a science center and now am an educator at a brand new urban ecopark in Calgary.
My day job combines two of my passions, biology and teaching, while writing has become the third passion. Rogue Harvest is my first published novel and I hope you'll have a chance to read many more from me over the next few years. Click here to learn about my next project.
To succeed as a writer, seize the Ifwit! Or a member of your friendly neighbourhood serious writer's group. It's what seems to work for most people. I've been an Ifwit (a member of the Imaginative Fiction Writer's Association) for at least 10 years, taking advantage of these fellow scribblers as a support group to strengthen both my writing skills and my resolve to be a published writer. Although writing is often a joy, in order to get a lot of it done, writing needs to become a compulsion or an obsession as well. Having people around who understand these things is a wonderful support. And then I love spending time with my characters and feel a great responsibility to tell their stories well.
An invaluable part of my education has been my travel to places like the East and West coasts of Canada as well as a number of more tropical coasts such as Australia's barrier reef. Travel with open eyes, open mind and open heart is the most effective way to learn about this world.
My love of biology and love of travel was really sparked by a first year university trip to Belize with professors who could tell me about all the things I saw there. When we got to the part of the trip where we spent five days on a tiny island on the barrier reef, I was hooked. We slept on the beach and spent eight hours a day in the water snorkeling and I knew I had to learn all about the strange creatures that created the reef and those that lived there.
That trip also taught me how to travel. Our class went to a mountain village where the native people lived in huts. I think now that the trip leader wanted us to learn about how people in other parts of the world live. He didn't call them primitive or unintelligent or even unhappy, they just lived in a very different way.
Each time I've traveled, I've gone with an insatiable curiosity abut these natural worlds and a need to understand the ecology of each place as much as possible. As well as to remind myself that the way we live in the western world is not the only "right" way to live. Travel balances my life--reminds me what, in the very complex world we live in, is really important.
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