I grew up on a beef farm on the mighty Rainy River near Fort Frances, Ontario, where I shadowed my father, where I tagged along behind him day after day and he taught me many things with his thoughtful patience. It was an idyllic place to grow. Bonnie Brae Farm. A place that defines me.

I am the mother of four daughters who provide endless grist for my writing and who amaze me regularly with their abilities and beauty.

I lost my father, my hero, much too early, before I was ready to go ahead on my own, and it is from that place of remembering that I write.

And perhaps I write for my mother, whose long and difficult battle with Alzheimer's has just ended, who, before she forgot the wonderful details of herself, her musical magic, her easy laugh and her enthusiasm for life, she forgot me; I was the first memory to slip away into a place from which she could not retrieve me. So yes, I write for my mother.

My novel MEADOWLARK was released by NeWest Press in fall of 2015.