I was raised in a small farming community in central Alberta, Canada.  My dear late mother inspired my love for the written word. A voracious reader, Mom was so committed to ensuring her children were well read, she started the first library in our town to be certain we had a steady supply of literature. Thanks to her, I became an avid book-junkie and remain one to this day.

I firmly believe reading builds strong writing.  In the words of best-selling novelist, Stephen King:

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

I began my writing career as a lawyer. Like most in my former profession, I didn’t write a little - I wrote a lot. It still astounds me the volume of paper necessary to advocate a position on behalf of a client.  Usually, there’s much riding on the ability of lawyers to persuade through their written craft, although in my case nothing as dramatic as life or liberty.  I was a real estate/corporate commercial solicitor and cut my author’s teeth on drafting briefs and legal opinions. During my years of practice I often warned friends, “If you get thrown in the slammer, don’t waste your phone call on me unless, while you’re incarcerated, you’d like to subdivide some property, enter into a joint venture, or negotiate a commercial contract . . . .in that case, I’m your gal.”

While still a lawyer in theory, in reality I do everything but practice law. I am a travel, sports and outdoor enthusiast and a serial adventurer. You can usually find me riding my bike in the Pyrenees or across India, cresting the summit of Kilimanjaro, paddling the Yukon River, practicing yoga in Bali, competing in an Ironman Triathlon or trekking the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. But my greatest passion is writing…

Admittedly, it was a struggle, but I managed to banish the snooze-worthy herewithsthereunders and other legalese from my prose. My work, including travel, arts & culture and lifestyle articles, has been published in a number of Thompson-Okanagan based magazines, including Okanagan Life and Mint Magazine and I am a regular freelance contributor to Okanagan Woman Magazine.

My current project-in-progress is fiction, a mystery involving a tough, quirky lady lawyer who becomes entangled in a murder when she defends her twin brother accused of killing a Catholic nun. Stay tuned as I finish the final edits.

I live with my  husband, gratefully immersed in the natural beauty of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada near my family and tribe of fabulous friends.  

I love to laugh, savour delectable eats and sip fine wine - preferably at the same time. And for the record, it is my sincere belief wine is to women as duct tape is to men - it fixes everything!

Cheers,