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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.
Thoughts on Writing
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.
Thoughts on Travel
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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