I live on a ranch in a tiny community called Bridge Lake with my husband Larry and my daughter Meghan. Just like Ellie and Max in my pioneer series, our house is right beside a lake. All kinds of wildlife visit us on the ranch: bears, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, marmots, pine martins and weasels. Beavers and muskrats swim back and forth in front of our house. Once we even had a skunk! We hear wolves howling quite often but they are very shy and we only catch glimpses of them. Wild animals are not the only animals who live here. We have five horses called Magic, Montana, Tippy, Richard, and Skipper,  and a dog called Robin and a cat called Cookie.

My joy of writing began when I was a child. An avid reader of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, I started scribbling my own mystery series at 11 years old. I took a long break from writing when I became a teacher. However, reading wonderful books out loud everyday to young children in schools inspired me one day to give it a try myself - and I've never looked back!

My first books, My Homework is in the Mail and School Campout,  drew on experiences right out of the classroom and I still find my students a great source of ideas! A fascinating story in a magazine about young children immigrating to Upper Canada in the 1800's sparked my interest to do further research and my Max and Ellie series about a pioneer family was born.

My daughter Meghan is an avid reader and writer of fantasy, and she urged me to try my hand at the fantasy genre. That was the beginning of the Enchanted Theater series, a fantasy tale about a boy and a cat who travel back in time to Ancient Greece. The fourth book in the series will be published in 2008.!

I have a lot of fun writing for younger readers, but I have always had a secret wish to write longer novels. My first 'long' novel, Never To Be Told,  is a mystery for girls and boys ages 9 to 12. The first part of the book takes place on a remote  ranch in the Cariboo in British Columbia (very much like our ranch in Bridge Lake) and the second part takes place in West Vancouver (where I grew up!)

I try to write every day, in between a busy family life and teaching career, and I love the initial stages of a story best when everything is new and full of promise. For breaks, I ride my horse on our ranch, garden, hike, ski and read, read, read!