I married in Oxford, England and raised three children in Canada. When my children were young I wrote poems and articles for magazines, as well as talks for radio and television. I also produced three music cassettes of Lullabies with the Lullaby Lady to encourage parents to sing to their babies. The first became a Gold Record in 1998 selling over 50,000 copies in Canada. (see Other Activities)

I was 66 years old and a widow when I wrote my first novel for children. Wishing Star Summer (2001) tells the story of my son's family hosting a ten-year-old girl from Belarus for a health respite visit. Ten-year-old Jillian learns the hard way how she can help her guest to regain her health and find happiness in Canada. The book was on the B.C. Children’s Bestsellers list for 21 weeks and has had three printings.

I was enormously proud of my RCMP father, but I never thought I would one day write his life story. It was only after he died, that I learned my father had been sent to Canada at thirteen as a British Home Child. I travelled to England and Ottawa to do research, and Charlie: a Home Child's Life in Canada was published in 2009. It tells the true story of my dad who was just one of the 100,000 young British children sent to Canada between 1870 and 1938 as indentured farm workers. This biography for middle grade readers has received many award nominations, was a starred book in the CCBC Best Books and has had three printings. In 2018 the federal government voted to make September 28th an annual British Home Child Day in honour of the difficult journeys of these young children.

One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that you can write about your passion and one of my passions has been India which I’ve visited three times. My next book Follow the Elephant (2010) was a novel about 12-year-old Ben who is taken by his grandmother on an adventure quest in India to find her lost childhood pen pal. Ben encounters the dark mysteries of India, and the elephant boy-god Ganesh helps Ben come to terms with his own father’s death. The book won the Chocolate Lily Best Book award and the US Silver Moonbeam medal. It has been translated into Korean and has had two printings.

Rather tentatively meeting my first elephant in India

In 2013, I published my first picture book with Peanut Butter Press called Would Someone Please Answer the Parrot! The twins are seven when their sailor uncle gives them a talking parrot that causes a lot of trouble in the house. They love the parrot, but their parents do not. The children devise a plan to get their parents to let them keep the parrot. The book won the Manitoba Illustrated Book award and the Reader’s Choice award at the Rainforest of Reading, One World Schoolhouse Foundation.

My middle-grade novel Miles to Go was released in 2018. Based on a true event, the book tells the story of a friendship between two twelve-year-old girls in a small Saskatchewan town. In the spring of 1948, each girl faces a deep loss with the death of a family member. Anna makes a promise on her mother's deathbed to look after the newborn baby. Maggie, struggling with fears that she is adopted, loses her family ally, her beloved grandmother. Through the hard few months ahead the girls learn the meaning of loyalty and the value of keeping a promise.

A Boy From Acadie: Roméo LeBlanc’s Journey to Rideau Hall, a non-fiction biography was released in October of 2018 in French and English editions. It tells the story of a poor Acadian boy whose sister works as a maid to pay his fees to go to high school. He works hard to win scholarships, becomes a politician in Ottawa and is appointed Canada’s first Acadian governor general. Like the book about my father, it is the story of an ordinary Canadian who grows up to make a valuable contribution to his country.

Show us Where You Live, Humpback was released in May of 2021 with Greystone Kids. The book in free verse for children 3-7 years celebrates a child's connection with the magnificent humpback whales. In a call-and-response format a mother shares the wonder of the whales with her child and the child shows how he can swim, sing and blow bubbles just like the whales. With beautiful illustrations by Sakika Kikuchi, readers are left dreaming of the wonderful world we share with whales.

You will notice that I don’t write fantasy and I can’t write steampunk. Many of my books are based on real life and are about ordinary children who have extraordinary adventures and challenges in their lives.

I’ve been fortunate to be invited to speak to children at schools and libraries across the country. I love the classroom time with children, their enthusiasm and their lively questions. This is why I write.

I now live near the sea in Vancouver, B.C. My three children are grown and I have four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Visiting with them, reading and writing and walking are what I love to do every day.

Now that I think about it I realize there's a grandmother in almost every one of my books. I wonder why?