Words and Stories

Photo by Dani Cyr Creative

I'm a fiction writer and a songwriter. I'm currently working on a mystery novel set in London, England, two months after the 1942 Dieppe Raid.

I wanted to set a story during World War II because my parents and my husband's parents grew up in England during the war. I live in Canada though, so I wanted the story to have a Canadian angle. I also wanted to write about women in wartime.

My research led me to Dieppe, a disastrous raid that was to become Canada's deadliest day of the war. It also led me to amazing stories of what women experienced during the war, and I started to outline a Dieppe Raid novel. 

My fiction and poetry have appeared in print and online publications and have been included in anthologies and chapbooks. You can check out one of my flash fiction stories here. My novel about Dieppe was honoured by Crime Writers of Canada in 2020 with an award for the best unpublished crime manuscript of the year. The novel was also shortlisted by the UK's Crime Writers' Association for the 2022 Debut Dagger award for the opening of an unpublished crime manuscript, and it received the runner-up honour of being "highly commended." 

When I'm not writing fiction, I love to write song lyrics and melodies. 

I'm fortunate to have been born and raised in Victoria, BC, on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. The historical relationships of these Indigenous Nations with the land and sea continue to this day, and I'm grateful to continue to reside on these lands.