Curse Bound (Mist Warden #2)

I've been making up stories since I was very young and make-believe was my favourite form of play. I learned to read when my older brother did and immersed myself in as many new worlds as I could find. After I read Watership Down at age 6, my Mum stopped worrying about encouraging me to read and started worrying about how to get me to stop.

I remember being told that the made-up worlds I loved were a child's conceit that I would need to grow out of if I wanted to succeed in life. The older I get, the more I realise how utterly wrong this is. In just the past few millennia, humans have moved from chipping tools out of stones to space exploration and heart transplants. Every step on that path was driven by someone who imagined something that didn't exist and someone who believed they could make it reality.

As an author, I want to do my part to bring back a feeling of optimism in the ability of humans to solve our own problems, to grow and become better than we are today.

My insatiable curiosity about people and culture developed at an early age, and was likely the result of many European misadventures and my experiences living in England, Denmark, and Canada. There is nothing like playing among the columns of a Bronze Age palace surrounded by the sapphire waters of the Mediterranean to pique an eight year old's interest and imagination.

I focused my University studies in Classical Archeology and Literature, Physical Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminology. For those of you questioning my use of the word 'focused' …well, you'll just have to trust me when I say that I couldn't file my interests down to any sharper a point. I tried. The yearly course lists crammed with intriguing possibilities made me feel like a kid in a candy store – one of those really big stores with colorful jars lining the walls from floor to ceiling.

My career path has continued in the same vein. I was my grandmother's caregiver for two years; an opportunity for which I am ever grateful as spending that time with such a remarkable woman shaped me in ways I am still discovering. Among other things, I've been a vet assistant, worked at a halfway house for high-risk offenders, sat on many kids as a mascot, been the operations manager for a private investigation firm, and spent several months in Ontario with the Red Cross helping refugees from Kosovo acclimatize to Canada. I've also volunteered within maximum-security prisons and the community to help people serving life sentences transition from the regimented bubble of prison back to a very changed outside world.

Why I Write

Simply put – I write to explore, express, and connect. I delve into the web of relationships linking humans, animals, and the environment. I peer into my characters inner worlds and explore the inherent violence and compassion bound together in the human spirit. My guiding principle is that the human mosaic is beautiful because of the unique nature of each piece and I do my best to celebrate this diversity in my work.