That one is called 'Another Kind of Cowboy'. The story was initially about two girls, but soon I fell in love with a secondary character, a boy named Alex, and the book became mainly about him. (In retrospect, I'm not sure why I would have thought that.) Anyway, I got a nice pay day when Alice, I Think was made into a TV series, and the first thing I did was rush out a buy a horse and start working on a book about two young dressage riders. I quit riding when I left home to go to college, but part of me always thought I could have been a 'contender'. I owned several horses over the years (for a time when I was quite young I was convinced I was a horse, but let's keep that between us) and I became obsessed with an equestrian sport called dressage. I was a lunatic for horses when I was younger. I've always admired people who can do that.Īfter finishing three books about Alice and her family, I decided that my goal is to write every kind of book I love to read.

I wanted to create a character who has the courage and integrity to find her own way and define herself independently of other people. The Alice MacLeod series is my homage to oddballs. When I first started writing my intention was to write a book about a teenager who doesn't fit in, but doesn't allow that fact to crush her. This writing became my first novel, 'Alice, I Think', which was published by Thistledown Press in 2000. When I was twenty, until I got myself together and when I was about 26 I started writing, in the morning before work, first on the bus, then in a coffee shop. That time in my life is the subject of my memoir, 'Nice Recovery'.

Okay, that’s not true, but I did get seriously sidetracked. When I was a kid I wrote fiction but gave it up for a life of crime. Later, I did a master’s degree in publishing. After graduating I became an editor at a self-help/how-to book publishing company based in Vancouver. I had a brief and unsuccessful career as a fashion design student and, after I worked at a series of low paying jobs, such as server, record store employee, etc., I began a degree in English Literature at University of Toronto, which I finished at the University of British Columbia. I was raised in Smithers, BC, Canada and lived there until I moved to Toronto at age 20.

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