In response to reader questions, I'd like to take this opportunity to share a few facts about myself. I was born in Chatham, New Brunswick, the second of three daughters. My parents were native Maritimers who called Moncton, NB their home.

My father was a military man who lied about his age to join the Air Force at a time when jobs were even more scarce on Canada's East Coast than they are today. I was privileged to grow up all across Canada, from small town Saskatchewan to Northern Quebec, from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Toronto, Ontario. Getting to know this country has had a major impact on who I am today. As an Air Force Brat, geography has always been an important aspect of my work. Likewise, being transplanted in a new environment every other year made it necessary for me to become an observer of human behaviour and motivation. This ability is expressed in the compassion that I feel for my characters and the challenges they face.

When my husband Alex and I travelled to Nanning in 2003 to adopt our youngest child, we were in awe of the exotic landscapes of Southeast Asia. The jungle-covered mountains that jutted from the horizon at every turn became the driving force behind the novel Gold and Fishes. Our beautiful 'daughter of China' inspired my current series, featuring Li Fa-ling, a Chinese-Canadian adoptee who returns to the land of her birth to discover her true life calling.

For as long as I can remember, writing has been my passion. I believe that my readers appreciate my integrity, tireless research, and the depth of the multi-faceted characters that I bring to the page. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Li Fa-ling series. The First Excellence invites the reader to share a journey into modern day China. We bear witness to a clash of cultures, the old ways forced to surrender to the 21st Century, as with excruciating pain a new country is born from the ashes of thousands of years of tradition.

My other passion is, without a doubt, my love for my family. I am never happier than when we are all gathered together, my husband, children, our extended family and friends, at our beloved cottage on Georgian Bay. It is there that I feel the full weight of privilege, the joy of belonging to a country that can still claim blue sky, green forests, and a peace that reaches into the centre of your soul.

Of course, the best of both worlds is when time finds me at the cottage with my laptop, working away on my latest novel...