I'm proudly Canadian but I live in Mexico, high in the mountains where the climate is just about perfect, in a small town with lots of culture...and lots of great musicians and salsa dancing. Woot! I'm one of the lucky ones - I've never been abused (except by myself), but when I learned that many friends were abused as children and saw how challenging life was for them, the result was ANGRY ENOUGH TO KILL. Since then, I've discovered the magic of characters who come to life, I hear their voices. I should be committed, and I am--to entertaining by creating page-turners for the thinking man (and woman.) My English teachers throughout public and high school always said I should be a writer, but I didn't believe them (a typically insecure teenager). I'm sure glad I finally listened, and I hope you will be, too. You probably already know that reading fiction makes you smarter, prevents Altzheimer's, is good for your health, relieves stress, opens your mind to possibilities, makes you more tolerant, gives you a more positive outlook on life...or is this fiction? BTW, writing does this, too        

I won two writing contests sponsored by the Canada Council of the Arts and the BC Arts Council, in the literary and crime fiction categories.