Jeanie duGal is the author of the crime novels Zem-Zem and The Indignity of Survival. As a journalist, Jeanie writes for the Island WORD newspaper in Comox Valley on the east coast of Vancouver Island. During many years of wandering wide-eyed in British Columbia, she has never been shot at, nor has she been beaten by police, shipwrecked or pronounced clinically dead. She has a high school diploma, but does not have a driver’s license. In non-writing gigs, Jeanie leads Community Kitchens, food skill and frugal living workshops, and speaks on food security and related issues. Jeanie also volunteers her talents in the fight against poverty and homelessness. Current projects are editing the next crime novel in the Catloop Chronicles: Stray Cats, the non-fiction, The Purposeful Pantry: eating & living with intention, as well as a mixed media work, Begets: Warsaw/Jenin.