I have always loved stories, but while reading good books is one of my greatest pleasures, nothing matches the feeling of creating a tale of one’s own. My mother encouraged me – when I was five she bought me a plastic typewriter, and I never looked back.

While researching material for an as yet unpublished novel, I discovered genealogy, and for a while writing took a back seat. The research was fascinating when looked at through a broad lens, marrying people to places and times, and always in the back of my mind imagining what the real story was, hidden behind the facts. Maybe it’s not surprising that as a child I shared with my sister and fellow author, Kristen den Hartog, not only the urge to write, but archaeological aspirations, since as adults we both love the challenge of a good mystery, and the hunt for the elusive. Archaeology wasn’t in the cards, but The Cowkeeper’s Wish is our second collaboration, presenting its own puzzles and secrets and things lost to time.

When I’m not digging through old ledgers I can frequently be found with a spade in the ground, playing in my gardens at my home in the Ottawa Valley where I live with my husband and our dog friend, Nese, and where I continue to write even without a plastic typewriter.