I’m not one of those people who kept a journal since they were ten, filled scribblers with short stories and plays, and always wanted to be a writer. I’m actually hopeless at keeping journals, and my writing has followed a twisting path, from writing letters as a kid, through the soft side of journalism to the wilds of fiction.

I was born in Perth, Scotland, and in a wave of adventurous spirit my parents moved to Toronto in 1966 with a four-year-old (me), a two-year-old (my brother Niall), and very large suitcases. Together, they built a wonderful life for us in Leaside. What better stomping grounds than Northlea Public School, Leaside High, the tennis courts, the skating arena and pool, and Serena Gundy Park? (Secret Number One: Though Somewhere in Blue is set in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, it was the hallways, cafeteria, biology lab and outdoor track of Leaside High that were in my mind as I wrote the school scenes of the novel.)

As I kid I was devoted to the series queens of the time, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew and even Cherry Ames (she was a mystery-solving nurse, and my babysitter gave me her old books). Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was a continuous library choice, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was a wonder. I played the piano a lot. I’d write letters to my relatives back in Scotland, thanking them for birthday and Christmas parcels filled with good British chocolate. I loved writing speeches for public speaking contests. I did keep a diary midway through high school, filling it with pitiful entries on whose locker I walked past and who didn’t say hi to me. In Grade 11, I asked a cute blonde athlete to dance and so began a long courtship. We married eleven years later. (Secret Number Two: Somewhere in Blue’s boyfriend character, Dan, has the same gentle, listening ear that I remember responding to in my husband when he was 16.)

A first-year music history course at the University of Toronto lured me into a degree studying music history and theory. Bored bussing tables at Alberta’s Banff Springs Hotel one summer, I offered to cover musical events at The Banff Centre for the local newspaper, The Banff Crag & Canyon, submitting articles hand-written and double-spaced on yellow newsprint. Seeing my first byline, I knew I wanted to pursue journalism and write about music. After a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Western Ontario, I became the music critic at the London Free Press (ask me sometime about meeting Johnny Cash and being publicly derided by Mel Torme!). Later, I moved into magazines. The naptimes and school schedules of two beautiful daughters allowed a freelance writing career for Canadian Living and Style at Home, and research and production work for television shows such as Craftscapes and Divine Design.

It was the magnificent picture books I read to those two daughters that galvanized me. I began Peter Carver’s Writing for Children course upstairs at Toronto’s Mabel’s Fables, a wonderful children’s bookshop. Peter shares the best of children’s literature with his students. Janet Lunn’s Amos’s Sweater, Margaret Mahy’s The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate, Barbara Cooney’s Miss Rumphius, and Kathy Stinson’s Red is Best are still unforgettable to me. My daughters loved hearing them, and I loved reciting their perfect sentences. I also loved writing creatively for the classes. I wrote the first few pages of Somewhere in Blue as an assignment, then the first four chapters, but they sat in a drawer for years until I had enough daily writing time to complete the tale. (Secret Number Three: It took me ten years to accomplish this life goal of publishing a book. I’m slow.)

I have a little office at home where I work, often with our cat curled up beside me. Rather than face the window (the garden view is too distracting), I face a wall that holds a few small paintings. Some are of sheep by my talented friend Felicia Bartlett, and one is of the bridge to Skye, Scotland, by my uncle James Haggart. He knows that Skye is one of my two favourite places. The other is Prince Edward Island, where we have a cottage. There’s a little room on the second floor that overlooks the ocean where I can write, if I don’t get too distracted by the waves. (Secret Number Four: Beaches and waves do something big to me. Guess that’s why Somewhere in Blue’s Sandy is the same way.)