After many years in England, I now live in a small town in rural, eastern Ontario, Canada.

In the nineteenth century, my Irish ancestors built new lives here, in what was then a rugged wilderness. Today, it’s a landscape of comfortable farms, peaceful lakes, historic inns, and thriving communities where houses with welcoming porches nestle along quiet, tree-lined streets. The small-town life I depicted in my first four books is drawn from my experiences in these communities where my roots run deep.

My Firefly Lake series is set in a fictional small town in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls was inspired by the Adirondack Mountains New York state. I got to know and love both these special areas through family holidays.

Dogs also feature in my books and in my first book, The Cottage at Firefly Lake, the hero’s dog, Shadow, is drawn from a beloved family pet, posing here while playing in the snow.