I am a retired Research Scientist who was employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. I researched the use of rootstocks and production techniques, bred new fruit varieties and wrote numerous research papers, book chapters, education extension reports. Several of my research papers were awarded best paper of the year by the journals  in which they appeared. At end of my career I turned my attention to researching the impact of weather and climate change on fruit production in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.  I received the Wilder Medal from the American Society of Pomology for lifetime achievement in the field of pomology. On retirement, I began writing fiction and wrote the Whitehorse Chronicles trilogy that includes the novels, James Expedition, Saving Capability and the Cascadian Mission.

I was raised on a farm in the dry belt of Southern Saskatchewan, where my family had just survived an eleven-year drought. During the time I was growing up, the rains had returned, but I could not help but be influenced by the desolate, abandoned farmsteads, the empty storefronts and houses in the towns and the eroded landscape. While the rains came back, we still experienced periods of drought with constant wind and blowing dirt. Nothing is more depressing than waiting day after day for it to rain while watching the top soil blow away and the crops whither. In part, the situation was man-made; too much fragile grassland had been put to the plough. Fortunately, governance was good enough then to provide relief in the form of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act. Its primary action was to return poor farmland to pasture, but also to help farmers by providing shelter belt trees, building reservoirs to provide water and furnishing information on soil conservation.
Climate change is an immensely greater challenge that faces all mankind, and it comes with flood, fire and heat, in addition to drought, and will last long into the future. It too is manmade and can avoided if the steps are taken now, principally by reining in the burning of fossil fuel. The question is are we going to have good enough governance to do what is necessary? Good governance is borne of the will of the people, and that’s you and me. I believe that in order to persuade people of the importance of doing something about climate change it will be necessary to touch people on a emotional level through story-telling, art and music in addition to presenting the facts and this what I am attempting to do with these stories. The science is right; now we have to develop the will to act.

In addition to writing novels, I give lectures on behalf of a local advocacy group, First Things First Okanagan, to inform the public on climate change science and encourage action on mitigation.

I live in Penticton, British Columbia on a lot large enough to have a vegetable garden, fruit and nut trees and flowers. Sonya, my partner, and I dragon boat in the summer and ski in the winter. We have two children, Darcie and Heather, and three grandchildren, Galen, Reece and Addison.