About me and my books
I am a creative nonfiction writer, now based in Ottawa, Canada. I have written an award-winning trilogy---three memoirs on my varied experiences, adventures, challenges, and successes around the world: Kid on the Go! (2021) on growing up in freedom in the late 1940s, 50s, and 60s, while exploring my industrially-polluted Ontario town where agent-orange was made for the Vietnam War; Finding Myself in Borneo (2019), the far-away, exotic island in Southeast Asian where, after university, I suddenly found myself teaching and learning to be a filmmaker; and My University of the World (2023), on my 40-year career as an international film and multi-media maker, living in or traveling to many developing countries. These books can be read as standalones or in any order. For genealogy lovers, I also completed a travel memoir titled Guns and Gods in My Genes (2020), an award-winning entertaining and educational account of traveling 15,000 miles while tracking down the stories of my ancestors in Canada and the U.S. See descriptions, reviews, posts, and places to buy these books on this website.
Presently, I'm completing a creative book on the 500-year history of New Mexico as seen through he eyes of one family. I lived in this sunny, ethnically-varied U.S. state of deserts, forests, and mountains for 10 years and have uncovered many compelling, entertaining, tragic, and educational stories to tell, that
contain lessons for all readers today.
I hold a BA in Psychology from the University of Calgary, Alberta (1968) and a Master of Science in Communication from Florida State University, Tallahassee (1988). During my career, I was employed by Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO); Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC); UNICEF; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; Academy for Educational Development and FHI 360, Washington, DC.
I worked and lived in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, and Russia for a total of 18 years and traveled to over 80 countries on short-term assignments. I am also the author of several books, articles and manuals on communication for development and the producer /director of many films, animated films, videos, and multi-media initiatives, most of which can be viewed on: