About Shannon

My writing career began when I was seven years old. I had an amazing teacher—Mrs.Pridatt—who told me I was going to be an author and that she would look for my books some day. I used to call her over, just to breathe her in: She smelled like perfumed press powder and walked in friendly clip-clops, her clogs smacking the floor. Perhaps she had something to do with me becoming both a teacher and a writer but it was a move to the Middle East that prompted me to publish my work.

Together, with my husband and two children, I lived in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 2000 to 2005. I privately tutored, taught elementary school and journalism at a women’s college, and enjoyed almost every minute of it. From day to day living, through 9-11, the invasion of Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, journeying to a foreign land and crossing the chasm of culture and religion enriched, challenged, and ultimately shaped my view of the world.

I began freelancing for the national paper, The Gulf News, and was a regular contributor to the publication’s glossy magazine, Friday. I wrote research pieces for Liberty Magazine, an American publisher based in Dubai and contributed to Stitches, the Canadian Journal of Medical Humor.

Upon my return to Canada, I had the privilege of writing a column for several years for Kamloops This Week. Desert to Desert lifted the veil on life in the Middle East compared and contrasted to life in arid Kamloops. Now back home in Kelowna, I continue to write for a number of Thomson-Okanagan based magazines, including North of 50, Currents, Okanagan Life, Okanagan Woman, and more. I also write a weekly health and humor column for the Kelowna Daily Courier. The Good, the Bad, and the Bloody runs Saturdays on the City Page of the Valley’s largest paper.

You can frequently find me in the kitchen, where I am not a gourmet cook, but “Queen of the Casserole” and cookies and cakes and other comfort kinds of food. I love to laugh and dine and drink wine, and shop (especially for shoes). I’m positively passionate about health and fitness, travel and exploration, community involvement, reading and writing (mais oui) and most of all, my beloved family and friends.