Why I Wrote Northern Escape

Life with children is busy. This year has been a breeze compared to the last eighteen but I will never forget how hard it was at times. While my husband and I were running the kids to their activities and helping them with their school assignments, a big part of me was missing who I used to be.

I missed the carefree times when I could count on hanging out with my friends on a Friday night. I missed being able to go camping on a whim. I reminisced about a time when I was figuring out who I was and what I wanted out of life and although I didn’t want to have to go through all that again, I did realize it was a special time and one which made me who I am today.

I started writing Northern Escape in order to capture memories of those days, many of which happened during the five years I lived in Ontario. They were memorable partly because I was there on my own and my friends were my family. And because they were memorable I wanted to tell my family about some of the adventures I’d had.

As we live we see things, read things and hear things and we want to protect our children from them. These too were some of the reasons for wanting to write this story. I wanted to capture important messages in my writing. Messages like - choose your partner carefully, stay away from drugs, if you are feeling down ask for help, and don’t let anyone treat you poorly.

Northern Escape is fictional. This story did not happen to me, it was an adventure I created as I wrote. The similarities end with the settings and tidbits of things I love and worry about. I feel it reflects some of the cool experiences that I have had and hope it brings awareness to certain issues but most importantly I hope it is simply a story you will enjoy.