Welcome to my world of Huckleberry Hollow
Here you will find information on my books, watercolour art, and presentations. I am both author and illustrator for all six volumes in the Huckleberry Hollow Children's Picture Book Series. It was my original intention to feature a different animal from our diverse Canadian wildlife in each of the picture books. However, I did get a little sidelined on the goal with the popularity of my first book SNOWBOARDING BUNNY, and produced a second snowboarding adventure for Sunny Bunny titled SNOWBOARDING BUNNY'S MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE.
This second snowboarding adventure was inspired by my two sons and their winter backcountry journeys. The story and its illustrations were carefully edited by the Canadian Avalanche Association and emphasize the inportance of how to be safe and well prepared for adventures on snowy mountainous terrain.
All my picture books feature a small white mouse that hides in my illustrations. This tiny character was inspired by a real mouse my sons rescued from the clutches of a fox in our backyard. We cared for the tiny, one eyed mouse while it healed and then released it back into the forest in a place noted on the detailed map of Huckleberry Hollow that graces the inside cover of many of my books.
Two Snowboarding Bunny books just weren't enough for my readers and the requests kept on coming for more snowboard adventures for the bunny. So, after ten years of creating picture books, I decided to feature Sunny in a chapter book. As much as I appreciate our amazing natural world, it can be fun to escape this beautiful place and allow our imagination to drift into pure fantasy, as I did in my first novel, ICE.
It took four years to produce ICE, the first volume in the fantasy series titled The CHRONICLES OF MINERIA, and, as requested, Sunny is a main character. Long live the Bunny!
A few years later, I created and released the sequel to ICE, titled FIRE.
Now the third and final volume in the trilogy, AIR, is completed and available in libraries and for purchase, online and in bookstores. 
In addition to writing, painting and producing books, I like to visit schools, libraries and galleries to share my stories, original illustrations, writing stratagies and some impressive watercolour techniques I have discovered along the way as a self taught artist. Presentations vary slightly with the age and interests of the group I am working with.
Against a backdrop of my original watercolour illustrations I can offer a rich, rhythmic story time for 5 and 6 year olds, focus on some practical writing strategies for the older students, or offer a captivating hands on watercolour lesson for all ages.
Contact me for further information on my presentations and workshops. |
