S u m a c h a u t h o r s
Joan Donaldson-Yarmey
Joan Donaldson-Yarmey was born in Vancouver, B.C., and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She has authored travel and historical articles, and seven travel books about the Yukon, Alaska and Alberta, B.C. She has now turned her writing skills to fiction, but has not ventured far from her writing roots. In the writing courses she took she was told to write about what she knew or has done. While she was working on her travel books, she was astounded at how much there was in western Canada to see and do. So she decided to make the heroine in Illegally Dead, her first mystery novel, a travel writer.
Always a highly active personality, and full of entrepreneurial spirit, Joan's first job was at the age of eight, selling Mother's Day corsages, made by a neighbour, door to door. She advanced to paper delivery, babysitting, and then worked at a drive-in fast food outlet and KFC during high school. She married soon after graduation and moved to a farm where she had two children. Joan thrives on change, so when her marriage failed, she began a long career of many and various jobs working as a bartender, bar cleaning staff, hotel maid, cashier, bank teller, bookkeeper (three different times), printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, warehouse shipper (twice), house renovator, and nursing attendant. During that time, she raised her two children and, after remarrying, helped raise three stepchildren.
Arts and crafts are an important part of Joan's life. She has knitted, crocheted, done petit point jewellery and needle point pictures, and painted. She tried pottery and tatting but found they weren't for her. One of her favourite pastimes is reading, especially mystery novels. Consistent with her enjoyment of variety, she has moved more than thirty times in her life, living on acreages and farms and in small towns and large cities throughout Alberta and B.C. She now lives on a small acreage on Vancouver Island with her husband, one dog, and three cats, where she is growing a variety of fruit and berries.
Joan is currently working on her second Elizabeth Oliver book, which takes place in and around Edmonton. The setting for her third novel in the series will be Whistler, BC. Since she loves to travel and to write, Joan is very happy that she has been able to combine the two into a long standing career.
Illegally Dead
Categories
· Adult Mystery Fiction
· Travel Fiction
· Women's Fiction
Points of Interest
· Fast-paced, intriguing plot
· Regional interest,
local history
· Strong female protagonist
256 pages
6" x 9 "
$16.95 paper
ISBN: 978-1-894549-74-5
Release: October 2008
