About the Author

Dianne was born in Toronto, Canada where she currently resides within the greater area. She has a college diploma in Advertising & Graphic Design where she worked for various ad agencies and art studios. Art is something Dianne always grew up doing but found the advertising world to be a far cry from creative.

Despite her love for the arts, she always had a deep interest in the Social Sciences. She completed her B.A. in Human Geography at York University. She initially wanted to pursue a degree in Anthropology but felt the life of an archeologist or paleontologist may be too unbalanced. Her focus was multiculturalism in urban life.

When she obtained her Geography B.A., she applied for positions with Oceans and Fisheries but decided to attend teachers college instead. The University of Toronto accepted her into the secondary education programme where she gained a specialist in English As A Second Language (ESL). She concentrated on Applied Linguistics studying voiced and voiceless accents of new Canadians. She also obtained extra qualifications at the University of London.

While she was in the midst of her teaching career she took some time off to work toward an M.A. degree in Geography. The focus of her research was Russian immigration trends in Toronto. She had a turbulent academic advisor-student relationship, which laid the foundation in the creation of Dr. Cushing.

She currently teaches grades 9 and 12 Geography, ESL, and Visual Arts in an inner city Toronto school of mostly South Asian teens. She gears her course of study on the environment and geologic history. Her Hindu students have inspired her in creating the ever so charming Amoli Sharma.

Inspirations

Dianne does not write about a place unless she has thoroughly experienced it herself
In 1994 she spent time in Russia teaching physicists English As A Second Language. She was immersed in the Russian culture and lived with a Russian family. She came to know Russians where she devoted her Master’s thesis to them and can imitate a Russian accent quite well. She did not have any difficulty creating Dr. Sasha Dimitrikov.

She has spent three summers hiking the Irish mountains, especially Wicklow. She is very fond of Dublin and records everything she can on the Irish, their dialects, and way of life. She has researched Megaloceros giganteus’ findings where she mapped out Colin Limmerick’s trek through the Wicklow Mountains.

She has studied medieval sword fighting and Irish dancing, which are aspects of Colin Limmerick’s adventurous lifestyle. Her favourite music is Celtic (folk or rock).