About the Author

Marike Harris always enjoyed spending her summers at her grandparents' lakeside country cottage near her native Montreal with her parents and close relatives. Each summer, her father would rent other cottages on the same lake, Lake Memphremagog. Marike experienced many friendships as well as different landscapes at these cottages, from farm land to cliffside, mountainside to beach side, whether it was tumbled pebbles or sand. Being prohibited from watching television during the summers by her parents, Marike and her friends would entertain themselves with outdoor adventures. The water was always her playground as she paddled her canoe, rode in her Opa's antique, mahogany speedboat or sailed in her father's Flying Junior to the different islands and her summer-friends' cottages where she climbed trees, had treasure hunts and swam all day. When on land, she would often hide herself in the woods with her two cats and write glorified stories on huge rocks surrounded by trees.

Marike combined her love for writing with the need to share her wonderment for the splendor of nature. She always wrote about animals because she felt that they needed a voice as did the birds and the bees. she started writing at a university level at McGill where she started off with math then literature and finally got bachelor's degree in physical geography.

Marike has moved westward up the St. Lawrence River to Brockville, Ontario. She lives with her two children and a plethora of songbirds and squirrels. She enjoys going on daily walks along the River with Robin Quartus, the eagles, swans, ospreys, watching her sixteen year old son, Ethan, sail and her fourteen year old daughter, Annika, play the guitar.