My daughter Sarah did this picture of me on the computer as a joke, but I wouldn't let her delete it. I love it!! My official picture is air-brushed. This is the real me!!

I was born in Montreal in 1955. Grew up and played in the streets with kids who could curse in five languages, but spent every summer banging the screen door at our bungalow in Cape Breton. I met my husband on that island, even though he lived just eleven miles from me in Montreal. We married in June of 1976, graduates of Concordia University and promptly headed for Cape Breton and never left. We’ve been married 29 years and have three children. Paul is 24, Sarah is 18 and Joshua died of SIDS in 1985. He was two months old and I miss him still.
 

I was always told I could write, but who listens to family and friends? I became a columnist (Home Fires) and features writer with The Cape Bretoner Magazine in 2000 when my children were older. I now have a column in Cahoots Magazine, that debuted in December 2005 called Lesley's Letters. You can subscribe at www.cahootsmagazine.com .
 

I sat down on a January morning in 2003 and stood up in March. Relative Happiness was done. But the day I knew I was a real writer was the day I got into a shouting match with my heroine on the way to Walmart. She refused to marry the guy I wanted her to marry and I told her she was a creep, because now I had to re-write the whole damn book. She said tough. I re-wrote it and she was right.

I’m now on my fifth novel and my poor long suffering family are saints for putting up with me.
 

Speaking of families Nancy Darryl is my wonderful baby sister who is also a writer. God, she’s always copying me! Seriously, she’s my best friend and it’s an absolute delight to be able to share this with her. We get it honestly enough. Our dad, John Brown was a writer, editor and publisher. So you could say we’re running the family business.
 

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