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Frances Hern
Frances Hern grew up in Birmingham, England near Tolkien territory. Her writing career began as a young child when she wrote rhymed verses inside home-made greeting cards. By the age of 10 she was composing “poems” heavily influenced by her father’s books of the Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats. In her teens she actually enjoyed writing letters and essays but struggled with high school history. The Stone Age seemed irrelevant and King Henry VIII, with his six wives, was an impossible challenge for someone who had difficulty memorizing dates. She gave up on history and studied sciences and English.
In her early twenties, she came to live in Calgary for a year with her husband. They loved Canada so much they stayed. Frances worked as a laboratory research technician, a secretary in the oil patch, a discussion group leader, and a mother before finally returning to writing. Now she splits her time between Calgary, Alberta and Golden, BC. With her children grown, she has time to travel and, ironically, the history she’s exposed to in her travels helps to make sense of her world. She has realized that history need not be boring and aims to entertain readers with the nuggets of stories she finds.
Frances has written two Amazing Stories about Canadian History. She also writes articles, and has published a children’s picture book. Her poems have been published in “Freefall”, “Rags”, and other anthologies including the first issue of the “Red Berry Review”. She is currently at work on a young-adult historical novel.
She has read her work at various venues, including Word on the Street, and has been a juror for the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association and the Writers Guild of Alberta’s book awards. She belongs to the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP)., the Writers Guild of Alberta (WGA) and the Alexandra Writers Centre Society (AWCS).
