Choose Your Stories Wisely

Standing on a dock in my native England, I was appreciating the view and the real English ale I had just consumed in a traditional waterside pub. 

Working from home means I can travel often with my husband, author Peter Moreira, creator of The Haight Mystery Series. Travelling and working abroad -- I am currently based in eastern Canada and have also worked in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Seoul, as well as across the U.K. -- is a privilege that always adds richness and joy to my life. Along the way, I have made many friends -- human and animal -- been a serious student of Mandarin Chinese, and used my varied experiences as fuel for my fiction. 

And my main takeaway from my peripatetic life is a point that is often made: wherever you go in the world, people are much the same. Our differences are formed by society and culture. To paraphrase historian and author Yuval Noah Harari: story is central to human life. Tales and myths of culture, nation and religion define who we think we are. They define and they divide us. In this distressingly troubled world, in which story is often used for destructive purposes, I now make a conscious effort to embrace stories that unite and unify humanity and reject those that divide.