Biography

I was born in Germany in 1965. A year later my family emigrated to Canada.  I grew up in Saskatoon, regularly returning to Germany to visit. I studied biology the University of Saskatchewan before switching to veterinary medicine. After graduation in 1990 I moved to Winnipeg with my classmate and future wife, Lorraine. Except for a year taken to backpack around the world, I have been in the same Winnipeg small animal practice since 1990.

My writing began with blogging about travel and veterinary medicine, and then my first book, The Accidental Veterinarian, was published by ECW Press in 2019.

Lorraine and I live in a creaky old house on the river with two young adult children, and a young cat. (We had two old cats and an old dog up until very recently, but it's been an exceptionally sad year.) Although the clinic, writing, and my family keep me busy, I love to spend time outdoors in self-propelled activities. I'm a particular fan of long-distance walking, having completed the West Highland Way, Hadrian's Wall, the Laugevegurinn, and the Inca Trail, among others. The pandemic also inspired me to start tackling "virtual walks", with the highlight being a 2863 km trek across Middle Earth from The Shire to Mordor. I learned how sturdy those hobbits really were.