Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Val was swept into teaching during the Great Teacher Shortage of... well, let’s just call it “a while back.” Her dreams of jet-setting as an air stewardess were quickly replaced by lesson plans and chalk dust. After wrangling classrooms in inner-city Birmingham, she packed her bags and followed her family to Canada—where she discovered her British teaching credentials were about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Never one to back down, Val juggled a day job at the Bank of Montreal while earning her Canadian degrees by night. After 25+ years of surviving as a classroom, French, and Special Education teacher, she retired and dove into her true passion: writing.
Now an award-winning author of historical fiction, Val finds spinning tales a lot more fun than grading essays. She also moonlights as a qualified developmental editor on Fiverr—so if your manuscript needs a little tough love (and a dash of British wit), you know where to find her!
Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Val was swept into teaching during the Great Teacher Shortage of... well, let’s just call it “a while back.” Her dreams of jet-setting as an air stewardess were quickly replaced by lesson plans and chalk dust. After wrangling classrooms in inner-city Birmingham, she packed her bags and followed her family to Canada—where she discovered her British teaching credentials were about as useful as a chocolate...
Beneath the soot-streaked skyline of the Industrial Revolution, where fortunes are made and hearts are broken, Evangeline Thornfield is caught between the gilded expectations of her family and her own yearning for freedom.The once-wealthy Thornfields are on the brink of ruin, and Evangeline’s mother has one solution: marry her off to the...
A fierce woman. A relentless journalist. A scandal that could destroy them both.
Kathleen Blackwood has always been the backbone of her family, protecting them from the harsh realities of Gilded Age New York. But when she crosses paths with Henry O’Connor, a tenacious journalist exposing corruption in the city’s police courts, her carefully...
A Scandalous Past. A Dangerous Game. A Choice That Will Change Everything.
Eleanor “Nellie” Blackwood arrives in 1880s New York determined to leave her troubled past in Ireland behind. Clever, ambitious, and unapologetically bold, she’s ready to climb the city’s glittering social ladder and secure her future among the elite. But the path to...
