Biography - Danielle Aird

I grew up in Val d’Or, (The Valley of Gold) in northern Quebec. My father was a gold miner. As a teenager, every year at Christmas, I would ask my mother for a jewellery box. I always received the same answer from her: “Why a jewellery box? You have nothing to put in it.” I never did find one under the Christmas tree.
   In the summer after my first year at Queen’s University, my roommate brought me back a lovely jewellery box from the World Trade Fair in Osaka. In October of that year, I met my future husband, Neil, a designer-goldsmith!
   I will never really know what made me want to become a writer. I suspect it was the desire to make people laugh or at least, think, reflect, ask themselves questions.

   I believe that every step we take in life is part of our destiny. Often, years later, we look back and realize the repercussions of an apparently insignificant action in our past.
   I came to Queen’s to study science but ended up with a Masters in French literature. To look back and see exactly what led me to it would be impossible. It just happened. Something I know is that my eternal lust for travel led me to first write travel articles; in turn, these articles led to short story writing.
   Although I enjoy writing both in French (my native tongue) and English, for practical reasons most of my writing is done in English.