M. D. Meyer is the award-winning author of Lewis, Jasmine, The Little Ones, Pilot Error, Deep Waters, Colin’s Choice, Get Lost! and Meet Manitoba Children’s Authors and the editor of ten anthologies, Prairie Writers, volumes 1, 2, 3, Northern Writers, volume 1 and 2, The Voice Behind the Mask, Isle of Mirage, Remember Me, Squirrel Tales and Rabbit Trails and Young Aboriginal Voices. M. D. Meyer has also been a contributor to the best-selling anthology, Hot Apple Cider and the newly released A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider.
Her many other writing credits include: editorial, reviews, news, feature articles, profiles, script-writing and poetry. Using this wide variety of writing experience, Dorene teaches classes that provide encouragement and practical help to writers of all genres.
Dorene currently resides in Norway House, MB, where she is a part-time instructor at University College of the North.
Dorene has also recently begun her own publishing company, Goldrock Press, with the primary aim of publishing authors from Northern Manitoba. One of Goldrock Press’ books, Tansi, by Flora Rideout, was shortlisted for the McNally Robinson Book of Year Award.
Dorene has also won awards for her own books. Most recently, she won the Romance book of the year award at the 2011 Canadian Christian Writing Awards in Toronto, Ontario for the book, Jasmine.
Personal Bio
Sometimes people ask me why I, as a white person, write about, and for, First Nations people. I never set out intentionally to do this but rather arrived there as an equilibrium point. It is, in fact, my comfort zone. I am most familiar with the Ojibway and Cree Nations of Northwestern Ontario. I spent the first four years of my life living in Lac Seul First Nation, where my father was an Anglican priest. There were no other white people living there at that time (except perhaps the Hudson Bay manager and his wife) and Lac Seul was quite isolated at that time, so the only people that I knew besides my immediate family were all First Nations. Even now, there is a certain comfort and familiarity there for me. Warm memories are evoked when I hear an Ojibway woman singing; or when I smell rawhide or pipe smoke; or taste tea with evaporated milk in it.
My father and mother separated when I was 4-years-old. My mother moved down to Sioux Lookout with my brother and sister and I, and began to take care of children as a full-time occupation. This photo was taken when I was about 5 – I’m the one in the red dress. It is the last photo taken that includes my biological siblings – the next time we are together in a photo is when we’re all grown up with kids of our own.
My mother took care of a LOT of children. At the time this photo was taken, there was a newspaper article written about her in our local paper that said that she had taken care of over 500 children (and my mother continued to foster kids for several years after that). I remember there used to be between 20 and 25 people (mostly kids) all the time living at our house. My Mom adopted two children and there were others who were in long-term foster care with us. All the kids called my mother, “Mommy”, and I always felt as if the foster children were my brothers and sisters (I still can’t give a clear answer to the simple question: “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”). I have very few childhood memories of my biological siblings since I was closer in age to my foster brothers and sisters grewing up.
Tackling the Tough Issues
I first began to write because of a deep concern that I had for the victims of abortion (the Moms, Dads and the babies). Because I lived in an isolated community in Northern Ontario, I didn’t feel there was much I could do to change things… but I could write. So began the series of books: “Rachel’s Children”.
As events unfolded in my life, I continued to write about the things that I cared deeply about. I attended a Rising Above conference (for more info on this organization go their website: www.risingabove.ca). Along with some personal healing, my concern for others who had experienced child sexual abuse, also grew. I did a lot of research and listened to many personal stories before writing: Colin’s Choice.
Other subjects that I have become deeply interested in and have written about are: recovery from alcohol abuse, Indian Residential school syndrome, suicide and depression, AIDS, racism and the sex trade. I don’t take any of these issues lightly. My sincere desire is that what I write will bring hope and healing to those who are hurting.
Christian World View
I write from a Christian world view. That does not mean that I use my books as a “soapbox” for expressing my beliefs. My first job as an author is to write a good book; one that people will enjoy reading.
It is more a matter of not excluding my faith than it is of consciously “injecting” it into the story. I don’t try to artificially “put God in” but neither do I take desperate measures to remove Him either. When I write the first draft of a manuscript, I let the ideas flow freely – not critiquing myself or allowing myself to imagine the possible responses of future readers.
I do believe that it is impossible for an author to not have any of his/her world views come through in some way in their writing. If you do attempt to surgically remove all traces of the author’s personal views, you will likely end up with a very boring book. And for those of you who have read my books and previewed manuscripts of future books, I think you will agree that they are anything but boring!!