Helena Puumala was born in Finland, but migrated to Northwestern Ontario, Canada, with her parents and siblings, at an early age. There she learned to adore Nature, living as her family did, surrounded by it, miles from the nearest town. As a young woman, she attended Carleton University in Ottawa, earning a degree in English Literature, with a Minor in History, after deciding that her first choice, Journalism, was the wrong one for her. She spent the years after graduation avoiding a settled career choice because doing so would have interfered with her plans to write. Thus, she earned a livin...