Barbara Haworth-Attard is a native of Elmira, Ontario, presently residing in London, Ontario with her family. June 1995 saw the publication of her first junior novel, Dark of the Moon. Since then she has written sixteen novels in the historical fiction, fantasy, contemporary and mystery genres for middle-grade and young adult readers. Her latest book is , “Dear Canada, To Stand On My Own, the Polio Diary of Noreen Robertson” from Scholastic Canada. Barbara’s books have been published world-wide.

Who Lives In My House?
In my house there lives myself and my husband. My sons , are both married to wonderful young women, Bree and Lisa respectively. Both my sons graduated from the Computer Sciences program at Waterloo and both work for game designing companies. I’m so proud of them. Isn’t it funny how you start out as two people who then get married, then it becomes four, then six and then, now I have three grandbabies!  Also living in harmony with us are various critters: a possum under the back porch, a doe and two fawns in my backyard, feral cats: black cat, orange cat, grey cat and white cat.  We also have two cats, Hubert who is nearly seven years old, and Leo who is a four. He likes to drag around BIG stuff, like sandals, newspapers, his bag of treats, huge balls of yarn, and we have trained him to go into women’s purses and steal their valuables. Any woman who comes to visit us must hold on tight to their purse. Leo is so sweet-natured, but is the biggest mooch going! A rattle from a bag will rouse him from a deep sleep. And I must not forget the ladybugs that share our bathroom all year round. We can’t figure out where they come from or what they eat to keep alive. There’s not much food in our bathroom.

My Favourite Things to Do:
Next to writing and reading – I’ll read anything, even the side of cereal boxes, (have learned lots about fat content and preservatives this way) I love to quilt. I love the texture and colour of material and if I’m having a bad day, I pull out all my material – and I have lots – and I sort it and stroke it and surround myself with colour and I soon feel better. I take great joy in cutting up material and sewing it back together again, watching a bed quilt or wall hanging being born beneath my fingers. My writer friend, Judy Ann Sadler and I have a pattern designs company called “babs ‘n’ jas designs.” See us online at www.quiltpatterndesign.com!

I also like taking walks, frozen yoghurt, playing golf, playing with my friends (yes even adults play) and being with my family. I like gloomy days when the fog makes everything spooky and bright sunny days that make my heart sing. I like Hallowe’en when the clouds race across the orange harvest moon and shivers race up and down my spine.

My Favourite Books:
This is a hard one – I love so many books. I like fantasy and mystery and history. You know what – I can’t decide. I will tell you that Canada has many wonderful writers and anything you read by a Canadian writer will be good. And writing doesn’t stop at the border. Books have no boundaries. Read anything that interests you – you won’t find a better friend than a good book.

Barbara is represented by Scott Treimel, NY, (212) 505-8353