My Bio

I was born in Exeter, Ontario, and grew up in Prince Edward Island, where my imagination grew and flourished. I started writing when I was in Grade 5 - pretty goofy stuff. My brother and I had weekly writing competitions. He ALWAYS won.

When I was fifteen, someone from the local radio station came to my school looking for a student to be trained as a radio announcer. I auditioned, but so did my brother. Guess who got the job. I was so upset that I didn't speak to my brother for an entire day. Luckily, my brother was going off to university that fall, so near the end of the summer, the radio station hired me to replace him. I worked every day after school. My dad picked me up at midnight. The first time I had to read the news live, I was so nervous that I couldn't say a word. There had to have been about two minutes of silence before I finally got up enough courage to speak. But I soon got the hang of it, and besides having the occasional "on air" hiccup fit, or uncontrollable giggles, or mispronouncing words, I loved my new job.

At nineteen, I moved to Montreal, to work as Promotions Director and a Dee Jay at CKGM. From radio, I turned to film writing. My first film script for Zolov Productions was narrated by the late writer, explorer, and broadcaster, Lowell Thomas. The film won the Conservation Award of America. Since then, I've researched and written over thirty documentaries and docu-dramas. In the mid-1990s, I wrote fourteen half-hour television specials about exceptional children for Marathon Productions in France. In 1996, I was a consultant on the motion picture, The Assignment, starring Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, and Aidan Quinn. The film was directed by Christian Duguay, whose recent triumph, The Rise of Evil, portrayed Hitler's early years and received high praise throughout Canada and the U.S.

I studied English Literature and Philosophy at Concordia University in Montreal, and obtained a law degree from the University of Ottawa.

For R&R, I love skiing, sailing, reading, cooking, bird watching, and listening to music. I adore dogs and horses (and almost every other animal). I have two kids - well, they're sort of grown up now - Gregor and Kenzie. In The Serpent's Egg, I made Gregor King of the Dwarves. My daughter was upset because she wasn't in books one or two. So, I spelled Kenzie backwards and turned her into a nasty little ogre in book three, The Twisted Blade. When you find her, please don't tell her, or else I may have to move to another planet.

J. FitzGerald McCurdy