Featured Author: Melanie Jackson
 
Bibliography at Orca
A Spy in the Alley: Who is the buck-tooth burglar in the back yard? Dinah has to call on all her talents, both sleuthing and singing, to solve the case.
The Man in the Moonstone: When Dinah wins a part in an adaptation of what many consider the first detective novel, she finds that all is not as it seems around the theater.
The Mask on the Cruise Ship: Dinah Galloway is back. This time she has taken to the high seas with a gig in the lounge of an Alaska-bound cruise ship. When a Native mask about to be returned to its ancestral home is stolen, Dinah finds herself entangled in a dangerous mystery.
The Summer of the Spotted Owl: After a hang glider crashes into the pool of the house where Dinah and Madge are house-sitting, the hapless pilot creates more than a splash of suspicion in Dinah's mind.
Shadows on the Train: It's all aboard! for mystery when Dinah Galloway takes the cross-country train from Vancouver to Toronto, to appear on a TV talent show. But will she make it—or be permanently derailed?
Interview
Why do you write, and why young adult books? My imagination is like your local penitentiary: overflowing with inhabitants. The ones who jostle to the forefront I create stories about. I have to. It's a compulsion.
Joan of Arc heard God's voice. Me? I hear a young person's wisecracking, skeptical, generally optimistic voice.
Another reason I have a kid's perspective, of course, is that I'm basically immature.
Do you put your family and friends in your books? Dinah is who I wish I had the nerve to be. Her aloof, artistic sister Madge is probably my daughter. Her absent-minded, bookish mother has to be me.
What is your favorite children's book? Little Women. I identified with Jo but wanted to be Amy! Wonder where Dinah gets her insecurities.
What are you reading now? The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud. Think: a friendlier, slyer Henry James.
What is your favorite childhood/teenage memory? Too many to choose from. But here's one you can use today in your office. At journalism school, we had these mail slots. Gluing people's mail to the sides of the slot produced an extremely satisfying ripping sound when they tried to remove it. (See last sentence of 1.)
Biography
Melanie Jackson wrote her first mystery story at age seven and hasn't stopped since. She isn't sure why she likes mysteries so much, except that maybe it's part of being curious about life and its possibilities. A former journalist, Melanie volunteers as a creative writing mentor for the Vancouver School Board. Born in Scotland, raised in Toronto, Melanie lives in East Vancouver, in the same Commercial Drive area as her singing sleuth Dinah, with her husband, daughter and cowardly cat.
"It's an extremely safe neighbourhood," Melanie stresses. Though that was before she encountered the Sinister Hoodie...
Visit Melanie and Dinah at www.dinahgalloway.blogspot.com or www3.telus.net/Dinah/spy.htm.
E-mail: mjackson@telus.net
Skype with Melanie: Her username is dinah.galloway
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