Timefall

Alison Lohans, M.Ed., has been writing since early childhood and was first published at age 12. Born and raised in small town central California, she completed her undergraduate degree in Music Education at CalState Los Angeles in 1971, and soon afterwards immigrated to Canada, where she has lived ever since. Alison has been a dual citizen of both countries for many years.

Alison's 28 books have been published by a number of Canadian and international presses. They range from picture books for young children (The 1-Dogpower Garden Team will be released in September 2021), through early chapter books for young readers (Tyler Evans the Great will be out in 2022); middle-grade novels; "younger" young adult novels; YA novels for older teens and adults (Timefall, and Don't Think Twice); and her first romance novel Canine Cupid was published in July 2021 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1088124. 2022 will bring the publication of her second romance novel (working title "Strong as a Pharaoh") with BWL Publishing. Many of her books have appeared on "notable" lists, and have been finalists for awards - and some have been winners. The first edition of Timefall (2018, Five Rivers Publishing) was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Prix Aurora Award. This Land We Call Home (published by Pearson Education, New Zealand, 2007, now available from Pearson Education Australia) won the 2008 Saskatchewan Book Award for YA Literature.

In addition to her books, Alison writes and publishes across a diverse range of short works for adults and children - fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and academic fiction - and she's won awards for pieces in each of these areas. She even published a song, "The Saskatchewan Blues", published in 1980 in a Canadian music textbook for classroom use.

While living in British Columbia (1971-1976) Alison completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Elementary Education at the University of Victoria while also working as a pharmacy assistant, and additionally spent a year teaching high school English at a tiny private school in Argenta, B.C.

Moving to Regina, Saskatchewan in 1976, Alison taught instrumental music in the public schools for three years and then "retired" to raise a family, during which time she began working more intensively at her writing. Her first YA novel was published by Scholastic Canada in 1983. She completed her M.Ed. degree at the University of Regina in 2002. Over the years, in addition to her writing, she has taught writing and mentored many now-successful published authors, some of whom have won awards for their books. She served as Writer-in-Residence at Regina Public Library (2002-03); she has worked as an editor, and does numerous manuscript evaluations. Over the years she's done well over 1000 author visits to schools and libraries, and many writing workshops. Until the COVID lockdown, Alison continued a little bit of private music teaching as well.

Over the decades, Alison has deeply valued her writing groups: the Children's Writers' Round Robin; the Saskatchewan Romance Writers; The Monday Muses; and, for a time, a poetry group called "The Erratics". Alison holds professional memberships with The Writers' Union of Canada; the Canadian Society for Children's Authors, Illustrators & Performers; and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild.

In Alison's spare time she loves participating in amateur community music groups, where she plays recorder, cornet and cello - as well as taking piano lessons. Music plays a key role in many of Alison's published books - Nathaniel's Violin (1996); Foghorn Passage (1992/1997); Germy Johnson's Piano War (2010); as well as Canine Cupid (BWL, 2021) and Don't Think Twice (1997, 2009). Alison also loves to travel, finding that seeing new places opens up material for new books - such as Doppelganger (Pearson Education NZ, 2010); Dog Alert (Pearson Education NZ, 2011); and also Picturing Alyssa (2011) after visiting her mother's hometown in Iowa. "Strong as a Pharaoh" (due out in 2022) resulted from a tour of Egypt - and one of her current works-in-progress, "Murder at Glencoe", was sparked by her first visit to Scotland. Alison has always loved having a "furry family" - including dogs, cats, and birds. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, with her faithful dog Sebastian.