Award winning writing. John Bilsland Non-fiction short story award, Canada Book Award, several travel and short story accolades and was a finalist for an Arthur Ellis Award in the Crime Writers of Canada competition. My firefighter novels are the very 1st in Canada. My juvenile and YA novels are presently in paperback and eBook format on all sites in all formats . Born in Welland, Ontario, a blue-collar town in the Niagara Peninsula. Backpacked the world. Became marooned in Australia for over a year. Traveled to over two dozen countries. Met my wife on a rusty freighter from Jakarta to Singapore.
I've worked as a paperboy, grocery clerk, sales rep, and iron worker, mink ranch hand and assembly lines, freelance astronaut (no offers) to boilermaker apprentice, delivery driver, and career firefighter and officer. I've climbed the Great Wall of China (Shanjinling , almost smuggled a Playboy into Communist Russia, witnessed the 1979 Grenada Revolution, watched Cubans cry when Fidel stepped down, played drums in two big bands, snorkeled with a marlin, tossed eggs at an Australian PM, and caught a knuckle-baller as a fastball catcher. I've driven and operated fire and rescue units. Firefighters in Canada deal with extreme weather making the job very challenging. I've extricated people from crashed vehicles, performed CPR, hauled them from house fires, treated the injured, and done some stuff that still makes me shake my head.
I left Edmonton Fire Rescue as a station captain after 32 years. I live in Beaumont, AB with my wonderful wife, Gloria. I write, travel extensively, do a bit of fishing, wine-making, and boating, drink demon rum, manage a writers group, do occasional reno work, and sit on my butt outside in the good weather reading a decent novel. You can catch up with me and my writing here: Yatscoffbooks.com
