Maureen Lougen has always been a romantic at heart. Her first stories, full of heartbreak, loss, and redemption, were penned at the tender age of eight, when most children are only just learning the multiplication tables.
(She started writing in fourth grade. When other kids were actually doing their schoolwork, she would pen a juvenile blend of her favorite TV shows on scraps of paper instead of paying attention to the teacher.)
Fiercely independent, Maureen lives in a small fishing village on the shores of Lake Ontario. Still waiting to find the love of her life, she shares her historic home with her young son, two cats and two faithful dogs.
(She lives in a little town that's seen better days, about a quarter mile from Lake Ontario. During the summer, the town smells like dead fish. Which might explain why she's still not married. She shares her aged house with her too-smart-for-his-own-good son, a beagle that needs a C-Pap machine, a beagle-basset that suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, and two cats that hate each other.)
When she's not writing (but when is she ever not writing?!) Maureen is an avid traveler and music enthusiast, criss-crossing the continent on spur-of-the-moment jaunts to distant destinations and exotic locales.
(When she's not writing, which is usually all the time because she's too tired after work to even turn on the computer, Maureen pretty much just lays on the couch and watches TV. She used to travel around to folk concerts pretty much constantly, but since she bought her house, she can't afford it.)
Calling "life" her muse, Maureen finds inspiration everywhere. The smallest detail doesn't escape her notice, and she fills her stories with ringing truth and undeniable reality.
(An avowed busybody and Nosy Parker, Maureen steals her ideas from other people's lives and plunks them down in the middle of her stories just as they are. It's just easier than doing research.)
