She's won the Dundurn Unhanged Arthur, the Alberta Book of the Year for YA, the Bony Pete, the Saskatchewan
Writers Guild Award. Her works have been shortlisted for the Prix Aurora, the
Debut Dagger, the Book Publishing in Alberta Award, and numerous short fiction prizes.
A graduate of the University of Regina, Jayne attended high school first on a NATO base in Germany and then in Kapuskasing, Ontario, where her Air Force father was posted next. Her childhood of camping, boating and fishing fostered a love for the wilderness and a passionate respect for the environment. Her happiest times were either out in the woods or holed up in a library. She performed in church musicals and community theatre before beginning her theatrical studies at university. She volunteered with Transition House, worked for the Mental Health Association, created cultural awareness programs and delivered them in playgrounds, and wrote a docu-drama about intergenerational domestic violence (Daddy Is Not Like Grandpa) which she filmed at the Moose Jaw community television station with student actors.
Like author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit, Unbroken), Jayne was struck down in university by a crippling neuro-immune illness, ME/CFS. In the space of two months she went from being an active jogger, hiker, bicyclist, and cross-country skier to near bed-bound, from considering -20 degrees a good cross-country skiing day to huddling under heated blankets most of the year.
A graduate of the University of Regina, Jayne attended high school first on a NATO base in Germany and then in Kapuskasing, Ontario, where her Air Force father was posted next. Her childhood of camping, boating and fishing fostered a love for the wilderness and a passionate respect for the environment. Her happiest times were either out in the woods or holed up in a library. She performed in church musicals and community theatre before beginning her theatrical studies at university. She volunteered with Transition House, worked for the Mental Health Association, created cultural awareness programs and delivered them in playgrounds, and wrote a docu-drama about intergenerational domestic violence (Daddy Is Not Like Grandpa) which she filmed at the Moose Jaw community television station with student actors.
Like author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit, Unbroken), Jayne was struck down in university by a crippling neuro-immune illness, ME/CFS. In the space of two months she went from being an active jogger, hiker, bicyclist, and cross-country skier to near bed-bound, from considering -20 degrees a good cross-country skiing day to huddling under heated blankets most of the year.
Between relapses
she completed degrees in Psychology and Theatre, raised three children, and
wrote. Her worst relapse, striking halfway through the first draft of When the Flood Falls, left her struggling to swallow a smoothie or compose a
two-line email. Over the next five years she gradually taught herself to eat
again, then to write again, and then to walk again. The character of Jan, in the The Falls Mysteries, is drawn in part from her own experiences and part from those of people with ME/CFS she's met online & in person through her patient advocacy and medical education outreach.
Eventually, as a means to revisit the wilderness areas she
loves from the recliner where she passes most of her days, Jayne finished
writing When the Flood Falls, the novel that won the Unhanged in 2016. Flood was followed by Where the Ice Falls (Dundurn 2019) and Why the Rock Falls (Dundurn 2020), all rooted in the society,
politics, and geography of Alberta’s
Eastern Slopes.
Jayne is a past VP of Crime Writers of Canada, a founder of Calgary Crime Writers, and a member of Sisters In Crime. She is represented by The Rights Factory.
Jayne is a past VP of Crime Writers of Canada, a founder of Calgary Crime Writers, and a member of Sisters In Crime. She is represented by The Rights Factory.
