Annie Kidd’s story is one of innocence, survival, and courage, inspired by the real-life experiences of settlers in a remote area of northern Canada just before and during World War I. Annie is a young English woman who follows her husband, Jim, to a new land and fulfills her dream of owning a home and property. Although she and Jim weather many hardships together, her greatest test is being left on her own with their young children when Jim leaves to fight in the war.

The uncomfortably hot and dry summer of 1916 led to small bush fires and heavy smoke. A sudden fierce windstorm whipped the fires into an inferno, leaving Annie and her children surrounded by what would become one of Canada’s worst forest fires.

Susan is originally from a small town in north-eastern Ontario. Her inspiration for this novel was gleaned from the lives of her paternal grandparents, and her uncle’s stories about the old days. Home Fires is the product of her love of the North and passion for genealogy and history. Susan graduated from McGill University and is now retired from a rewarding teaching career in both Quebec and Ontario. She and her husband are the proud parents of two, doting grandparents of four, and live beside a lake in the Kawarthas.

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