Adopted by a family in Vancouver as a Vietnam War orphan, Dannie Cooper dreams of finding her biological parents. Days after 9/11, she receives an email from a Vietnam veteran in Port Angeles, Washington, who claims to be her father. With the lure of a genetic father overwhelming, Dannie drops everything to go in search of him in an America reeling from a terrorist attack and on the brink of a new, undefined war. There she finds Bruce Huckman, a stoic ex-logger dying from cancer caused by Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. Dannie wants to believe Bruce is her father and stays to help nurse him, even if her family back home is unconvinced of Bruce’s legitimacy. When she falls in love with Ryan, a local man who wants to enlist for Afghanistan, Dannie finds herself caught between the legacy of the Vietnam War and the possibility of a new war destroying someone she loves. Straightforward, honest and intimate, The Strait of Anian is a compelling tale of personal discovery that reveals that being a daughter has nothing to do with one’s DNA.

Rhonda Waterfall studied Sales and Marketing at The Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia and Creative Writing at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University where she was mentored by Stephen Osborne. For many years she worked in ad agencies directing print production and managing creatives and the creative process. For a time she lived in Zimbabwe and worked for the Zimbabwe Book Development Council where she was involved in creating a Zimbabwean Book Skills Directory and event planning for the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. She has had fiction and non-fiction published in several literary journals along with the novel, The Strait of Anian, published by Now or Never Publishing and a short story collection, The Only Thing I Have, published by Arsenal Pulp Press. She was born in what is now the ghost town of Ocean Falls on the west coast of Canada and currently lives in Toronto.

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