An ecologist by training, I worked as a science writer at the University of Wisconsin before becoming a newsletter writer and editor for the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Tribe in northern Wisconsin. I worked on the reservation for fourteen years before moving to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2004. I moved to Lakefield, Ontario in 2015.

When I began writing fiction, the poignant story of Shawnawdithit, the last known Beothuk Indian in Newfoundland, and William Cormack, the man who tried to save the tribe from extinction, came strongly to mind. I retold that story in the novel, ALL GONE WIDDUN, published in 1999.

ALL GONE WIDDUN was followed by DANCING IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND (2005), a novel about the European witch persecutions, and by SILENCE OF STONE (2008), a novel about a young French noblewoman’s abandonment on an island near Labrador during a colonizing expedition in 1542.

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With support from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the City of St. John’s, I recently completed WEAVING WATER, published by Creative Book Publishing in October 2016. WEAVING WATER is a novel about otters, healing a human heart, and finding hope for an Earth imperiled by environmental destruction.

“With Weaving Water, Ms. Beckel has cleverly composed a vastly intriguing tapestry of themes: lost friends, solitude, and self-discovery in what is one of the best novels I have read this year. As such, I have put it on my longlist for the ‘Very Best’ award for fiction. I also gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads.” — James A. Fisher, The Miramichi Reader

All royalties from WEAVING WATER will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund Canada and the International Otter Survival Fund.

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