Frances Jewel Dickson of Voices Et Cetera
Nova Scotia author writes popular history
Treasure-troves of people and places overlooked by other writers
Frances Jewel Dickson lives and writes in East LaHave, a ribbon community along the LaHave River near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. A keen interest in history and the unsung heroes who forged it, brings her to write stories about ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.
Frances was born in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, of a French Canadian mother and an English speaking father from Alberta. Fluently bilingual from the start, she eventually made her career in the federal government. She held management positions in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.
Testimonials for Frances Jewel Dickson
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"You write well in a very direct, honest and forceful way that gets to the essence of Arctic life." - Jim Lotz, Author, Nova Scotia
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"You make my heart burst...your depth, your gift of language, your sensitivity..." - Elizabeth A. Buckley, English Teacher (retired) Ontario
- "Your work is outstanding - a true slice of history." - Mark Shaw, Author and Literary Consultant, Colorado
While working on Parliament Hill, she wrote human resources policy for the Speaker of the House of Commons. Based in Halifax, she led audit teams in evaluating the performance of government departments across Canada.
Frances is a discriminating editor, having created or adapted countless texts on a myriad of subjects for over four decades. In addition to having had two books published, she has had essays published in the Globe & Mail and Readers' Digest Magazine.
Frances looks for stories steeped in history that have been largely ignored in literature. Faithful to her belief that history books do not belong on dusty shelves, her research leads her to special places and people whose stories are bound to captivate her readers. She looks for treasure-troves in people and places overlooked by other writers.
Books by Frances Jewel Dickson
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Frances selected a complex subject for her first book. THE DEW LINE
YEARS, Voices from the Coldest Cold War, is a memorial link to the
father she lost in an airplane crash in the high Arctic in 1957, when
she was only nine. Five years of research brought her in contact with
over one hundred former DEW Liners now in their senior years and
residing in eight different countries.
- Her newly released second book, SKIPPER, The Sea Yarns of Captain Matthew Mitchell, tracks the life of a fisherman whose ninety plus years have revolved around the sea "from dories to trawlers," then to "shore skipper" at the world renowned Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg.