Gargoyle In My Yard, The

Philippa Dowding is from Toronto, ON

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Philippa Dowding wrote her first book when she was nine (about a girl with a fiery tail), and then burned it, which taught her a great lesson: back up your work and if something isn’t to your liking, put it in the bottom drawer and come back to it later.

She graduated from The University of Toronto with a Master of Arts degree, and started her career as a staff copywriter at Rogers Publishing, where she learned how to research and write copy on any topic from fashion, to pets, to parenting. Today, when she’s not writing novels, she works as a freelance copywriter for magazine publishers, fundraisers, advertising agencies, NGOs, movie producers, website owners and others. Her writing has won several industry awards for different magazines including Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Today’s Parent and Canada’s History.

Philippa also writes poetry. Her work has appeared in MotherVerse Magazine, The Adirondack Review, The Literary Review of Canada and other journals.

She lives in Toronto with her family (and resident gargoyle). She got the idea for The Gargoyle in My Yard one winter day when she and her children were walking through an old antique store in downtown Toronto. A stairway at the back of the store was filled with gargoyles, and when she took her eyes off them for a moment and looked again, she wondered if each one had moved, just a little.