Born on the Canadian prairie in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dawn moved to Toronto to attend graduate school and stayed. She now lives on the shore of Lake Ontario, in a turn-of-the-century house built by a retired sea captain. She shares it with her husband, John, dogs Molly and Sam, a black cat named Satchmo, and an assortment of tropical fish.

"I've always fantasized that the sea captain buried treasure in the backyard," she told us. However, the only things she's unearthed thus far have been bones the dogs buried.

Dawn's first book for Harlequin was a 1987 Intrigue. Since then, she has regularly written for both Intrigue and Harlequin Superromance. She has also published nonfiction and shorter fiction.

Before becoming a full-time writer, she taught English at a Toronto university and then worked in a quasi-government job — which drove her to seek escape in a writing career. Once or twice a year, she ventures back into the real world to teach a course on writing romance novels at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnic University.