Although Vanessa has worked as an accountant and a college instructor, she has wanted to write novels ever since the age of 12, when she wrote 50 pages of an unfinished novel while confined to bed with a mysterious virus. Although she recovered from the virus, she's been addicted to writing ever since.

Vanessa lives on Vancouver Island with her husband, a young-at-heart Irish Setter and a kleptomaniac cat named Zorro.