…she is a first-generation Canadian. 

…her parents are immigrants — Norwegian dad, Scottish mom — who met at a YMCA dance in Toronto.

…because of her parents' heavy accents, she paid careful attention to words (especially after she got laughed at for telling a friend she was packing her zutcase).

…in middle school, she read the dictionary front to back.

…she loved the word spelunk and announced to her entire fifth-grade class that she was going to be a spelunker (even though the only caves she'd seen were in National Geographic).

…she went caving once, years later, in Yorkshire, England. It didn't go well. She also jumped out of an airplane, but that's another story.

… when counting, or doing quick mental math, jane sees numbers as strange moving shapes like a wonky snakes and ladders board. Doesn't everyone?

…she is eight years younger than one sister and seven years older than the other.

…she wrote her first short story at age nine while riding the school bus. It featured identical twins who...wait for it...were also riding a school bus! One twin was the fabulous Miranda Ann, whom everyone called Randy.

…as a kid, jane hated her name and was convinced her parents had erred. In high school, she signed her artwork Jain, but that didn't make her like the name more.

…as a grown-up, she's still doesn't feel like a jane. Maybe one day she'll get around to legally changing it to Miranda Ann. 

... she's not always as smart as she thinks she is. She thought she didn't need to study for her written driver's test and failed the first time.

…she also believed that she didn't need driving lessons and failed her first road test.

…she let her high school guidance counselor convince her to enroll in engineering (boy was he was wrong!)

…she studied at four different universities: Queen's, McMaster, University of Calgary, and University of British Columbia, and has degrees from three of those.

…she met her husband at Queen's during engineering frosh week while being made to get her arm dyed purple. When she objected, the Frecs picked her up and dunked her in the pail of purple dye!

…she has lived in Canada, England, The United Arab Emirates, and The Netherlands. 

…she lives part-time in the USA.

…she became a vegan in 2019 and hasn't looked back (well, maybe a little. She misses Dutch cheese. Hup Hup Holland!)

…she's traveled so much, and for so long, that KLM airplanes feel like a comfy second home.

…she has two kids — John and Puffin — who have her heart, and always amaze and impress her.