Joan Kenny’s life has been as adventurous and unpredictable as a colourful scarf caught in the wind. She was born in N. Ireland lived in Canada, and spent eighteen years in England and Holland. Her travels have offered rich experiences to draw upon and provided vivid details for her haunting books.
- Author -
Joan Kenny
Joan ushered in the year 1960, born on the First of January, in Northern Ireland.
A traveler from the start, she has lived primarily in Canada, England and the Netherlands.
Her early childhood was spent in Montreal, Quebec. Summer months saw her in Prince Edward Island in the town of Crappo, learning the pleasure of the fragrance of chamomile from the sandy beaches and pungencies of creosote from the train tracks.
Joan’s preteen years saw her in Kincardine, a small town on the shores of Lake Huron, Ontario.
She and her 3 sisters lived in a hundred year old farmhouse surrounded by cornfields and Cedar and Hawthorne woods. Joan loves animals and she dreamed of horse riding from early childhood. In 1968 Patches, a Pinto, almost the same age as Joan, realised her dream. Patches gave Joan an opportunity to explore the neighbouring cornfields and woods. When her sister joined her riding adventures, they would take their ponies to the lake and swimming with them in the summer, made barn cleaning worth the while; it was an idyllic childhood with the lessons of responsibility and personal freedom to explore the countryside.
The barn served more than just horse housing; it was such a loved passion, Joan and her sister would do their homework on horseback in the stables.
Joan’s other passion began developing in her teens; that of writing. Fuelled by her ferocious love of reading, she recalls her favourite childhood book was My Friend Flicka by Maureen O’Hara. In the busyness of her responsibilities, Joan still found gaps to keep extensive journals. These were her training years to become the author she set as her goal.
Joan was a good girl then she rebelled. With a James Dean feel, she ran away from home at 16. Nevertheless, she stifled her rebel nature after 2 months, and returned. Her travel bug finally bit in Joan’s second last year of school when she went to Switzerland, Austria and Germany with the Geology club.
In life, all things have consequences, and the consequence of her rebellious spirit meant Joan had to put in extra time at a Vocational School, to complete her high school diploma.
Initially, Joan chose Photo Journalism as a career path but found it did not present her with the opportunity of expressing herself in text as much as she had hoped.
Trading her camera for a pair of skis, and a cross country trip, took Joan to Banff, Alberta. Waitressing at the Banff Springs Hotel, Joan kept fit on the slopes in winter and on the bicycle trails of the majestic Canadian Rockies in the summer.
The rebel in Joan had not yet been subdued and at 24, she knew she had to put distance between her and her then addictive nature. Crossing the Atlantic for the second time in her young life, Joan began her travels in England. Traveling though, costs money and with Saney Guruji Socialist Cooperative Youth Hostel as her base she met fellow travelers and using contract work in the financial sector, Joan lived in London for 16 years.
Between contracts, Joan explored the surrounding countries of Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and of course to Northern Ireland where she met relatives.
Youth hostels offer community living, and for a time Joan loved the cosmopolitan atmosphere. She met a man there, got married and honeymooned in Paris. Her family back in Canada found out about the wedding from the postcards mailed in France.
Travelling with a partner is more fun and for 10 years, Joan and her husband lived the life of working vacationers.
Destinations included much of Europe, more of Canada and Africa featured too. The north and south of Africa provided Joan with sun and sand, months in historic Egypt and wildlife South Africa. Shorter trips focused around food, history, architecture and skiing in Turkey, Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Germany, Italy and Romania.
All through her wild days, Joan still kept writing.
The constant busyness of traveling and the demands of the working vacationers lifestyle, took its toll on Joan and her marriage started to feel shallow. With a job opportunity to move to Den Hague in the Netherlands, Joan and her husband gave themselves a quieter space to build a deeper relationship. She got a job and he got promoted. Joan does not give up easily but after 4 more years of travelling, she finally called it quits.
Back on the shores of Lake Huron, A Snake at My Shoulder was completed in an isolated cottage where Joan was alone for six weeks. She wrote and wrote and wrote till it was done.
Downtown Toronto was Joan’s next home for a year and there, she met Tom Daniel. Joan knew the value of setting goals and city life had its limits for her. She wanted to feel the embrace of the open spaces and the smell of open countryside offered in fields. Her 18 years in Europe had kept her away from horses and now she decided to buy a house in Port Hope, on the shores of Lake Ontario, where she wrote and worked at a horse farm. Tom knew he had met his soul mate and he committed to settling down.
Jobs relocate people, Joan and Tom made their final home in Whitby, again on the shores of Lake Ontario. And again, Joan bought Jack Sparrow, a pinto quarter horse.
Joan’s story was not well, though. Deep depression and a diagnosis of bipolar have been struggles Joan has had to deal with.
Tom is Joan’s safe place, he is her home. He gave her the happy life she had been craving. She has filled her days, spending time with God and the dozens of wonderful friends she has made along the way.
Joan is working on a new book, still inspired to encourage those who are dealing with mental health challenges that survival is possible.