Gail MacMillan has always wanted to be a writer. She was 30 years old when her first book, Forest of Fear, was published for Avalon in 1974. Since then she has gone on to write three novels for Avalon, a variety of articles and stories for magazines in Canada and the United States, and two books on her favorite dog, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. For a 1992 article on this breed, Gail was awarded a Maxwell Medal in New York by the Dog Writers' Association of America for the best article in a canine magazine or newspaper.

Gail's other interests include reading, horses, and canoeing. She currently lives in Bathurst, New Brunswick with her husband, Ron, and two dogs, a Sheltie mix and, of course, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.