Having taught middle and high school English for eighteen years, she applied and was awarded a rotary grant to write a young-adult novel, modeling for her students what it takes to be a writer at work. The idea for her book, True North, came when she and her husband, Geoff, chose to release their remaining embryos to another family instead of discarding them. Heather graduated from Connecticut College with a bachelor’s in English and earned a master’s from Plymouth State University as a K-12 reading specialist. She was a participant in the NWPNH open institute for teachers of writing in 2009 and served as a mentor to PSU English education students. She has now been teaching for 20 years.