Arlene Gaal was born and raised in a coal-mining town in south-eastern BC. She has been a teacher, author and journalist. She and her husband Joe and three children moved to Kelowna in 1968, where she became interested in the legend of Ogopogo. Her first book, Beneath the Depths, was launched in Kelowna in 1976. 1984 Hancock House published Ogopogo: The Million Dollar Monster in 1984. Since then, she has consulted for international television crews, as an Ogopogo expert. Arlene Gaal was awarded a lifetime honorary membership to the B.C. Cryptozoology Society. She still lives and works in Kelowna, B.C. with her daughter Laurie and three grandchildren. Her husband Joe died on December 25, 1986, and her oldest son Joey was murdered in Pattaya, Thailand, on April 30, 1989. Gaal writes a weekly column for the Kelowna Daily Courier.

Author of:

In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan (Hancock, 2001)
Ogopogo: The Million Dollar Monster (Hancock, 1984)
Memoirs of Michel-Natal, 1899-1971 (Rutland: Self-published, 1971)
Times to Remember: Michel-Natal, 1899-1980 (Self-published, 1980)

[BCBW 2004]