Born in Bralorne on November 17, 1952, Yvonne Maximchuk was raised in B.C.

As a single mother of two in White Rock, Maximchuk fell in love with a prawn fisherman who fished at Boundary Bay. She and her children moved with him to Echo Bay where there was no running water, electricity had to be generated, and the closest grocery store was two hours away by boat. She cleared land and helped build a homestead off the grid with her husband Albert Munro, befriending Billy Proctor and gaining access to his trove of stories. She spent ten years working with Bill Proctor on the manuscript to her first book Full Moon, Flood Tide. She was a deckhand for Bill Procter for eight years, and worked as a salmon and ling cod fisher.

Yvonne Maximchuk has been a painter and potter for thirty years, and she built an art retreat on her seaside property at Echo Bay. "Contrary to popular opinion," she says, "I believe that learning to colour inside the lines adds to a person's creative freedom rather than detracting from it." Consequently she has published a colouring book for adults, Colour the British Columbia Coast (Harbour, 2016), complete with artist's tips.

Her fifth title is a mystery novel set in the Broughton Archipelago settlement called Echo Bay. Eight years in the making, it draws on Maximchuk's 35 years of experience in the area as well as tales from her neighbour, Bill Proctor. Reflecting the area's many inlets, islands and small-town life, the story kicks off when a local prawn checker goes missing. At first, no one is bothered much until young boaters find a body washed up on a nearby islet. It throws the local residents into a furor of suspicion made worse when the RCMP show up. Known for taking justice into their own hands, only time will tell if local traditions will lead to disaster or a fitting outcome.

EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Artist, art instructor

AWARDS: Nominated Bill Duthie's Booksellers Choice Award

Reviews of the author's work by BC Studies:
Drawn to Sea: Paintbrush to Chainsaw: Carving out a life on BC's Rugged Raincoast

BOOKS:

Full Moon, Flood Tide (Harbour Publishing, 2003). With Bill Proctor

Drawn to Sea: Paintbrush to Chainsaw - Carving Out a Life on B.C.'s Rugged Raincoast (Caitlin, 2013) $24.95 978-1-927575-03-1

Tide Rips and Back Eddies - Bill Proctor's Tales of Blackfish Sound (Harbour, 2015) $24.95 978-1-55017-725-1. With Bill Proctor

Colour the British Columbia Coast (Harbour, 2016) $19.95 978-1-55017-773-2

Murder Rides a Gale Force Wind - an Island Mystery (SeaRose Publishing, 2022) 9781777958503

[BCBW 2022] "Fishing"