About

Blue Skies and Alibis by Diane Bator

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel like I should be doing something else.” – Gloria Steinem

I lost my day job in January 2026. Although I was stunned, it gave me time to reflect on my journey. Especially, my writing, which for me is like breathing.

I’ve carried stories in my head, and in notebooks, wherever I’ve moved. My biggest goal as a kid was to appear on the Oprah show with my bestseller. I just needed to write one. My first completed novel, Fantasy, is still waiting for the day I go back as a grown up and finesse it’s adolescent writing.

I wrote my second book, The Bookstore Lady, after moving to Ontario from Edmonton. It wasn’t easy writing with three active kids underfoot, but I admit they did help inspire some fun ideas and I learned to use those precious minutes while waiting for appointments, while the kids practiced sports or instruments, and even while cooking dinner some nights.

In 2007, I was fortunate to join a writing group in Orangeville, Ontario that was both supportive and encouraging. I worked hard to finish The Bookstore Lady and submitted it to publishers and agents. Whoever I could. Rookie mistake.

As the rejection slips piled up, I began to feel defeated. Thankfully, I found an online critique group. One of the other writers was a teacher who gave great feedback and, after a couple more rejections, I swallowed my pride to ask for her advice. She was happy to help with edits, then told me to send it to her friend. The friend, turned out to be an agent in West Virginia.

It’s hard to get anyone in the industry to read or acknowledge your work. Suddenly, I was talking to an agent, who signed me less than a month later. She connected me to a Canadian publisher right here in Alberta.

Around the same time, I stumbled across a contest called Murder in Ink run by a small publisher out of North Bay, Ontario. The premise was to use characters and clues from a mystery party game to write a 16,000 word novella. Incredibly, I won and soon held my first published book in my hands. A dream come true, plus it hooked me on writing mysteries!

Shortly after that, The Bookstore Lady was published, and my agent found a home for my Gilda Wright Mysteries with a publisher in California. I was on a roll. Three books in, they changed their book list and dropped a bunch of authors, including me. I pitched my Gilda series to my Canadian publisher who happily took them and we designed new covers. My agent and I parted ways amicably and kept in touch until she passed away suddenly. Over the next 10 years, I added Sugarwood Mysteries and Glitter Bay Mysteries for a total of fifteen novels.

When I moved back to Alberta after a divorce and raising my kids, I got to work with the publisher, meet several of the other authors, and learn. After a falling out, I left them in January 2024 to start my own publishing company, Escape With a Writer. My plan was to reedit, create covers, and launch my previously published books as well as A.J. Cadell Mysteries and Dash Allman, PI.

My latest book, Diamond on the Rocks, came out in September 2025, right before finding out I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. The diagnosis did hamper my creativity, but overall, I’m in a new phase of life with blue skies overhead.