About Anita Mae Draper
Anita Mae Draper (nee Muir) was born in Geraldton, Northern Ontario. After many moves, the family settled down in Winnipeg Manitoba. A teenager who loved to read, Anita Mae began to write stories centered on wagon trains and gunfights. Her Grade 10 teacher said, "You should be writing about romance like the rest of the girls in class." And she was. She just liked adding action scenes to her tales. At 15 Anita Mae wrote the first draft of a pioneer novella then set it aside in favor of the work force. At 17 she signed up for a career in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and within a few years, married a hero in uniform and began a family. Although she didn't work on her novella during her military years, she improved her craft knowledge by using quiet midnight shifts to complete a creative writing course. After 20 years of service, Anita Mae and her husband retired from the CAF and settled down to raise their two daughters. But their family wasn't complete and over the next few years, God blessed them with the birth of 2 sons. A final move to their prairie farm awakened Anita Mae's dormant dreams, but with goat kids in the barn and human kids in the house, writing was low on the To Do list.
In 2005, Anita Mae made writing a priority in her life when her husband finished a Love Inspired novel and said, "You could write one of these. Why don't you?" Why not, indeed. Anita Mae sold the goats and bought a used laptop. As soon as the school bus pulled out of the yard, she sat down to write about a world where faith and romance were woven under the western skies she'd grown to love. Anita Mae's stories are set in the American Old West, during the early years of the Canadian Mounties, and in Ontario's Edwardian period. Her characters are strong because the land demands it. They are realistic individuals who sit up and notice when that special person God’s chosen just for them walks by. They aren't perfect and their courtship won’t be easy. And if they don’t know about God at the beginning of their story, they will by the end. Anita Mae often has a camera in hand and can be found photographing anything that strikes her interest. Many of her photographs have been turned into puzzles on her Fun page. Love in Store, a novella in The Secret Admirer's Romance Collection, Barbour Publishing Inc., May 2017. Sweet Love Grows, a novella in The American Heiress Brides Collection from Barbour Publishing Inc., January 2017. Romantic Refinements, a novella in the Austen in Austin Volume 1 collection by WhiteFire Publishing released in Jan 2016. This 4-novella collection of stories set in historic Austin, Texas is based on the novels of Jane Austen. Anita Mae Draper is honored that her short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing is contained in A Cup of Christmas Cheer Volume 4 Heartwarming Tales of Christmas Present, Guideposts Books, October 2014. Anita Mae's short story, Riding on a Christmas Wish debuted in A Cup of Christmas Cheer Volume 1 Tales of Faith and Family, Guideposts Books, October 2013. Anita Mae is a member of the following writer groups: |