About the Author
About the Author
Lorna Lyons
Lorna Lyons’ road is long and full of turns. Her current work as a technical editor and owner of Twinflower Communications Ltd. is just one step in a career driven by dedication and determination. Lorna Lyons grew up in rural Alberta, in the 1940s and ’50s, in a time and place where women were not prominent in STEM. Despite that, Lorna did not shy away from the challenges of joining her colleagues in the most remote areas, where strength and grit were needed to survive. While her career was focused on studying animals, writing always came easily to Lorna. Recently, she joined a memoir-writing class, which became the impetus for writing this collection. Lorna’s skill with words allowed her to transform memories and stories from family members into compelling scenes.
Lorna Lyons currently lives in Victoria, BC.
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Lorna Lyons has had a multi-faceted career that began when she became a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) pioneer in field biology/zoology and boreal ecology. Lorna’s early career saw her working in remote areas of Canada, including the Northwest Territories and Iceberg Alley in Newfoundland’s Notre Dame Bay, where she lived on an uninhabited island for two years with her husband, young daughter and two dogs.
Lorna’s memoir, Drinking from the Iceberg, is a story of family, exploration, perseverance and lived experience pursuing a scientific career at a time when few women worked as field zoologists.
Growing up in the Peace River Country of rural Northern Alberta, Lorna’s early life experiences engendered in her a love of nature and the outdoors. Her family spent many weekends camping and picnicking at numerous locations within a hundred miles of Beaverlodge.
On one occasion they drove to three different places attempting to avoid the rain and, in the end, prepared supper on the tailgate of their station wagon and ate in the car. On many trips, Lorna could be found looking for specimens, as in the photo.
Although Lorna’s initial career focused on zoology and boreal ecology, her life since then has undergone many twists and turns, culminating in Lorna forming her own technical editing company, Twinflower Communications Ltd., and working for 15 years in the oil and gas industry, editing engineering reports, system descriptions and other technical documents.
In 2023, Lorna came out of retirement to accept the position of Editor/Writer for Coast Mountain College in Terrace, BC, a northern community not unlike the one she grew up in, although she did work from a distance using modern-day technology.
Now fully retired, Lorna writes (a second memoir is underway) and takes part in a number of activities in Victoria, BC, where she lives. Lorna still drives her Toyota Yaris on an annual road trip to Alberta to visit family and friends.
“Mine has been a most interesting life,” she says, “and I intend to keep it that way right to the very end.”
More About Lorna Lyons
Education
1968-74
Master of Science
University of Manitoba
My degree focused on population dynamics of small mammal; in particular, Microtus pennsylvanicus and Clethrionomys gapperi, on an uninhabited island in Newfoundland.
1961-1965
Bachelor of Science
University of Alberta
My major was zoology/boreal ecology and my minor was English. I worked as the curator of the zoology museum and as a field assistant in the Northwest Territories.
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