Senja Viola Suutari was born on bitter winter's night in a rough-hewn log cabin in the northern wilds of Ontario, Canada, January 17, 1932.
Her mother, Hanna Haapala, was a midwife. Her father, Otto Suutari, was a miner. When a dramatic fire destroyed her childhood home at the age of two, the family settled in a rough and tumble mining community, Kirkland Lake, where she would spend the next fifteen years.
At the age of seventeen she immigrated to the United States. First to Plainfield, Connecticut and then to Miami, Florida where she taught ballroom dancing for Arthur Murray International Dance Studios. She was an award-winning dancer and teacher. She married in 1956 and had two children: a son, Chris Allen Valero, and a daughter, Holly Valero.
She traded in Miami's suburban scene for a run-down 92.8 acre farm in Bradford County, northcentral Pennsylvania in 1970. The family raised sheep, chickens, bailed 30 acres of hay, grew everything from oats to wheat, and tapped their own maple trees and made maple syrup. Senja explored organic gardening, mushroom hunting, canning everything from homemade jellies to vegetables, and creating her own dandelion and elberberry wines.
But her first love was writing. She journaled her farming adventures for Farm Wife News magazine and Organic Gardening. She wrote occasional newspaper and magazine articles and several novels. She also created thousands of crossword puzzles for TV Guide throughout the 1970s-2000.
Divorced in 1983, Senja returned to Canada and made her home on Vancouver Island in Brother Twelve country in the town of Nanaimo, BC. She would spend the next 30 years writing and gardening.
Her writing style blends Finnish mysticism with a healthy dollop of scary. Her books include "The Hell What Broke Loose When Charlie Came," "Kissa" (The Devil's Cat) and "Beware the Laughing Blackbirds"–published by Boilerplate Books, LLC.
She was at her desk, in her office, working on her fourth novel, "Human," on Friday, August 28, 2015 during the early afternoon when she died instantaneously. Her death was briefly investigated by Canadian authorities. No cause was determined beyond natural causes.
A private family service was held on the property.
01/17/1932 - 08/28/2015