Burlington author publishes suspenseful debut novel

Seeing her own words in print has been a surreal experience for Burlington’s Heather Dixon, who never thought she'd make a career as an author.

Now, Dixon, 44, is adjusting to her new groove. Her new book (297 pages in paperback) titled Burlington, hits bookshelves August 22.

“When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a writer, but I never thought writing a book was something I could work full time doing,” she said.

Coincidentally, the book is not about Burlington at all – at least not this city.

In fact, when she first started writing the book, she was looking to find a place with a setting similar to Burlington.

“It’s where I live and it’s what I know, but I thought it was too close to home.”

What she discovered was 27 places named Burlington in the United States, and more across Canada.

“The more I thought about it, it became a metaphor for the experience,” said the married mom of three.

“This mom is trying to find somewhere new to live, trying to find a place in the world. As mothers, Burlington could be anywhere. That feeling is a universal thing.”

She’s been in the situation herself, moving from Mississauga to Burlington 11 years ago, as a new mom.

This is the third book Dixon has written, but the first to come out. 

She started sending it around in late 2020, and it wasn’t until 2021 that the publisher picked it up, she said, adding it’s a small Canadian firm – Rising Action Publishing.

She said she was participating in a “Twitter pitch party,” when writers go online, pitch a book and literary agents will get in touch if they’re interested.

For many years, she worked as a copywriter at a Toronto advertising agency and later did some freelance writing. After having children, she wrote mom blogs about motherhood and decided to pursue writing more as they got older.

She does most of her work early in the morning. She had heard about a 5 a.m. writers’ club phenomenon.

“I’m a morning person, so my brain works best in the morning,” she explained. “I have three daughters, 13, 11 and nine. I work full-time as managing editor of activeforlife.com, encouraging the love of movement and activity in kids from a young age.”

After hearing about Burlington being published, she’s excited because she’s already got two more books set to be released in the coming months, each of them by a different publisher.

Burlington is loosely based on her experiences.

“The first initial spark of the idea happened when I was taking my daughter to school for the first time… an all-new experience for both of us. She was starting and I was new, there’s these little groups, and I didn’t understand where I fit in,” she said. “I had to make a more interesting plot, but It grew from there.

“It’s about a mother who moves to this new neighbourhood with her family, and when she gets there she doesn’t fit in, doesn’t belong, doesn’t understand the new neighbourhood. There’s a group of women who welcome her in and one of those mom friends goes missing. So the mom is still trying to understand her place and what happened to her friend. How much does she want to ruffle the feathers of the friends she’s made? What’s more important? Fitting in or uncovering the truth.

“It’s a little bit quieter, even though it sounds like a thriller. There’s more suspense and it’s really character-driven.”

Dixon’s second book is about two sisters.

“I have three daughters. I wanted to write about that relationship and explore their dynamic. Whenever I want to process something, I write about it. I started to write from there and now Last Summer at the Lake House is completed."

It’s available October 26 or for pre-order at https://geni.us/287-cr-two-am.

When she’s not writing, she’s a rink mom; all three of her daughters play hockey. She also enjoys jogging with some local mom friends.

“It’s one of my favourite ways to start the day; I love to be active and outside. I’d like to keep doing that,” said Dixon, who lists Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood, Karma Brown and Brit Bennett as her favourite authors. “I enjoy the balance; this is my personal thing that I’m doing for myself.”

She’s really enjoying what she’s doing right now, adding it takes about a year from start to finish to complete each book.

While she doesn’t have any firmed-up plans for future books, she has a few "loose ideas that I’ve been thinking about for a while, that you can’t stop thinking about.”

Her book will be available at Chapters and Indigo, online and at amazon.ca. She’s hoping the Burlington Library will also carry it once it’s available.

Dixon will hold a book launch meet and greet on Wednesday, Sept. 6, at Nickel Brook Brewing, 3426 Mainway, from 6 to 9 p.m. Burlington will be available, and Dixon will be signing copies.