C.J. Masson is the nom de plume of Ann Jamieson. Born in Singapore and educated in Canada and New Zealand, she graduated B.A. in Modern Languages from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, NZ. After working in Toronto, she spent two months traveling in Europe before settling in Paris to improve her ability in French. She worked for a Canadian multinational company for 18 months before returning to Canada.
Work experience here included senior positions in political offices in Ottawa and in the Public Service of Canada. She honed her research skills as Senior Researcher for the Royal Commission on the Status of Pensions in Ontario, for whom she prepared several background papers and wrote two chapters of the final report. For the last 15 years of her career – as C.J. Masson Communications Inc. – she consulted in communications management to the governments of Canada, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, specializing in communications auditing and strategic planning.
She retired in 2003 and settled in Dieppe where she lives on property bordering the Petitcodiac Marsh with a large garden.
Music has always played a large part in her life. She studied piano for 15 years, beginning at age four. In retirement, she has served on Board of Directors for Opera New Brunswick, the Greater Moncton Music Festival, the Moncton Community Concerts, and continues to volunteer for Été musical, the summer music festival held at the Historic Church in Grand Barachois.
She recently joined Marcinson Press for the publication of a U.S. edition of Voices in the Fire. A historical novel, it tells of the founding of Guysborough, NS, by Loyalists – both Black and White – who had settled in St. Augustine after the Revolutionary War, and by Scots from the early years of the Highland Clearances.
She is fluent in French, and has basic German and Spanish.
