Garry Ryan taught for a little over thirty years in Calgary Public Schools.In 2004, Garry published his first Detective Lane novel, Queen’s Park. The second, The Lucky Elephant Restaurant, won a 2007 Lambda Literary Award. He has since published four more titles in the series: A Hummingbird Dance, Smoked,Malabarista and Foxed. In 2009, Ryan was awarded Calgary’s Freedom of Expression Award. Blackbirds, his second series, was published in 2012.