Category: Writer Local to Kawartha Lakes

J. Stephen Thompson

On By Sara WalkerIn Fiction, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poet, Short story writer, Writer Local to Kawartha LakesLeave a comment

J. Stephen Thompson is a retired public health microbiologist, born in Toronto, raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, and now living with his wife in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario at the edge of the Carden Plain.

His science background continues to inform his writing. He published more than three dozen papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Lincoln Cathedral is his second novel. His first novel, The Aftermath, was researched while working in post-war Kosova.

Following his father’s death in 2003 he published a book of his father’s photography, Reflections Through a Special Lens and republished his father’s short World War II memoir, Bomber Crew.

Thompson coauthored several collective projects with other local writers, Tales from the Raven Café, a collaborative novel, and The Kawartha Soul Project, The Kawartha Imagination Project, story anthologies with Canadian Authors – Peterborough, and contributed to Kawartha Lakes Stories: Autumn. A short story, Aubergine, was published in the on-line magazine overtheredline.com in 2013.

Website:

www.jstephenthompson.ca

 

Skinner, Shannon

On By Sara WalkerIn Fiction, Writer Local to Kawartha LakesLeave a comment

Sharon Skinner writes as Shannon Skinner.

Sharon was born on 17 September 1944, in Winnipeg, where her father was a flying officer. When she was nearly one year old, the family moved to Guelph. She is the eldest child of her family with one brother and two sisters. She married in 1966 and later divorced.

After her marrying, she started to write more until it became an obsession. One of the first was an English mystery, Murder at Ashley Manor.

During the years from 1967–1991, she wrote many stories: “The Key,” “The Promise,” “The Legend of Death Valley,” “A Cry in the Dark,” “Never Say Good-Bye,” and White Dove and the Heirs of Falcon Ridge.

She now lives in the Kawartha Lakes area. 

Her book, White Dove and the Heirs of Falcon Ridge, is partially inspired by the Boyd family of Bobcaygeon.

Built on a young woman’s strength, love and her undying love for her husband and family, White Dove And the Heirs of Falcon Ridge is a fictional story that deals with this woman’s life in the 1800’s until the early 2000 period. Anne, who, at the age of ten, has been living with her mother and grandfather. Anne’s mother is abused by her father and beaten continually. Her mother’s dreams are of finding a better life for her daughter and herself. It is a story of a very unique family, their struggles, heartbreak, love, faith, and their strength to always draw the home where they would find hope, love, and honor.

Books:

White Dove and the Heirs of Falcon Ridge (2010)

Further Reading:

http://www.mykawartha.com/whatson-story/3720564-avid-writer-publishes-first-book/

https://www.facebook.com/White-Dove-And-the-Heirs-of-Falcon-Ridge

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4331401-sharon-skinner

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4410344.htm

Victoria Ryce

On By Sara WalkerIn Non-Fiction, Writer Local to Kawartha LakesLeave a comment

Bethany-area resident and former stockbroker, Ryce is the co-author of The CEO of Everything with Gail Vaz-Oxlade, a book that tackles the challenges that women face when they find themselves suddenly single later in life.

“People like routine,” Ryce said. “When you become uncoupled, all of the pieces of your life shift, and some people don’t know what to do when you normally had four of you playing cards, and there are only three of you now. Other friends aren’t sure whether they can talk about your former partner when they invite you to dinner.

“There is a huge shift for everybody when this happens,” she said. It’s important to be patient when “everyone is finding their way.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/single-is-fun-1.3937349

Ryce’s first book, By Me, About Me is a book of prompts to help the writer put down their life story.

Books:

The CEO of Everything: Flying solo and soaring (2016)

By Me, About Me (1996)