

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Marianne is the author of four novels: Finding Ruby Draker, Shadows in the Aftermath, Reinhardt, and her latest release, Underneath the Fireflies, which has garnered a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, a Readers’ Favorite Award, and a Literary Titan Achievement Award. She lives in Ontario, Canada.


On working with us:
“If it wasn’t for your encouragement, it [my novel] certainly wouldn’t be as far along as it is. So thank you for your support and honesty. I truly wouldn’t be able to do it without you. You’re an inspiration to me.”


Editor: Jessica de Bruyn
Phil Eastwood served as a police officer for over 35 years in London and Canada. He earned his Masters of Art in Leadership and Training (MA) and became a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). He began telling daring tales of detectives to his children around the campfire, and now crafts tales of murder, mystery and suspense.


Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Carrianne Leung holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Equity Studies from OISE University of Toronto. Her debut novel, The Wondrous Woo (Inanna Publications) was shortlisted for the 2014 Toronto Book Awards. Her short story collection, That Time I Loved You (Harper Collins) was published in 2018.




Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Julie Larade, Cape Breton author and retired elementary school teacher, draws from her Acadian roots in her writings. Her first novel Laura’s Story, a work of historical fiction was published in November 2014. In June 2020, Julie published To Fly Again, a continuation of Laura’s Story.
In 2018, Julie published Lazare le détective: Un cadeau and its English version, Lazarus the Detective: The Gift, and in March 2020, Lazare le détective: Une quenouille dans les grenouilles and its English version, Lazarus the Detective: A House in the Mouse.
Editor: Karen Skeaff (Quevillon)
Jennifer Andrews, founder and CEO of FreshLeaf Marketing, is a marketing expert with a science background and an MBA who is passionate about simplifying the complex in order to grow scientific businesses. She is also a business mentor and industry expert through several accelerators and entrepreneurship centres across Southern Ontario, including Innovation Guelph.
Editor: Concetta Principe
Paul has been an illustrator, graphic designer, advertising art director, film director, screenplay writer, writer, and multiple disciplinary artist. Then, after five years of showing up each day writing and rewriting, memoirist. Paul lives with his wife and their little dog in the Beaches area of Toronto, where he also has a studio in which he works as an artist and writer.

Editor: Krista Foss
Tim is the owner of award-winning Cream Ridge Winery, in Cream Ridge, New Jersey.

Editor: Elen Turner
Anna Hall is an author, pastor, consultant and coach who loves superhero TV and movies almost as much as she loves travel and church.

Editors: Krista Foss & Sally Cooper
Anthony spends his non-writing time watching his kids play sport, travelling, and teaching drama and English at the local high school. He also tries to play hockey, rather unsuccessfully. When he gets stuck for ideas, he runs around Paris, Ontario, where he now lives. After focusing on creative non-fiction pieces for many years, Tess is his first novel.

Editor: Karen Quevillon
Tamika is a psychotherapist in private practice, award-winning social worker, counsellor, emotion code practitioner, and meditation teacher trainer. Former university instructor, school social worker, and co-founder of DevaTree Wellness, Tamika has explored the ethics of truth-telling with students from around the world. For over three decades, she has created and facilitated numerous trainings and programs, certifying hundreds of yoga and wellness leaders.

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Chukwudi Eze is an architect who graduated with triple-honours and a Phi-Beta-Kappa from Vasar College, received the William Kinne Award during his Master’s Degree from Columbia University, New York and studied creative writing at the University of Toronto. His novel, The Return of Half-Something, was shortlisted for the ANA Prose Prize.
Editor: Krista Foss, Formatting: Astrid Sucipto-Low, Website design: Astrid Sucipto-Low
Joan Ulsher is a San Antonio-based writer, philanthropist, retired U.S. Army Major, and award-winning child advocate. A survivor of abuse with first-hand experience of foster care, Joan serves children and teens as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA, in the foster care system in Bexar County, Texas. Learn more at https://www.joanulsher.com/

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Zoe Asher is the author of Choices, a four-book series. She divides her time between New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and the cobblestoned little nooks of Greece and Southern France.

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Tony Clark has been a professional magician for over 30 years. He has worked as a magic consultant for numerous hit television shows such as USA TV’s “Monk”, FOX TV’s “House MD”, ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”, Disney Channel’s “Suite Life On Deck”, and most recently NBC’s “The Good Place”. You can see more about Tony at his production company, Tony Clark Productions.

Editor: Sally Cooper
Lianne is a community organizer and volunteer; an avid world traveller; and she loves to play as much tennis and golf as is physically possible. Lianne and her husband Paul divide their time between their home in Toronto and their country retreat in the Caledon Hills, along with their two dogs, Scout and Coco. Lianne and Paul look forward to family dinners and travelling adventures with their three young adult children.


Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
With over 20 years in business accounting, Melissa Houston, CPA, CGA, is a money coach, founder of the “She Means Profit” blog and podcast, and is a regular contributor at Forbes and Entrepreneur. Her book, Cash Confident: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Profitable Business, was released in May 2023 by Post Hill Press (Simon and Schuster).

Editors: Amy Ettinger, Shasta Grant
Judy Haveson is a Texas-born New Yorker whose debut memoir was awarded the Chick Lit Café Book Excellence award for Best Memoir and first place in the Non-fiction/Personal Memoir Category at the BookFest Awards Spring 2023. Her work can be seen in Your Teen magazine and Next Avenue magazine.

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Cori is an internationally acclaimed composer and producer and the creator of “Global Shifts” and the Super Me! Empowerment Programs.

Editor: Krista Foss
Ordinary Mary is a lively narrative non-fiction book on the life and times of Mary Loretto Flynn (1904-1977). After her difficult childhood in Ottawa, Mary’s family moved to Pembroke, Ontario where, despite her best attempt to be ordinary, she had an extraordinary effect on thousands. Kit lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Editor: Krista Foss
Ryan Manucha is a Frederick Sheldon Fellow, Harvard University, and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University. Ryan is a widely published author on interprovincial trade. He lives in Toronto. *Winner of the 2023 Donner Prize (the best book on Canadian policy).

Instructor: Jenna Kalinsky
Michelle has contributed to anthologies Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World, Handmade Horror, and Mothers of Enchantment, among others. She has a novel forthcoming and lives in Ontario.

Editor: Krista Foss
Nonfiction writers Miriam Ticoll and Naomi Frankel are writing partners; this is their first collaborative chapbook.

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Maria’s Song, her first book which she self-published, is based on lived experience. A survivor of past trauma, an artist, poet and storyteller, Maria’s own dark night of the soul, took her on an inner spiritual journey back to her own divinity.

Editor: Jenna Kalinsky
Richard is an award-winning author of the Dead Path Chronicles 3-Book Series and the Alamptria series. He lives and writes in Canada.

Editor consultant: Jenna Kalinsky
Amanda Laird is a menstrual health specialist, holistic nutritionist and host of the podcast Heavy Flow, covering topics in the health and wellness industry. Publisher: Dundurn Press. Coach, Jenna Kalinsky
Editor: Karen Quevillon
Heather Mallett’s first poem was published in a school yearbook when she was seven, and she has been writing ever since. A member of the Anglican Church and the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa, she is active in her community, and enjoys swimming, canoeing, paddle boarding, and creativity of all kinds. Heather is the author of a self-published collection of poetry and photography, REFLECTIONS (2015). She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband of sixty-one years and their puppy, Bella.
Short Fiction, Op-Eds, and Nonfiction Articles & Essays
- Chantal Patenaude, “Frontotemporal dementia: Finding joy, love, and making new memories,” Healthing Magazine
- Liam Wade, “Never Meet Your Heroes,” Far Out Magazine
- Rebecca Kling, “I was pregnant when I confronted sexual violence for the first time,” Motherwell Magazine
- Yarden Levy, “When Legal Strategy Covers Domestic Violence,” Hamilton Spectator
- Corinne Clark, “Boy,” Storgy Magazine
- Catherine Forbes, The Criminal Bank and A Judge Sent From Heaven (e-book)
- Judy Haveson, “Music Brings Us Together: Bonding with My Video Game Loving Son,” Your Teen Magazine
- Judy Haveson, “A Letter to My Late Sister on Our Shared Birthday,” Next Avenue Magazine
- Yvonne Liu, “Shame and Stigma Made Me Keep My Mental Health Diagnosis a Secret,” Insider Magazine
- Heather Campbell, “Little One,” Berkshire Landscape Magazine
Academic Journal Articles
- Plurilingual Pedagogies: Critical and Creative Endeavors for Equitable Language in Education, by Dr. Sunny Man Chu Lau (Editor), Saskia Van Viegen (Editor). Springer, April 11 2020.
- “Critical Literacy and Additional Language Learning: An Expansive View of Translanguaging for Change-Enhancing Possibilities,” Sunny Man Chu Lau, Zhongfeng Tian, Angel M. Y. Lin. The Handbook of Critical Literacies. Routeledge. 2021
- “Intercultural education through a bilingual children’s rights project: reflections on its possibilities and challenges with young learners,” Dr. Sunny Man Chu Lau. Intercultural Education, Routeledge Press.
- “Danger/Opportunity in Language Teaching and Learning,” Belonging, Identity, Language, Diversity Research Group (BILD), Dr. Sunny Man Chu Lau
- Fortune, M.,Oncescu, J., Fisher, L, & Sweatman, M. (2022). COVID-19’s Impact on rural low income mothers, Leisure/Loisir
- Oncescu, J., & Fortune, M. (2022). Neoliberalism’s influence on recreation access provisions: Municipal recreation practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of Leisure Research.
- Oncescu, J., & Fortune, M. (2022). Keeping citizens living with low incomes an arm’s length away: The responsibilization of municipal recreation provisions. Leisure/Loisir.
- Oncescu, J. (2021) Low-income families and the community sport and leisure delivery systems. In. Dawn. E. Trussell & Ruth Jeanes (Ed) Families, Sport, Leisure and Social Justice. Routledge.
- Oncescu, J., Froese, J , Fortune, M., Green, L., & Jenkins, J., (2021). Faciliting recreation programs and
services for low-incopme citizens: Practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of Managing Sport and Leisure. - Oncescu, J. Green, L.,& Jenkins, J. (2021). Excluding low-income families: Neoliberalism’s effect on
community leisure provisions. Leisure Sciences. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2021.1987359 - Oncescu, J. (2020). Addressing the funding gaps in recreation access provisions: The role of leisure education. Managing Sport & Leisure
- Oncescu, J. & Loewen,M. (2020) Community recreation provisions that support low-income families’ access to recreation. Leisure/Loisir
- Oncescu, J. & Neufeld, C. (2020) Bridging low-income families to community leisure provisions: The role of leisure education. Leisure/Loisir, DOI: 10.1080/14927713.2020.1780931
- Oncescu, J., & Neufeld, C. (2019): Low-income families and the positive outcomes associated with participation in a community-based leisure education program, Annals of Leisure Research, DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2019.1624586