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Join guest host Pat Buckna (Only Children) on Author Connection, a free online live event with the Federation of British Columbia Writers on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 2 pm. In the second of a series of three interviews, Pat will interview Mary O’Sullivan and Jennifer Rouse Barbeau, both among finalists for the Whistler Independent Book Awards. Register for this free live online event at bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers, and a Zoom link will be emailed to you. When it’s time for the event, click on the link and follow the prompts to join the conversation!
Mary O'Sullivan holds a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto in Applied Psychology. She has worked in school boards as a psychometrist and spent thirteen years as a case worker for families supporting intellectually challenged members.
Lazarus Heart tells the true story of a former social worker who gave up her career in order to save the life of one client.
Mary, a caseworker at an agency for intellectually challenged people, meets her new client, Chris, whose family wants to put him in a group home. As she gets to know him, Mary begins to question Chris’s diagnosis. Even as his life circumstances appear to improve, with a job and a new home, Chris seems to get worse. After a series of disasters, including a suicide attempt, leave him homeless, Mary takes Chris to stay with her family temporarily. That’s when the memories come pouring out.This true story provides a unique view of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), both from the perspective of a sexual abuse victim recovering the memories of his experiences and from the day-to-day observations of the person helping him through it. This grim topic is addressed with love, courage, and even humour, and Chris’s journey to recovery offers insights into the effects of PTSD and the strategies for dealing with its symptoms.For the past nineteen years, Mary has been supporting “Chris,” learning about PTSD, and drafting the memoirs of this journey. The families Mary has worked with are her heroes and role models, and without their examples the events in Lazarus Heart would not have happened. Find out more and follow Mary's blog at
www.maryosullivan.com
Jennifer Rouse Barbeau is a trade-published author, professional illustrator, and full-time college professor. She is both author and illustrator of the novel Swampy Jo (Your Scrivener Press), and illustrator of the children’s book La Laineuse (by Rachel Desaulniers, Centre FORA), and the non-fiction fact book Come On Over! Northeastern Ontario A to Z (by Dieter Buse and Graeme Mount, Your Scrivener Press). Her writing has appeared in Canadian national magazines as well as in the anthology Bluffs: Northeastern Ontario Stories from the Edge (Your Scrivener Press) and Sulphur: Laurentian University’s Literary Journal (Laurentian Printing). Her academic writing was published in eCampus Ontario’s Applications of LinkedIn Learning in Ontario’s Post-Secondary Institutions. She lives and works in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, with husband and author Barry Grills.
The novella Dying Hour is part prose, part radio play, part theatrical script. Stan Templeman is a late night radio deejay who has deemed the hour from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. to be the 'dying hour' because his chest tightens at that time of night. He challenges his listening audience to speculate about how they might die. Timothy is a nine-year-old boy who calls in to share how he thinks he will die. In so doing, Timothy reveals details about his family situation that get other adult listeners riled up. Over the course of several nights, Timothy and Stan chat on air, and other adult listeners chime in, speculating about why Timothy can't sleep; they underline their own ills and those of society as they attempt to diagnose, and help, Timothy. And yet the person with the most to learn about himself (and his past) is Stan, who has only his large and gravelly voice to keep him company through the wee hours of his late night radio show, in an empty sound studio filled with Stan's visions of his mother and father as Stan grew up.
*This event is subsidized by the Federation of British Columbia Writers. Donations are welcome here to help cover the costs of special events like this one so more can attend. Thank you for connecting with us!
