Join us Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. for the Golden Ears Writers FBCW Spotlight. This free event will be held via Zoom videoconferencing. To register, visit bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers and register; a free Zoom link will be emailed to all registrants prior to the event. Retain that email, and click on the Zoom link to join the event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Crime writer Cathy Ace
http://www.cathyace.com/
Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea, Wales, but migrated to Canada aged 40. Having traveled the world for many years, for business and pleasure, Cathy put her knowledge of the cultures, history, art, and food she encountered to good use in the Cait Morgan Mysteries - a series of traditional closed-circle whodunits featuring a globetrotting, foodie, Welsh Canadian professor of criminal psychology. These books have now been optioned by Free@Last TV, which produces the hit Agatha Raisin series. Ace also writes the WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries, which feature four female PIs (one is Welsh, one Irish, one Scottish, one English). They tackle quirky – and quintessentially British – cases from their base at a Welsh stately home, set in the rolling countryside of the Wye Valley. Her standalone tale of psychological suspense, The Wrong Boy, became a #1 bestseller on amazon. Cathy now lives on five rural acres in British Columbia, where her ever-supportive husband ensures she’s able to work full-time as an author, and enjoy her other great passion – gardening. She’s been shortlisted for the Bony Blithe Award three times in four years, winning in 2015, has won an IPPY Award, and was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award.
Children's author and poet Annette LeBox
http://annettelebox.com/
Annette LeBox is a two-time recipient of the BC Book Prize for illustrated children’s literature. Salmon Creek, illustrated by Karen Reczuch, won the award in 2003 and Peace is an Offering, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin, won in 2016. Her YA novels have also been shortlisted for awards. LeBox has had more than more than 55 poems published internationally in literary journals, including Event, Southern Review (Australia), Ariel, (US) Poetry Canada, Prairie Fire and Whetstone.
Annette LeBox was born in England in 1943, during the Second World War. Her father, a Canadian soldier, was killed on D-Day on Juno Beach. After the war, her mother, a war bride, brought her to Canada as a baby. The ship landed at Halifax’s Pier 41. LeBox grew up in Brockville, Ontario, and during the fifties and sixties, worked as a hospital cleaner, nurse’s aide, store clerk, teacher and a bunny at a copycat Playboy Club in Ottawa. She spent a year in Spain where she worked as a bartender in Barcelona, Malaga and Rota.
As a graduate from Ottawa Teachers’ College, she taught elementary school for many years, earning a Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser University in 1986. In 1989-91 she served as a Faculty Associate at Simon Fraser University’s Professional Development Program and later as a Sessional Instructor. In 1995, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Many of LeBox’s books are inspired by nature. As a founding member of the Pitt Polder Preservation Society, a grassroots environmental group, she was a major stakeholder in the conservation of Blaney Bog in Maple Ridge and Codd Wetland in Pitt Meadows. These ecosystems harbour Greater sandhill cranes and endangered wild coho.
A lifelong learner, LeBox returned to Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio (TWS) in 2015 to return to writing poetry.
LeBox lives with her husband, Michael Sather, an avid birdwatcher and former Member of the Legislative Assembly, representing Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows. LeBox divides her time between her home in Maple Ridge and a remote cabin in the Cariboo grasslands, where she enjoys running, cross-country skiing and reading by the woodstove. She has a son, Christian Bates, a daughter, Sara Bates Rowe, and four grandchildren, Charly and Thales Rowe, Bailey Hutton and Mason Bates.
Speculative fiction writer KT Wagner
http://northernlightsgothic.com/
KT organizes writer events, works to create literary community and is frequently spotted with knitting needles and yarn, muttering about the state of the world. KT graduated from Simon Fraser University’s Writers Studio in 2015 (Southbank 2013). A number of her short stories are published in magazines and anthologies. She’s currently working on a scifi-horror novel.
Storyteller and poet KB Nelson
KB Nelson is a Canadian who started writing poetry as a young child and has continued to do so all of her life. When not writing poetry she dabbles in writing short speculative fiction, has a novel in progress, and will be publishing a collaborative art/poetry project. You can find her work in RCLAS Wordplay (featured writer, April 2018), Icebox, Nourish-Poetry and Survision. She has won awards in both poetry and short fiction. KB has lived in Ontario, Yukon, Alberta, New Brunswick, Arizona and New Zealand. A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Southbank writing program, she now resides in Greater Vancouver.
Freelance writer Ronda Payne
https://girlwithapen.ca/
A writer since she first held a pen, Ronda Payne - aka: the Girl with a Pen, is passionate about words. In 2007, she kissed ‘real jobs’ goodbye and began her true career as a copywriter, non-fiction freelance writer (magazines and other periodicals) and creative writer.
At BCIT (British Columbia Institute for Technology, a school known for its hands-on business programs) in the early 90s, Ronda developed the background to pursue a career in marketing. Over the years, she chalked up several adventures in the marketing field, including those with McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, Westminster Savings Credit Union, Absolute Software, HSBC and Prairie Naturals.
Despite a love of marketing, the writing always beckoned. There was a decade (or so) of writer’s block, but finally, her calling shouted so loudly Ronda couldn't ignore it. At least, she refers to it as her calling, or her muse, and not "those voices in my head". So, she picked up her pen once again and hasn't put it down since.
A regular contributor to “Country Life in BC”, Glacier Media Group community papers, "Focus on Adoption" and a range of other publications, Ronda continues to grow in her career by helping businesses find the right words, assisting publications deliver meaningful content and creating books worth your precious reading time.
Ronda joyfully lives in Maple Ridge, B.C. in yet another renovation project home with her husband and their pets.
This free event is subsidized by the Federation of BC Writers. Donations are welcomed to make these events possible. To donate, click here.
Golden Ears Writers holds workshops and readings ten months a year (during normal times). They have been meeting in the lobby of the local theatre for a decade, in partnership with The ACT Maple Ridge who provide meeting space and support. An ever-changing diverse group of writers from around the region come together on the third Tuesday of each month to learn and network. They have also held three one-day writing festivals at The ACT and several writing retreats at Loon Lake Lodge.
http://www.facebook.com/GoldenEarsWriters
