#WriterWednesday with Edward Willett

Edward Willet is my guest today for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Finding the uninterrupted time to write.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Typing fast.

Things you need for your writing sessions: My laptop and some place to sit.

Things that hamper your writing: People talking around me. Chatter is fine, but if I can make out individual conversations, I have to put on headphones.

A few of your favorite things: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

Things you need to throw out: Brown paper packages tied up with string.

Something you’re really good at: Singing.

Something you’re really bad at: Dancing.

Favorite smell: Bacon.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Rotting grain (I worked as a college student in a grain elevator.)

Things you always put in your books: Whenever possible, some sort of nod to Saskatchewan.

Things you never put in your books: Preachiness.

Things to say to an author: I couldn’t put it down.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Books are boring, why do you write them?

Favorite books (or genre): Science fiction and fantasy.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Political screeds.

Favorite things to do: Read, write, sing, eat.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Yard work.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Marrying my wife.

Biggest mistake: Not finding and marrying her sooner.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Skydiving.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Performed in musical theatre.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Starting a publishing company.

About Edward:

Edward Willett is the author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction for readers of all ages. Marseguro (DAW Books) won the Aurora Award (honouring Canadian science fiction and fantasy) for Best Long-Form Work in English; his young adult fantasy Spirit Singer won a Saskatchewan Book Award. Several other of his books have been shortlisted for those and other awards.

Ed's most recent novel is the far-future humorous outer-space adventure The Tangled Stars (DAW Books). His nonfiction runs the gamut from science books to biographies to history. He hosts Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers (theworldshapers.com), in which he talks to other authors about their latest books, and has Kickstarted five Shapers of Worlds anthologies featuring guests of the podcast, with Shapers of Worlds Volume V being the latest and last.

In 2018, Ed founded Shadowpaw Press, which publishes an eclectic list of books ranging from children's books to literary fiction to young adult novels to science fiction and fantasy.

In addition to being a writer, Ed is a professional actor and singer. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife, Margaret Anne Hodges, P. Eng., a past president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan. They have one daughter, Alice, and a black Siberian cat, Shadowpaw.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://edwardwillett.com

Shadowpaw Press Website: http://shadowpawpress.com

Facebook: @edward.willett, @shadowpawpress

X: @ewillett, @shadowpawpress

Instagram: @edwardwillettauthor, @shadowpawpress

Bluesky: @edwardwillett.bsky.social

YouTube: @edwardwillett

#WriterWednesday with Allison Brook

I would like to welcome my friend, the fabulous Allison Brook/Marilyn Levinson, to the blog for #WriterWednesday.

Favorite thing that you always make time for: Doing Sudoku puzzles

The thing you’ll always do just about anything to avoid: Clearing off my desk beside my computer (I'm still avoiding it.)

The thing you like most about being a writer: Holding a copy of my latest book in my hand, amazed that I managed to get it done.

The thing you like least about being a writer: Sitting down to write each day. That first minute is difficult for me, but I'm fine once I get started.

Things you will run to the store for in the middle of the night: Aldi's triple chocolate gelato, sushami and sushi, chocolate chip brioche

Things you never put on your shopping list: Celery, cereal, white bread, salami

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: four adorable cat pillow covers

Something that didn’t look at all like it did online: A sofa cover

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Quiet, my computer working properly, finding documents I need to refer to easily and quickly

Things that distract you from writing: Music, phone calls, cats demanding attention

Something you’re really good at: Knitting

Something you never learned how to do: Sew curtains

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: Be a ballerina

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Speaking comfortably and easily about my writing life on podcasts and interviews

Things you always put in your books: My characters' relationships. Very often: a ghost, a dog or a cat

Things you never put in your books: Anything bad happening to a child or an animal

Things to say to an author: I loved your last book. When is the next one in the series coming out?

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I have a great idea that I think you should put in your next book.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I'd give this book a six if I could.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Where you have an idea for a story, where do you put it?

The one thing you cook/bake that is better than a restaurant dish: My salmon dish

The one thing you cooked/baked that turned out to be an epic disaster: Roasting a goose. So much fat!

About Allison:

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for kids.

​As Allison Brook, Marilyn writes the popular Haunted Library series. DEATH OVERDUE, the first book in the series, was an Agatha nomination for Best Contemporary Novel, a Library Journal "Pick of the Month," and on Goodreads' list of the "200 Most Popular Books Published in October, 2017." BOOKED ON MURDER, the eighth and final book in the series, was released on August 6, 2024.

​Many of Marilyn's books are in the process of being republished. Among them, THE DEVIL'S PAWN, a horror-suspense YA novel that will give you chills but leave you smiling when you've read the last page, has just been released. Her "Children's Choice" middle grade novel, RUFUS AND MAGIC RUN AMOK, has been republished. The sequel, RUFUS AND THE WITCH'S DRUDGE, came out in March, 2024, and will be followed by two more books in the series.

Let’s Be Social:

Website

#WriterWednesday with Mark Everglade

I’d like to welcome Mark Everglade to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Understanding your audience’s needs. With my first novel, Hemispheres, for instance, half the people said the plot was too fast, while the other half said it was a bit slow. Different age groups I think are looking for something different in terms of pacing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with ideas! A simple issue of Scientific American immediately generates thousands of plots to an avid sci-fi writer. I enjoy writing books about rotating tidal-locked planets, where half the planet is always dark, and playing with their ecology and how changing the physical planet changes the people. We call this study human ecology in sociology. You can see this at play in my cyberpunk novel Inertia, which won best sci-fi novel from a small publisher.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Complete quiet, unless it’s music like Boards of Canada, Pineapple Thief, or The Knife to set the mood.

Things that hamper your writing: Interruptions. When you write, you suspend disbelief so that your readers will do the same. Getting pulled out of the zone ruins the immersion and the worlds you’re building in your head.

Words that describe you: Conscientious, kind, compassionate, intellectual, creative

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Arrogant, judgmental, uptight, intellectual elitism

Favorite music or song: Every genre has its place to coordinate with our vast emotional experiences, but I do tend towards progressive metal and electronica. Sometimes you need intricacy, and sometimes simplicity to set you in that trance where you can experience flow.

Music that drives you crazy: Being from Maryland, I’ll say Country Music, except Alison Krauss, who sings like an angel.

Things you always put in your books: Elements from social science conflict theory that show the differences between the haves and the have nots, the rich and poor, and how it impacts one anothers’ lives. Also, corrupt corporations and governments that profit off the people at their expense. I like taking hackers and scientists from many walks of life and putting them against corrupt regimes, with plenty of cybernetic augmentations to arm them.

Things you never put in your books: Misogyny, unless it’s to show a particular antagonist’s point of view.

Things to say to an author: Anything specific that provides feedback to help them improve in a non-critical way. Such as, “I loved it when X character was motivated to do Y event, but I did feel it could have been foreshadowed better.” Authors find it hard to hear criticism because we put so much of ourselves, so intimately, into the text, but we do want to improve and hear honest, specific, and actionable feedback.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Generic feedback, “Oh you write so well, I loved the book, because the story was like good and the characters like were good.” None of that helps an author know what you connected with in order to improve their next novel.

Favorite books (or genre): Dystopian books with social elements, such as We, 1984, Brave New World, and Neuromancer.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Any romance novel written past 1920.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Never giving up on those who are different, who maybe aren’t neurotypical, but can learn to coexist in a socially complex world and offer their own unique, beautiful perspectives on life.

Biggest mistake: Not telling the truth enough when I was young and lacking empathy for how others perceived me; putting my own interests and arts ahead of the needs of others.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: People have compared my work to Margaret Atwood, although not nearly at her level of mastery of course. But since I love 19th century literature, the best compliment from a reader was, “I enjoyed your unique perspective in "Misaligned"...The story has such a powerful clarity to it that reminds me of Kafka or even the tales of writers like Poe or Nathaniel Hawthorne.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: One reader remarked that my story “Glitch Goddess” was a “Nice union of cyberpunk and Lovecraft.” To combine both things into a sort of cybergoth perspective made me say I had tapped into something really weird and different than what other authors were writing. You can get the story free by signing up for my mailing list at the bottom of my website, http://www.markeverglade.com

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: In Hemispheres, one of my characters is named Aurthur, which sounds like author. That’s because his speaking style is most like mine, in the sense that he is overly poetic, even at inappropriate times, which sometimes gets on others’ nerves when there’s actions that need to be done and he’s waning philosophically about it all.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: None of the sexual scenes are based on real life; and I dislike it when people inquire as such.

About Mark:

Mark Everglade has spent his life studying social conflict. He runs the website www.markeverglade.com where he reviews cyberpunk media and interviews the greats. His short stories have been featured beside legendary authors like Cory Doctorow, Cat Rambo, and Walter Jon Williams. He currently runs a company dedicated to bringing dystopian fiction to a new generation, working with many of the top authors in the industry. He resides in Florida.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: www.markeverglade.com

#WriterWednesday with Maggie King

I’m celebrating another author from Crimes in the Old Dominion today. I’d like to welcome, Maggie King back to the blog.

Favorite thing that you always make time for: keeping up with family and friends

The thing you’ll always do just about anything to avoid: hours-long car trips

The thing you like most about being a writer: coming up with ideas and seeing how they develop into a story. I also love when my characters surprise me with their ideas.

The thing you like least about being a writer: marketing and promotion

Things you will run to the store for in the middle of the night: Hmm. Can’t imagine what that would be.

Things you never put on your shopping list: pickled herring (or pickled anything); liver; lima beans; Red Vines Twists

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: silicone freezer bags; very “cool” indeed

Something that didn’t look at all like it did online: a beauty product way past its expiration date.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: laptop, pen, paper, thesaurus, cat (not on keyboard), occasionally like classical music for its reputed brain-enhancing effect (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach)

Things that distract you from writing: landscaping activity

The thing that you will most remember about your writing life: the launches for my novels and anthologies. I appreciated the support of readers and writers and loved talking about my “creations.”

Something in your writing life that you wish you could do over: I would be more selective about which book events were worthwhile investments of energy, time, and money.

Something you’re really good at: restoring order from chaos.

Something you never learned how to do: maintaining the order I restored from chaos. This most often pertains to my filing system, digital and paper.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: an actor, a nurse, an English teacher. I did none of those things. I was a retail sales manager, a customer service supervisor, a programmer analyst, a computer trainer, a non-profit administrator, and, at last--a writer!

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: sign up to be an OOE (Officer of Election) at the polls.

Things you always put in your books: my cats make cameo appearances.

Things you never put in your books: violence on the page, or descriptions of blood and gore.

Things to say to an author: “I LOVE your books and have gifted them to all my friends and relatives! When will they be made into movies?”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I haven’t read your book yet” (tone suggests that “yet” will never come). “Have you read [name a book]? It’s simply wonderful!”

The one thing you cook/bake that is better than a restaurant dish: Watercress soup. I first had it at Truly Yours in Northridge, California (incidentally, Ron Goldman worked there). It’s not necessarily better than TY’s version, but it’s certainly comparable.

The one thing you cooked/baked that turned out to be an epic disaster: Moussaka. What a mess! The recipe came with my first microwave. While other recipes in the cookbook were great, the moussaka wasn’t one of them.

About Maggie:

Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries. Her short stories appear in various anthologies, including the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Death by Cupcake, Murder by the Glass, First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, and Crime in the Old Dominion.

Maggie graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, James River Writers, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. She has worked as a software developer, retail sales manager, customer service supervisor, web designer, and non-profit administrator. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California home. These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband Glen and mischievous cat, Olive. All these jobs, schools, and homes have gifted her with story ideas for years to come.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://maggieking.com/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/meking.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiekingauthor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaggieKingAuthor

#WriterWednesday with Doug Lawrence

I’d like to welcome Doug Lawrence to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need a creative environment to work within. I did a private writing retreat one time that seemed to work alright. I was able to write 30-40 pages of content.

Things that hamper your writing: Trying to write in a place where there are too many distractions.

A few of your favorite things: My favorite thing is my laptop. I would break into a cold sweat without it. I took a short break and went to visit a dear friend for a week. I was without email and other things for a few days and I was panicking. Sounds funny but it was stressful.

Things you need to throw out: I have two closets of clothes that I need to cull out. I also had some food in the pantry that needs to go. I had a friend who was kind enough to help me purge some of the stuff but we could do more. It is like a new beginning.

Favorite foods: I like steak and mushrooms

Things that make you want to gag: Liver and onions. I can handle the onions, but the liver is definitely off limits.

Something you’re really good at: Mentoring others to help them grow personally and professionally. That would include help with their healing journey from mental health and grief related issues.

Something you’re really bad at: I wouldn’t say I was bad at something. I would say that I had room to grow. Using negative connotations doesn’t improve things.

Last best thing you ate: Schnitzel

Last thing you regret eating: Liver and onions

Favorite places you’ve been: Dubai

Places you never want to go to again: Shanghai

People you’d like to invite to dinner: Ken Blanchard or Oprah Winfrey

People you’d cancel dinner on: I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. I would look at this as an opportunity to learn more about someone and to also learn something more about myself.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Mentor a young entrepreneur with mental health challenges

Biggest mistake: Allowing a mentee to not be accountable for her mentoring sessions. Only happened once and that was the last time.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Zip line in Mexico

Something you chickened out from doing: Bungie cord jumping

About Doug:

Doug Lawrence is the founder of TalentC® and Co-founder of the International Mentoring Community (IMC).  Doug has achieved the highest level of Mentoring certification – The Certificate of Practice - Journey Mentor (IMC). Currently, he alone holds this certification.

Serving as a Staff Sargent in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for 25 years, Doug retired in 1999. He is a volunteer mentor with the Sir Richard Branson Entrepreneur Program in the Caribbean and with the American Corporate Partners in the United States working with military personnel in their transition from military life to civilian life.

Doug through research has determined that there is a role for mentoring as a support for those struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and grief. His experience in law enforcement coupled with working with people suffering from PTSD has afforded him a unique view of mentoring, mental health and grief. In addition, Doug’s mentoring practice utilizes Effective Mentoring Processes, his system to help people on their mental health healing journey.

Doug works with people who are struggling with their healing journey. Doug lost his wife, Debra to cancer in 2021 and has since devoted his life to helping others with their healing journey.

Doug began his Mentoring Practice in 2009. He is an international speaker, mentor and international bestselling author: The Gift of Mentoring (2014), You Are Not Alone (2022), and is launching Grief - The Silent Pandemic in 2025.

Let’s Be Social:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doug.lawrence.1610/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/douglawrence-mentor

Twitter: @DougLawrenceJM

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE4YC1GkfHrQtFYgYrf8baQ

Website: https://www.talentc.ca

Book: “You Are Not Alone” - Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QcCa1a

#WriterWednesday with Ruth J. Hartman

I’d like to welcome my friend, the fabulous Ruth J. Hartman, back to the blog for #WriterWednesday! Her newest book launches next Tuesday!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Take a walk on a nearby trail with my husband, Garry.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Dusting!

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: My laptop, notebook, pen, phone, and journal with my character’s names and information in it.

Things that distract you from writing: One or more cats using me for a scratching post or a bed.

Things you will run to the store for at midnight: pizza, diet mountain dew, wet cat food.

Things you never put on your shopping list: Beets, rhubarb, refried beans.

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: My laptop!

The thing you wished you’d never bought. Shirts that looked cute online made me look like a withered potato when I bought them and tried them on.

Something you’re really good at: Talking to people who are much older than me. When I was a hygienist, the seniors were my favorite patients!

Something you’re really bad at: Trying to tell a joke.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: A mom (I never got to be).

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Being a published mystery author.

Something you wish you could do: Be graceful and run fast.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: I won’t go into detail, but some parts of being a dental hygienist were sort of icky.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Rafting down the Snake River in Wyoming with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law. So much fun!!!

Something you chickened out from doing: Walking out on the extended walkway over Grand Canyon.

The funniest thing to happen to you: I thought the possum in our shed was dead. Until I stepped closer. It raised its head and hissed at me. I screamed. He screamed. It was madness.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: When I was walking with some kids in junior high on a school outing and I tripped so thoroughly that I did a somersault and somehow ended back up in a standing position. I still don’t understand it.

The funniest thing that happened to you on vacation: When I was three, my brothers were playing catch with a pair of my shorts in our car. It was the 60s, so there was no AC and the windows were open. According to my mom, my little pair of orange shorts shot out the open window, floated through the air, and ended up somewhere in Chicago.

The most embarrassing thing that happened to you on a vacation: I had stomach issues when we were in a lodge restaurant, and I had to visit that ladies’ room. I can never go back there…..

The most exciting thing about your writing life: Getting a new book accepted for publication.

The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: Start sooner. I didn’t start writing for publication until I was 45.

Best piece of advice you received from another writer: If you’re nervous talking in front of people, always have some notes written down right in front of you, that way if you go blank, you’ll have something else to say.

Something you would tell a younger you about your writing: Publication won’t be easy or fast, but don’t give up because it’s worth it!

Let’s Be Social:

https://www.ruthjhartman.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ruth.j.hartman

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100063631596817

https://x.com/ruthjhartman

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ruth-j-hartman

About Ruth:

Ruth J. Hartman spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales that make you smile. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people's recliners. Not that the cats couldn't get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else's.

Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.

Ruth's husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her in spite of her penchant for insisting all of her books have at least one cat in them. 

#WriterWednesday with Dwayne Brenna

Things you need for your writing sessions: A good night’s sleep.

Things that hamper your writing: Being anywhere else but in my study in Saskatoon.

A few of your favorite things: baseball caps

Things you need to throw out: baseball caps

Something you’re really good at: I’m a pretty good cook. If you come to my house, I’ll make you an excellent gazpacho.

Something you’re really bad at: I’m a horrible singer, the sort that choir directors ask to mouth the words when it comes to performing in concert.

Favorite music or song: Springsteen’s “Born to Run”

Music that drives you crazy: Improvisational jazz.

Last best thing you ate: My grandmother’s homemade bread.

Last thing you regret eating: I once ate some jalebi at a restaurant in New Delhi, and the result was a prolonged bout of food poisoning.

Favorite places you’ve been: Greece.

Places you never want to go to again: The dentist.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I refused to hand my iPad over to a machine gun toting soldier in a foreign country once.

Something you chickened out from doing: Going on the tea cup ride at the fair with my sons. I invariably throw up when moved in tight repetitive circles.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: That reading my book LONG WAY HOME, which is set during the driest year of the Great Depression, made them thirsty.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: That too many people are writing novels these days.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: I was an actor at the Stratford Festival of Canada.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Any carpentry project I’ve ever done.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: In THEORIES OF EVERYTHING, there’s a story entitled “The Sewing Machine.” It’s uncharacteristic of the rest of the book in that it is set during the Great Depression. In 1936, my grandmother was visited by the repo man. He wanted to repossess her Singer sewing machine. She rolled up her sleeves and told him he’d have to be a bigger man than she if he was going to take that machine. He left the house without the sewing machine.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: In my book STEALING HOME, there’s a poem about a guy making love to his girlfriend on the mound of a baseball diamond at night. Readers have brought this up with my wife, suggesting that she must be the girl in the poem. In fact, the incident was narrated to me by a fellow baseball player who shall not be named and who performed the act with his own girlfriend back in the day.

About Dwayne:

Dwayne Brenna is the award-winning author of several books of humour, poetry, and fiction. Coteau Books published his popular series of humourous vignettes entitled Eddie Gustafson’s Guide to Christmas in 2000. His two books of poetry, Stealing Home and Give My Love to Rose, were published by Hagios Press in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Stealing Home, a poetic celebration of the game of baseball, was subsequently shortlisted for several Saskatchewan Book Awards, including the University of Regina Book of the Year Award. His first novel New Albion, about a laudanum-addicted playwright struggling to survive in London’s East End during the winter of 1850-51, was published by Coteau Books in autumn 2016. It subsequently won the Muslims For Peace and Justice Fiction Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards and was one of three English-language novels shortlisted for the prestigious MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction. In 2022, Pocol Press published his second novel Long Way Home, about a barnstorming baseball team travelling through the American Midwest in the eventful summer of 1934. A book of short fiction, entitled Theories of Everything, was published by Shadowpaw Press in March 2025. His short stories and poems have been published in an array of journals, including Grain, Nine, The Cold Mountain Review, and The Antigonish Review. Brenna has taught theatre and creative writing at the University of Saskatchewan.

He has acted at the Stratford Festival and has appeared on television in various nationally and internationally broadcast programs including For the Record, Judge (CBC Toronto), The Great Electrical Revolution, and The Incredible Story Studio (Mind’s Eye). His movie credits include The Wars, Painted Angels (with Kelly McGillis), Black Light (with Michael Ironside), and The Impossible Elephant (with Mia Sara). A series of character-based vignettes called The Adventures of Eddie Gustafson, written and performed by Brenna, had a five-year run on CBC Radio.

Brenna is also the author of several books on theatre research, including Scenes from Canadian Plays (Fifth House) and Emrys’ Dream: Greystone Theatre in Words and Photographs (Thistledown). His book Our Kind of Work: the Glory Days and Difficult Times of 25th Street Theatre (Thistledown 2011) was subsequently nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award in Non-Fiction. Brenna’s entertaining academic text Nights That Shook the Stage, about forty pivotal events in theatre history, was published by McFarland Books in 2023. It was subsequently shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. He has contributed articles on theatre to Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Notebook (London UK), The Dictionary of National Biography (London UK) and the Czech journal Theatralia.

His stage plays have been produced at Dancing Sky Theatre in Meacham, 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon, and the Neptune Theatre in Halifax. In 2022, Brenna’s apocalyptic full-length drama The Promised Land received an Honourable Mention in the Scripts on Fire Playwriting Contest. Also in 2022, Brenna was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal.

#WriterWednesday Author Interview with Syrl Kazlo

I’d like to welcome Syrl Kazlo to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Finding the time to sit down and write. Easiest thing about being a writer: Daydreaming about the sticky situations I’m going to put my characters in.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A square of dark chocolate, a handful of walnuts and a dark chocolate and peanut granola bars. Now mind you this is all brain food right?

Things that hamper your writing: When life butts in like doctor appointments, paying the bills.

Words that describe you: Kind, caring, thoughtful, loyal

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Getting older, senior citizen, a tad overweight

Something you’re really good at: Handcrafts such as rug hooking, quilting, sewing.

Something you’re really bad at: Anything computer-related

Last best thing you ate: Chocolate crème pie

Last thing you regret eating: liver

Favorite music or song: oldies, 60’s

Music that drives you crazy: Not much does although I may not understand some of the newer stuff out there

The last thing you ordered online: a whistling coal car for my grandson’s model train set

The last thing you regret buying: Another pair of slacks. Like I need to add one more to the bazillion I already have. I’m kind of a shopaholic.

Things you always put in your books: A happy ending and of course the main characters that I include in each book especially Porkchop.

Things you never put in your books: Overt sex and violence Think Hallmark movie for my books

Things to say to an author: I liked your book. Love your characters. I’ve read all your books.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I could have written this

Favorite books (or genre): cozy mystery

Books you wouldn’t buy: thriller, horror

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: A person killing another by throwing water on them then locking that wet person out in the cold (Hubby is a Pennsylvania State Trooper, so I often pick his brain about past cases he solved.)

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: That I have long curly hair. Nope, mine is short and straight.

Your favorite movie as a child: Old Yeller

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): “The Twilight Zone” The episode where hands crawled across the floor.

About Syrl: Syrl, a retired teacher, lives in upstate New York with her husband a lively dachshund and a wannabe dachshund (That’s a long story.). She writes the Samantha Davies Mystery series, featuring Samantha Davies and her loveable dachshund, Porkchop. When not writing she is busy hooking, rug hooking that is, and enjoying her family. Her newest book, number seven in the series, A Pawsome Summer For Murder, will be released May 1, 2025.

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