Escape With A Writer

Escape with a Writer Sunday welcomes Maggie Petru! Born on an Ontario dairy farm with no siblings or neighbour children for playmates,  Maggie  Petru discovered story telling (no, NOT fibbing) before she entered public school. By the time she outgrew paper dolls, she had learned to write. Writing became her hobby and preserved her sanity from that time onwards. She attended Toronto Teachers’ College directly out of Gr. 13 and spent eight years between full time and supply teaching. By the time her own three children had all entered school full time she wanted to go back to work, but definitely  not as a teacher. She’d been writing during their afternoon naps and now had a firm grip on how to handle her language. She went off to Sheridan College for the journalism training which led to 30 years of reporting for Ontario daily and weekly newspapers and the Canadian Press wire service, as well as awards for both agricultural writing and investigative reporting. I

Escape with a Writer Sunday welcomes Rita Lee Chapman! Rita Lee Chapman was born in London and moved to Australia in her early twenties. It was only when she retired that she wrote her first novel, Missing in Egypt, the first in the Anna Davies Mystery series. Missing at Sea is Book#2 in the series and Missing in London is Book #3. All can be enjoyed as stand-alone books. Winston – A Horse’s Tale was written for horse lovers like herself. “It was the book I had to write.” Dangerous Associations and The Poinciana Tree are crime mysteries. When she’s not writing or reading, Rita enjoys playing tennis, walking and entertaining. Website: www.ritaleechapman.com Tell us about your life outside of writing. I am retired and I live on the coast of Queensland, Australia with my husband. We play tennis three days a week and walk our beautiful beaches, the river and the lake.   We are fortunate to have a great group of friends through tennis and we entertain regularly

Happy Spring 2020.... such as it is! I truly hope you're all healthy and staying self-isolated as is the buzzword of the year. In any case, w elcome back to yet another Round Robin Blog Fest! I've been away for a while with work and writerly type things as well as picking up my youngest from college due to the Covid 19 virus. Since the world seems to be coming to a standstill, this is great time to catch up on some blog posts! This month's question is:   What draws you into a story?  With all the uncertainty and surrealism in the world right now, a good story is anything that takes our minds off the craziness! I enjoy a strong opening that makes me curious about what comes next. The story should not only make a reader ask questions, but give them tidbits of information about the characters without overwhelming them with information. I don't mean the laundry list of height, weight, appearance and full backstory all in one lump. Those sorts of long, ram

Welcome to this week's author Reed Stirling!! Reed Stirling lives in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, and writes when not travelling, or painting landscapes, or taking coffee at the Drumroaster, a local café where metaphor and metaphysics clash daily. His shorter work has appeared in  Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Nashwaak Review, Valley Voice, Out Of The Warm Land II  and  III, StepAway Magazine,   PaperPlates,   Eloquent Atheist ,  Senior Living, Green Silk Journal ,  Fickle Muses, Fieldstone Review, Ascent Aspirations, Feathertale, Filling Station, Hackwriters Magazine ,  Dis(s)ent In Words,  The Danforth Review,   Montreal Writes Literary Magazine,  and  Humanist Perspectives.  Shades Of Persephone  is his first published novel, 2019.  Lighting The Lamp  will be published in March, 2020.  He is presently working on a third novel tentatively titled  Square Saint-Louis. 1.LIFE OUTSIDE OF WRITING Before retiring and taking up writing fiction as a past ti

Welcome to featured author Stuart R West!  Before we get to the nitty gritty, I have to admit I've read  and reviewed a couple of Stuart's books (Nightmare of Nannies and Murder by Massage.) They are definitely not what I expected, but a thrill-a-minute ride with a quirky sense of humour! Zach and Zora are two of the most entertaining sleuths I've read in a long time! Stuart writes about Zora and her kids in such a way that I could totally related to all the crazy things they do, especially after raising three boys! Cheers, Diane Stuart R. West is a lifelong resident of Kansas, which he considers both a curse and a blessing. It's a curse because...well, it's Kansas. But it's great because, well, it’s Kansas. Lots of cool, strange and creepy things happen in the Midwest, and Stuart takes advantage of them in his books. Call it “Kansas Noir.” Stuart writes horror, thrillers and mysteries usually tinged with (the darkest of dark) humor. (P.S., if yo