CAA-NCR meetings are free for members of Canadian Authors Association.
We ask non-members to pay a fee using the link below. E-transfers also accepted at: office@canadianauthors.org
Mistakes authors make most often and how to avoid them
Presenter: Allister Thompson
Saturday, January 17, 2026
10:30 a.m. to noon
via Zoom
Free to members of Canadian Authors Association
$20.00 for non-members
Allister Thompson will lead us through the issues that he encounters most often in his work as an editor and provide suggestions on how to make your first draft more professional.
BIO: Allister Thompson is a freelance editor and publishing consultant who has worked on non-fiction projects and countless novels. As a fiction editor, he specializes in YA, science fiction and fantasy, and crime fiction. His clients also include businesses, government agencies, Historica Canada (The Canadian Encyclopedia), and publishing companies. He studied History and English at the University of Toronto, attended Ryerson University’s publishing program and is a member of the Editors Association of Canada. He has also self-published two novels, Birch and Jay, and The Music of the Spheres.
PAST EVENTS
The Real Art of Writing Haiku
Presenter: Claudia Radmore
Saturday, November 15, 2025
10:30 a.m. to noon
Nepean Centrepointe Library, Room 1B
Haiku in our time and place is about more than syllables. In this workshop, we will learn about the ancient Japanese art to help us understand, and then we will move forward with new approaches to write our own haiku based on prompts. Haiku is not easy to write well, but you will leave with new information and perhaps with some poems you are happy with.
BIO: Claudia Radmore is an artist and writer who has been creating both lyric and Japanese-form poetry for nearly thirty years. Several full poetry collections and chapbooks have been published, and hundreds of her poems can be found in major journals across Canada and internationally. Her haiku collection the business of isness was published in 2017, and her latest Japanese-form collection, fish spine picked clean, was published in 2018. She is the past President of both Kado, Ottawa’s haiku group, and Haiku Canada, the national group for Japanese-form poets.
Confessions of a Crime Novel Novice
Presenter: Don Butler
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
If you’re thinking of writing a mystery but don’t know where to start, join this workshop to hear about Don Butler’s experience of writing in a new genre. He’ll also share marketing tips for those who want to get their books into the hands of more readers.
BIO: Don Butler had a long career as a journalist at the Ottawa Citizen, where he worked in a variety of roles, including executive editor. He lives in Ottawa and is married to journalist Christina Spencer. His first novel, a travel mystery called A Life of Bliss, was released in 2021. Norman’s Conquest, a murder mystery released in May 2024, includes many characters from his first book. He’s already planning a third mystery in the series.
Poetry Workshop: Crafting Poems for Publication
Presenter: Deborah-Anne Tunney
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Deborah-Anne Tunney will lead us in how to craft poetry so that it catches the eye of publishers and ensuring that the work is publishable.
BIO: Deborah-Anne Tunney is a poet, short story writer and novelist who was born and lives in Ottawa. Her prose and poetry have appeared in Canadian, American and U.K. literary journals and anthologies, notably Threepenny Review, Missouri Review, Narrative among others. Her linked short story collection, The View from the Lane (2014) and her novel Winter Willow (2019) were published by Enfield and Wizenty. Her first book of poetry A Different Wolf came out in June 2020 from McGill-Queen’s University Press, and won the 2021 Archibald Lampman award.
Working Intelligently with AI
Presenter: Carol Edwards
Saturday, March 29, 2025
This workshop is not about using AI as a creator. The learning session will be followed by a Q&A about the implications of AI for you as writers, especially your areas of concern. This is a course on how to work with an AI to easily solve your BUSINESS problems (budgets, grants, proposals, research, planning, etc.). You are guaranteed to walk away with a full toolbox designed to significantly reduce your administrative burden.
BIO: Carol Edwards is a retired professor of finance with a lifelong interest and specialized training in AI.
Playwriting: Bringing Main Characters and Side Characters to Life
Presenter: Lawrence Aronovitch
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EDT (Note the time zone)
via Zoom
Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $20.00
Theatre presents compelling stories about people and their relationships and conflicts. Writing a play, then, is about creating characters that audiences want to get to know and want to understand. We take a practical hands-on look at how to approach this fundamental building block and how it relates to other components of a play script such as plot, setting and dialogue.
BIO: Lawrence is a playwright and the co-host of the “Next Stages” theatre podcast. Originally from Montreal, he worked in the space program before moving to the theatre, but notes that both domains are about exploring the universe. He has written plays about scientists (Marie Curie), poets (W.H. Auden), movie stars (Hedy Lamarr), and ex-kings (Edward VIII). His most recent play, “Firstborn,” portrays a conversation between Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Productive and Prolific Writing
Presenter: Lois Winston
Saturday, November 2, 2024
10:30 a.m. to noon EDT (Note the time zone)
via Zoom
Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $20.00
Writing is a time-consuming task. Submitting our work requires even more time, some strategizing, and a lot of perseverance. Sometimes it feels as if we have little to show for our time and effort. How can we get our work finished and out there for the world to enjoy? Lois Winston will share tips on how to become a more productive and prolific writer.
BIO: USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career in 2006 with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous novel about a small-town girl in Manhattan and the mother bent on bringing her home. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. Lois wrote her first mystery thanks to a conversation between her agent and an editor looking for a crafting-themed cozy series. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes thirteen novels and three novellas with another novel on the way in early 2025. To date, Lois has published twenty-two novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by the twelve years she worked as an associate at a literary agency. Learn more about Lois and her books at http://www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and find links to her on social media.
Forge Your Own Path: Self-publishing
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $20.00
Many authors these days are choosing to publish their own work. Tudor Robins will share her experiences with self-publishing and provide tips that will help authors create and market a high quality product.
BIO: Tudor Robins is the author of books that move your heart, mind, and pulse. A little piece of Tudor’s own heart is in many places: the central-Ottawa neighborhood where she lives, the Gatineau hills and Eastern Ontario countryside where she loves to hike, Wolfe Island and the St. Lawrence River where she loves swimming and paddleboarding, and the university towns that are currently home to her children. When she’s not writing, Tudor rides, runs, quilts, and walks with her best friends and her Jack Russell / Potcake mix, Cara.
Poetry Workshop: Tools for poetry with no rules
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $20.00
Pearl Pirie will lead us in leveraging traditional poetry techniques to make our modern poetry even better.
BIO: Pearl Pirie is an editor and an award winning Quebec poet. Awards & Honours: footlights was shortlisted for the Lampman Award, longlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, and nominated for the A.M. Klein. the pet radish, shrunken (book*hug, 2015), won the Lampman Award. Thirsts (Snare/Invisible, 2011) won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her poems have been given the nod for Best Canadian Poetry in English 3 times. Poet profile at the Haiku Foundation.
Finding Your Story, Finding Your Voice, with Tim Wynne-Jones
Writing middle-grade and/or young adult fiction
Saturday, January 13, 2024 10:30 a.m. via Zoom Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $20.00
Books for kids are about getting a grip; books for adults are about letting go. That’s my elevator-pitch answer to a question I get a lot. It’s overly simplistic but a start to understanding the differences in writing for young readers. I’m not big on rules – what you can and can’t do in any given genre – but in writing for kids, either young or teenage, there are some important fundamental considerations, two in particular: Story and Voice. A young reader wants a good story, with all it entails: some difficulty to overcome, believable motivation, high stakes, a well-crafted narrative arc and real agency for the protagonist. But even more importantly, I believe, there must be an authentic voice – the world seen through the eyes and intelligence of a kid, whether they be twelve or seventeen.
In this workshop, there will be a number of short writing exercises to examine these issues. There will be lots of time for questions. And, of course, we will also look at the obvious concerns: word-count, the inescapability of gate-keepers, the use of profanity, graphic violence, sex — all those does and don’t — the guidelines you can choose to bend, if your story demands it.
Tim Wynne-Jones has written three adult novels, nine young adult novels and three middle-grade novels, four short story collections and a whole lot of picture books. His collection of short stories Some of the Kinder Planets won the Governor General’s Award as well as the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. The Maestro won a second Governor General’s Award and was short-listed for the Guardian Prize in the UK. The Boy in the Burning House won the Edgar Award and the Arthur Ellis Award and was short-listed for the Guardian Prize, as well. Blink & Caution won another “Arthur,” as well as a second Horn Book Award. The Emperor of Any Place received seven starred book reviews and was short-listed for the Governor General’s Award. The Starlight Claim won the John Spray Award of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. His work has been published in Japanese, Korean, Danish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Hebrew.
The Writer’s Life, with Brenda Chapman
Monday, October 23, 2023 7:00 p.m. Meeting Room A, Beaverbrook Branch, Ottawa Public Library 2500 Campeau Drive, Kanata, ON, K2K 2W3 This event is free to everyone.
Brenda Chapman will share stories about her life as a writer of short stories, and mysteries. She will speak about the steps she took to become a published author, and how she approaches her work now that she has completed more than twenty novels. The life of an author these days also involves social media and book promotions. Chapman will discuss how to balance getting the creative work done with maintaining social connections.
Brenda Chapman is a Canadian crime fiction author with over twenty published novels. In addition to short stories and standalones, she has written the lauded Stonechild and Rouleau police procedural series, the Anna Sweet mystery novellas, and the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for middle grade. Blind Date is the first in her Hunter and Tate mysteries. Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including four Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence.
Find a Poem, with JC Sulzenko
Tuesday April 11, 2023 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. via Zoom Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $10.00
“Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems . . . A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet.” —poets.org
JC Sulzenko, author of Bricolage A Gathering of Centos, will lead a treasure hunt to find and then craft poems in the words/worlds around us.
JC Sulzenko writes in a number of genres and creates poetry and stories for young and adult readers alike. Her poems appear in a number of chapbooks and anthologies and have been broadcast on radio and television. She also creates found poetry as A. Garnett Weiss.
Getting Your Writing into the Hands of Readers, with Scott Overton
Wednesday, January 25, 2023 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. via Zoom Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $10.00
As writers we want the same thing: to get our stories or poems into the hands (or e-readers, or phones, or tablets) of readers. How can we do that? These days there are more options and opportunities than ever. Scott Overton will share his experience with getting his novels, short stories and audiobooks out there.
As the host of a radio morning show for most of his 30+ years in broadcasting, Scott Overton entertained and informed thousands of groggy people as they faced each new day. He brings those same skills and perspectives to his writing, which includes science fiction and fantasy, mainstream and thriller fiction, and even a children’s book. Scott’s debut novel Dead Air was first published by Scrivener Press. His short stories have been published in On Spec, Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, the anthologies Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound, Doomology: The Dawning Of Disasters, Canadian Tales of the Fantastic and elsewhere. Scott’s a member of the Canadian Authors Association, SFCanada, and a past President of the Sudbury Writers Guild.
Writing Effective Query Letters, with Carly Watters
Monday, November 14, 2022 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. via Zoom Registration is limited to 10 participants. First come, first served. Free to members of Canadian Authors. Non-members $55.00
In this action-packed and entertaining 90-minute webinar, you’ll get answers to the following questions:
- What is the true purpose of the query letter?
- What should query structure look like?
- What do query letters look like from successful authors and bestselling books?
- How do I make my query letter stand out?
- What are the dos and don’ts?
- What are comp titles?
- How do I personalize a query letter?
- How do I find the right agent for me?
Carly Watters is a SVP and Senior Literary Agent at P.S. Literary and the sitting VP of PACLA, the Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents. She began her publishing career in London as an assistant at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. Carly joined Toronto-based P.S. Literary Agency in 2010 and has sold over 100 books during her career. She represents award-winning and bestselling authors in the adult fiction and non-fiction categories, and select children’s books.
Poets of Beechwood Cemetery Tour
Sunday, October 16, 2022 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Beechwood Cemetery, 280 Beechwood Avenue, Vanier, ON Plenty of public parking available This event is free for everyone.
Following up on the Byline article about the Poets of Beechwood by LD Cross, we have planned a guided tour of this beautiful and historic cemetery, one that has been designated a National Historic Site. Join us to learn about the poets of Beechwood and more.
Writing with Humour, with Melissa Yi
Tuesday, October 25, 2022 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. via Zoom
Whatever your genre—fiction, non-fiction, memoir, blog posts, or children’s books—your work will benefit from some smiles or laughter. Even if you are writing about the most serious of topics, you can enrich the experience for your readers by injecting some humour. Join Melissa Yi to learn how to give your work a boost.
BIO: Melissa Yi is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. In her latest crime novel, WHITE LIGHTNING, Dr. Hope Sze’s romantic getaway at a Windsor Prohibition hotel’s Comic-Con morphs into a ghost-ridden historical crime scene with potential links to Al Capone. Previous Hope Sze thrillers were recommended by The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, and The Next Chapter as one of the best Canadian suspense novels. CBC called Melissa’s Best of Fest-winning Fringe theatre show, I Am The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World (And Other True Tales from the Emergency Room), “hilarious” and “poignant.” Melissa also uses humour in real life in the emergency department, in Hope Rises theatre workshops, and with her own children. http://www.melissayuaninnes.com/