READ LOCAL CUMBERLAND

Eric Sparling is the author of the novels Peak (Podium) and Tantramar (Breakwater Books). Everest climber Kevin Walsh said, “[Peak] was a great audiobook…a great mix of character development, suspense and horror.” Sparling’s writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Orangeville Banner and Amherst Daily News, as well as on CBC.ca. He is represented by LaunchBooks. Eric lives with his family in Fenwick.
Peak is available in print, Kindle and audio (featuring Audie Award-winning actor MacLeod Andrews).

Learn more about Eric by visiting his facebook page.

Gary Blackwood is the author of over 30 novels and nonfiction books for young readers and adults. He’s also a widely produced playwright, and is beginning to make some headway in screenplay territory. He lives off the grid on the beautiful North Shore of Nova Scotia, where he directs plays for the local theatre company.

Learn more about Gary’s work here:
Facebook Author Page
Website
Twitter (X): @GaryBlackwood11
Purchase The Devil to Pay on Amazon

I am one of the fortunate ones: born in 1946 in Amherst to a loving, healthy family of Hal and Alice Christie, Fred, Innis and Garth, free as a pre-schooler to roam the grounds of Christie’s Pond and factory on Albion Street, moved to Regent Street at age five and sent off to the Misses Craigs’ kindergarten where many of the children became lifelong friends, and summers spent at Amherst Shore where many cottages were open to me – and still are, including my brothers’ families’.

Don Macleod gave me my first job at Macleod’s House of Distinctive Gifts, I worked as a chambermaid in Ingonish, Cape Breton and then was a waitress in several places including the Palliser in Truro and in Calgary. I taught high school English in Sackville, New Brunswick, Sackville, Nova Scotia, and Cassiar, British Columbia. During Law School, Milner, Shatford and Creighton showed me the ropes for a summer. I practised law in Halifax after articling with Stewart, McKeen and Covert, first with Kenneth MacInnis and Associates and then in Clare Christie’s Law Office.

My first published book was Single Women. Available for purchase locally are: Me, Myself and I: to Age 4, some of my Amherst News columns in Read About Amherst and Read More About Amherst, Amherst Shore Anthology, Addition to Amherst Shore Anthology, A Good Place (a novel), The Christie Book, My Dear Alice, and Grace McLeod Rogers: Moving On. The library and museum in Amherst should also have The Willis/Atherton Book.

Learn more about Clare’s most recent book, Houses Have Stories, here.

Hal Giddens is a retired professional engineer who has traveled extensively for work. He has written technical papers, engineering procedures, and even poetry. He is retired from several boards, including the local hospital. His best memories come from when he was a young boy, living in the country, reading about the fun relationship between wild animals and kids just like himself. Hal and his family have been in the blueberry business for many years and a friend has a sugar woods, all of which inspired the setting for his story.

Hal is a graduate of Mount Allison University and received a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from Nova Scotia Technical University 1960, now Dalhousie University.

He now lies in a small community in northern Nova Scotia, near where many bears live just like Charlie.

Discover Hal’s work here.

Barbara Robinson is an author of contemporary and historical romance set against a backdrop of magical realism. She is known for world building that features rich and immersive detail supported by meticulous research and careful observation. She finds inspiration in myths, folktales, and academic writing on a variety of subjects. Diagnosed with autism and giftedness, she also enjoys exploring themes of neurodiversity in her writing.

Barbara has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of King’s College and a Master of Arts from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College (Toronto, Ontario), and she is a member of both Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada and the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia.

Barbara is a lover of nature who works out plot lines and character sketches while nurturing her garden, walking in the woods, or sitting by the shoreline watching waves. She lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, nestled between the province’s ancient mountains and rugged coastlines. These vistas shape her story settings, while providing the perfect backdrop for life with her husband, her hounds and her dragon (Pogona Vitticeps).

Learn more about Barbara and her work here:
Social media: Instagram, Facebook
Barbara’s Website
Purchase A Cure for Spring Fever here.

Author of Memorable and Me and My Team: “from Farmer to Premier”, the Life of the Honourable Roger Stuart Bacon, LL.D.

Morris Josef Haugg was born in Bavaria, Germany and emigrated to Canada at age 18 in 1960. After working on a farm for 1.5 years, he continued his education at Amherst Regional High School, at Mount Allison University and Dalhousie Law School. He practiced law with Hicks LeMoine in Amherst for 41 years. During these years he also held part-time positions with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment as Executive Secretary and Chairman of the Environmental Control Council, as a lecturer in Commercial Law at Mount Allison University (21 years) and as an Adjudicator of the Nova Scotia Small Claims Court (ten years).

His volunteer work and community work started in university and continued through his working years and since his retirement from the practice of law in 2011. He is a 48 year member of the Rotary Club of Amherst. He has received various recognitions and honours, including the Golden Jubilee Medal from the Government of Canada. In 2011 he authored the first volume of his memoirs, entitled “Memorable.” The second volume is “still in the works.”

Morris resides in Amherst and Tidnish with his wife, Susan. The families of their two daughters, which include four grandchildren, live nearby.

Kimberley Embree hails from a little rural fishing village in Southeastern New Brunswick. Kim will be completing her Pastoral studies at Kingsway University and Theology. For the past forty years Kim has been a mother to many including her three biological children, an active youth leader, guest speaker, the Chair Lady of Cumberland County School of the Arts and actively involved in the Burning Bush Ministry In and Light House Ministries. 10 weekends of travel to the Miramachi revival meeting with a van load of people was the turning point in her ministry. In her senior years Kim is devoting time to author publication’s which will go where she may not be able to. Amazing Grace!

Barbara Burke’s nomadic life means she’s lived everywhere from a suburban house in a small town to a funky apartment in a big city, and from an architecturally designed estate deep in the forest to a cedar shack on the edge of the ocean. She currently resides in a 160 year old farmhouse, which means it’s older than the country she lives in. Everywhere she’s gone she’s been accompanied by her husband, her animals and her books. For the last 20 years she’s worked as a freelance journalist and has won several awards. She was a fan of Jane Austen long before that lady was discovered by revisionists and zombie lovers and thinks Georgette Heyer was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. She lives by the philosophy that one should never turn down the opportunity to get on a plane no matter where it’s going, but deep down inside wishes she could travel everywhere by train.

Learn more about Barbara’s work here:
Social Media: Facebook
Barbara’s Website

RD is a retired construction worker and practicing poet living in Oxford, NS.

Discover Richard’s work here.

Taylor F Perez, author of The Campbell Coven Series, is a British Columbian turned Nova Scotian who spends her days doing what she loves. A Dental Assistant, mother of two and literary enthusiast, Taylor lives for her characters and telling their stories has always been her dream.

Taylor lives in the rural village of Salem, NS with her husband, kids, and their ever-growing hobby farm.

Learn more about Taylor’s work here:
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram
Taylor’s Amazon Store