Coffee Chats advisor

Bethany Lake

Bethany Lake is a playwright, novelist, and freelance writer from Nova Scotia. As a playwright, she has had three of her plays produced in Halifax. Her play, No Animal, has been published in The Furious Gazelle, a literary magazine based in New York City.

She is a regular contributor to Rue Morgue magazine, where she has conducted interviews with high-profile actors and directors such as Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Mark Soper (The World According to Garp, Blood Rage) and Damien Leone (Terrifier, Terrifier 2). Bethany’s work has also appeared in The Big Takeover, PRISM international, and Write magazine.

Her first novel, In the Midst of Irrational Things (publisher TBD), began its development in the 2018 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program.

Bethany received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from Dalhousie University before continuing her playwriting education at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, ON.

She is currently working on her second novel, Silo, as well as a book of nonfiction essays.

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Denise Flint

Denise Flint is a freelance journalist by day and romance writer by night (under the pen name Barbara Burke). Since her early days working for a rural weekly newspaper she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines across the country. A true dilettante she refuses to be tied down to one subject and has learned a little bit about a whole lot of things while admitting general ignorance about pretty much everything.

She’s lived in the heart of a big city, the middle of nowhere and, for a brief spell, the suburbs. She gave up her last home, a cedar shack overlooking the North Atlantic, for a 160 year old farm house on the north shore of Nova Scotia. She has lived in three countries and five provinces and will never miss an opportunity to jump on a plane or train. She also loves road trips and cats (although not together).

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Frances Nobles

https://fbnobles.ca

F.B. Nobles, author of She-Wolfe in the Shadows, lives with her partner, Ron and two chihuahuas, Lucy and Joey, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. She enjoys all the Maritime provinces have to offer—breathtaking scenery, delicious food, and friendly people. She finds inspiration in everything and everyone around her.

She loves to read; it started at an early age when she read the local papers, The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star with her father at about age four. This trend continued when her mother introduced her to Nancy Drew Mysteries. Reading came naturally because everyone in her home was an avid reader. There were many books of different genres to whet her appetite and begin a life-long love of the written word.

She has always worked in structured disciplines that required superior attention to detail; writing became one of her creative outlets. Frances’ colourful imagination provides the backdrop of her story which she skillfully weaves with a mysterious tale of her crafting.

Her favourite authors are Sydney Sheldon, Harper Lee and Truman Capote to name a few. She has devoured their words. Her favourite director, producer and screenwriter is Alfred Hitchcock for allowing her imagination to create the ending.

Frances’ interests include travel, reading, writing, cooking, cooking shows, documentaries, reality shows, crafting, sewing, creating, research for her book, new learning experiences. All these things have helped shaped her writing. Frances favourite novels take her to a time or place unlike her own. She enjoys well-written novels of almost any genre.

She has traveled extensively in Europe from where the inspiration for the opulence in her book came. Frances enjoyed seeing many of the places she had only read about. Her favourite city is Amsterdam and her favourite country is the Netherlands. Their relaxed way of life is something she admires. Frances has also seen much of her own country. Canada has so much to offer. Upon her return to Canada, Frances lived in Montréal, Québec for seven years and took a job working for her first millionaire boss. She was fascinated by the millionaire lifestyle and brought parts of that lifestyle to her book.

The inspiration for this book came from many places and many persons. Sometimes a sight, sound or smell triggers a memory and a story for Frances. She also took inspiration from anyone who ever said to her, “You should write a book” although it may not be the book they envisioned. Prior to writing She-Wolfe in the Shadows, her writing style was satire with a humourous edge.

Frances describes her work as a mystery sprinkled with moments of romance. Her mystery has love, hate deception, extreme wealth, superior intelligence, revenge and a most unlikely gold digger. Frances’ readers can expect an entertaining and mysterious escape.

Frances’ engaging characters are fictional and are in no way based on any individual(s), living, or dead.

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Charlene Carr

Charlene has a Bachelor of Arts Honours (English) from Crandall University, a Master of Arts (English) from Dalhousie, and a Bachelor of Journalism from University of King’s College. After travelling the globe and working a number of years in various (mostly writing related) jobs, she left employed work to start a Communications business with the naïve hope of having more flexibility and time to finish her first full-length novel. She eventually did. And after her husband’s career took her to Newfoundland, she put aside her Communications work to focus exclusively on novel writing.

Since then, Charlene has independently published nine novels, and a novella. Her first traditionally published novel, Hold My Girl, pitched for fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty, is her first agented book and was published by HarperCollins Canada, Sourcebooks Landmark (US) and Welbeck Publishing (UK) in two-book deals, and is forthcoming from Alma Littera (Lithuania). It has also been optioned for television adaptation by Blink49 Studios in partnership with Groundswell Productions.

Charlene recently received grants from both Arts Nova Scotia and Canada Council for the Arts to write, research, and revise her next book, We Rip The World Apart, which will publish in 2024.

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Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail is a multi-passionate, multi-genre author of six books who loves telling inclusive stories for audiences of all ages.

Danielle’s latest co-authored picture book, Freddie the Flyer came out in Fall 2023 from Tundra Books. It features the life story of Fred Carmichael, the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic, and illustrations were created by Inuvialuit artist Audrea Loreen-Wulf. It is part of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, TD Summer Reading Program, shortlisted for the Hackmatack nonfiction award, and won the Atlantic Book Awards Readers’ Choice Award in 2024.

Both Freddie the Flyer and her first picture book, Alis the Aviator, were selected as CBC Books’ best of picture books, and Danielle toured them as part of Canadian Children’s Book Week in spring 2024.

Danielle’s other books include Fever on the Forgotten Coast (Rockwater Books), Polar Winds (Dundurn), For the Love of Flying (Robin Brass Books), and the Canadian bestselling essay anthology In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth and Reconciliation (Brindle & Glass).

Danielle is currently revising a creative nonfiction book called Winterburn with the assistance of Canada Council and Arts NS grants, as well as her first book club project, The 500 Year Flood. She is represented by Elizabeth Copps at Copps Literary, who is finalizing contracts on two kidlit projects in spring 2024.

If you’re a writer looking for a sharp-eyed believing mirror to help you with editing and coaching, Danielle will help you through the writing and publishing journey with empathy and encouragement. Please see testimonials from authors she’s worked with (along with rates) on her website at www.daniellemc.com and contact her directly to discuss whether she’s a good fit for you and your work.

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Sarah J. Carlson

Sarah J. Carlson is the author of two Young Adult novels, All the Walls of Belfast and Everything’s Not Fine, which was a Kirkus Best YA Book About Finding Inner Strength in 2020. She also received the Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Achievement Award for 2021.

Sarah currently lives in the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia with her husband and two children. Prior to that, she spent most of her life in Wisconsin, apart from a few years in Singapore.

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Lana Shupe

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Anne C. Kelly

Anne C. Kelly has loved to read and write for as long as she can remember. Her first publication was a class newspaper which she wrote with a friend in Grade four. She especially enjoys reading historical fiction and books about characters who discover who they really are after going through challenges in life.

Anne is an English teacher at heart. She taught English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) to adult newcomers to Canada for over twenty years. She loves learning about different cultures and traditions. She always says that she learned more from her students than they ever learned from her!

Anne’s first novel, Jacques’ Escape, was published by Trap Door Books in June 2019. Jacques’ Escape, which tells the story of a fourteen-year-old Acadian boy who is deported with his family to Massachusetts in 1755, is a middle reader for children aged 9-12. It was shortlisted for the 2020-21 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award.

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Anne Louise O’Connell

An author, developmental book editor and partner publisher, Anne can be found working on her latest novel, mentoring other authors, publishing books or leading writing workshops. Anne’s first book, @Home in Dubai – Getting Connected Online and on the Ground, was traditionally published in the UK by Summertime Publishing (2011) and re-released by Springtime Books. Her first novel, Mental Pause launched on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2013, and won an Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY). Her next novel, Deep Deceit, launched March 8, 2015 and is the first in a planned series called Deep Mysteries. Deep Freeze is scheduled for release March 2025. While living as an expat in Dubai and then Thailand, she was a content creator and a regular contributor to the Wall St. Journal Expat Blog and Global Living Magazine. In 2015, she also published a collection of expat and travel stories called Swimming with the Elephants and Other Adventures. Upon her return to Canada in 2016, after 23 years of expat life, she established OC Publishing in Halifax, NS.

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Chad Lucas

Chad Lucas has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist.

His work has appeared in publications including Halifax Magazine, Black to Business, Sport Quarterly and The Chronicle Herald, where he wrote a biweekly column, “Life With Kids,” from 2011-2016. He’s a previous Silver Award winner at the Atlantic Journalism Awards, and his short fiction has appeared in EVENT and The Dalhousie Review.

A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, Chad lives with his family in Nova Scotia. His debut middle grade novel, Thanks a Lot, Universe (Amulet Books/Abrams Kids) is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and earned praise as “heartwarming and bold” in a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and “funny and deeply empathetic” in a starred review from School Library Journal. His second middle grade novel, Let The Monster Out, releases in May 2022.

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