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Shelf Indulgence book club (virtual) with Naomi MacKinnon

Shelf Indulgence is a quarterly book club series led by members of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS). All selected books are authored by Nova Scotians. Registration for each meet-up is free.

Join guest host Naomi MacKinnon (of Truro’s The Happy Duck Bookshop & Readery) and series host Linda Hudson (WFNS Program Manager) for a discussion of B.R. Myers’s A Dreadful Splendour (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2022).

Get your copy of the book online, from your local independent bookstore, or from your local library.

About the book: Agatha Christie meets Bridgerton in this wickedly whimsical Gothic murder mystery bubbling with spooky thrills and romance, about a fake spiritualist who is hired to perform a séance for a bride who died the eve of her wedding—but as secrets unravel, the line between hoax and haunting blurs. Be careful what you conjure….

In Victorian London, Genevieve Timmons poses as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy mourners—until a failed con lands her in jail. Then a stranger appears with a peculiar offer: a nobleman, Mr. Pemberton, has lost his beautiful fiancée under tragic and mysterious circumstances. If Genevieve can convince him that his beloved rests in peace, she’ll earn her freedom.

But Mr. Pemberton is not the brokenhearted romantic she imagined. The surly—and undeniably handsome—young lord barely knew his bride-to-be, yet is certain she was murdered. With no evidence, only a confession will do, and he enlists Genevieve to help draw it out. Their plan? Stage a haunting so theatrical, so chilling, it might just rattle the truth loose.

When frightful incidents befall the manor, Genevieve begins to wonder if her tricks are even needed. She may be a fraud, but this ghost might be alarmingly real.

(Synopsis from publisher William Morrow Paperbacks)

Location: Zoom

Date: Wednesday, Nov 25, 2026 (starting 7:00pm Atlantic)

Registration is free for WFNS members and for non-members

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children, writing for young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca