Author Michelle Waitzman has an agent, three books published with a traditional press and she self-published her latest book, "BE AS HAPPY AS YOUR DOG: 16 Dog-Tested Ways to Be Happier Using ​Pawsitive Psychology." If you're a writer wondering if you should self-publish or go the traditional route, this interview is a masterclass in the self-publishing industry. And, Michelle gives some excellent insight into the question..."What if you could be as happy as your dog?" 

Michelle Waitzman is a plain language consultant and trainer, writer, and editor. She is the author of Be as Happy as Your Dog: 16 Dog-Tested Ways to Be Happier Using Pawsitive Psychology, as well as Sex in a Tent: A Wild Couple’s Guide to Getting Naughty in Nature, Moon: Living Abroad in New Zealand, and Psychic Animals: Superstition, Science and Extraordinary Tales. Before her freelance career, Michelle worked in TV production and corporate communications. She lives with her husband and two mixed-breed rescue dogs, Marlowe and Nuka, in Toronto, Canada. 

This CFG Books interview was brought to you by the Canadian Freelance Guild (CFG) and AACB. 

These questions and SO many more were addressed on December 3, when AACB hosted its VERY first Facebook live event, “Ask the Author.”  Our panel was stacked with the dynamic and talented Lucy EM Black, Hollay Ghadery and Wayne Ng. And the good news our inspiring discussion is now available!

To learn more about Lucy or to PURCHASE her books CLICK HERE.

To LEARN more about Hollay or to PURCHASE her books CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Wayne or to PURCHASE his books CLICK HERE.

Confession. I was VERY nervous about the backend technology to stream our event on Facebook. Well... Yay! I got it to work but...it's not gallery view so you'll have a closeup of our lovely faces. ;) 

BIG thanks for watching. For more FABULOUS Canadian author interviews CLICK the button below to pop over to YouTube, while you're there please subscribe to AACB! Another BIG thanks.

Julie Barlow has been working as a magazine writer and nonfiction author and French-English translator for three decades. She has published 8 books, including The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed (St Martin’s Press), co-authored with her husband and writing partner Jean-Benoit Nadeau. Her first book Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong became an international bestseller translated into 6 languages. Julie’s newspaper and magazine articles have appeared across
Canada, the United States and Europe in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Le Courrier international and more. She is a regular contributor to Quebec French-language news magazine L’actualité and Quebec business magazine Gestion, and a regular translator for TheConversation.ca. 

After almost four decades of experience writing 3000 articles and columns, 15 books, TV and radio documentaries and giving hundreds of seminars and workshops on freelancing…it was FASCINATING to tap into Julie Barlow's expertise. Going Solo is comprehensive guide to self-employment.

If you missed Julie's INSIGHTFUL interview our discussion is NOW available!
Check it out!

Mark Kearney is an award-winning journalist whose latest book is Al Christie: Hollywood’s Forgotten Film Pioneer, published in 2023 by BearManor Media. Mark has also co-authored 10 books and contributed to three others. He started his career as a reporter for the London Free Press and has freelanced for some 80 different publications in North America. He’s currently a lecturer at Western University in London, Ontario where he has won several awards for teaching a range of writing and journalism courses. Mark lives in London, Ontario with his wife Catherine Blake and dog Archie.

Al Christie is published by ​BearManor Media.

AACB is delighted to partner with the Canadian Freelance Guild (CFG) in the CFG Books Series. Our collaboration was kicked off with the delightful Lyn Hancock the author of Tabasco The Saucy Racoon. 

This interview was one heck of a ride! I will say...there has never been NOR WILL THERE EVER BE an interview quite like this one! Lyn Hancock is a wildly wonderful storyteller who has a TON of wildly wonderful stories to tell. 

IAN MCCULLOCH (1957-2019) was born in Comox, B.C. and raised in Northern Ontario. A member of the Chapleau Cree First Nation (Fox Lake), his writing was deeply influenced by family and his indigenous heritage.

He was the author of three books of poetry: The Moon of Hunger (Penumbra, 1982), The Efficiency of Killers (Penumbra, 1988) and Parables and Rain (Penumbra, 1993) and the chapbooks, A Balsam to Ease All Pains (Alburnum Press, 1998), Certain Humans and A Box of Light (both above/ground press, 2019). He was also the author of the novel Childforever (Mercury, 1996). He read twice at Toronto’s prestigious Harbourfront series. Two of his poems were included in the anthology Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century (LUMMOX Press, 2018). 

Watch our full interview. ​

Miigwech Bruce. Miigwech for watching.

I LOVE this book. 

My guest today is Joanne Jackson. Her roots run deep in Saskatchewan with her parents, herself, her children, her husband and his parents were all born and raised there.

Joanne has had three novels published. The Wheaton, A Snake in the Raspberry Patch, which won best crime novel set in Canada in 2023 and was short listed for the Saskatchewan book awards, and now Sunset Lake Resort.

Here's what Sunset Lake Resort is about:

When Ruby’s father passes away, but fails to leave her the millions some expected, Steve, her husband of 35 years, moves out. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the condition of the property and rumours it is haunted, Ruby decides to move to Sunset Lake Resort, determined to find out why her father bought it, and why he left it to her.

Watch our interview!

Published by Stonehouse Publishing.

April is national poetry month and we're celebrating all our incredibly talented Canadian poets. I feel privileged to have had four of them join me for the second annual reading to mark the occasion.

May I introduce my lovely co-host Hollay Ghadery and Courtney Bates-Hardy, Patrick Grace, and Ellen Chang-Richardson who read from their latest collections and shared the inspiration behind their poems.

I am in awe  and I LOVED hearing their stories. Enjoy!

​Hollay Ghadery lives in Ontario. Fuse, her memoir, (Guernica Editions) won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press (2023). Her short stories, Widow Fantasies, are forthcoming with Gordon Hill. Hollay is the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township.

Hollay read "The Zeignarik Effect," from Rebellion Box. 

​Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery (ChiZine Publications, 2016), and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her poems have been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, Vallum, and EVENT, among others. She is queer, disabled, and one-third of a writing group called The Pain Poets. 

​Courtney read "The Lady Anatomist" from Anatomical Venus.

​Patrick Grace is an author and teacher from Vancouver, BC. He has published two chapbooks: a blurred wind swirls back for you (2023) and Dastardly (2021), and his first full-length collection, Deviant, is out now with University of Alberta Press. He moonlights as managing editor for Plenitude Magazine. Follow him on IG: @thepoetpatrick.

Patrick read "A Cone of Light," from Deviant.

Ellen Chang-Richardson is an award-winning poet of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent. The author of Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024) and six poetry chapbooks, their multi-genre writing has been published in Augur, Room and Vallum, among others. They co-founded Riverbed Reading Series and write collaboratively with the poetry collective VII.

Ellen read "courtyard acupuncture" from Blood Belies.

For more author interviews and to ​watch MORE segments with Lucy