This programme if an encore presentation of our show for December 20, 2020. Join our holiday celebration hosted by Chris Cameron and enjoy poetry from Katie Hoogendam, Kim Aubrey and Felicity Sidnell Reid, a story by Donna Wootton and music from Jessica Outram and Marie-Lynn Hammond, who both wrote songs specially for this programme. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Gwynn, Chris and Felicity.
Author: felicity936
First holiday show 2025
This week we begin our December run of previously shared holiday shows. Today we hear story-tellers, Lynn Bilton reading a story for Ron Mackay, Chris Cameron drawing us into the life of small-town Canada as he reads from his book Thorneside Stories and various poets with poems about winter, Christmas, the Winter Solstice and other celebrations.
We hope you’ll enjoy this series.
Linda Hutsell Manning
This week we are pleased to re-run a programme we made with Linda Hutsell Manning in the fall of 2023. Linda has published four picture books, three juvenile plays, two mid-grade novels and Polka Dot Door scripts as well as a literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, a two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher, a memoir, Fearless and Determined about her 1960’s teaching experiences a one room elementary school west of Cobourg. Her latest picture book, Finding Moufette, was released in 2023. A novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, was released in 2024 and another small book was published this year called The Killing Room. These are available in local bookstores and on Amazon. Linda has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in magazines. Find out more at lindahutsellmanning.ca.
Lionel Bennett
Lionel Bennett grew up an air force brat. His father, Gordon Bennett, was in the RCAF, and was stationed in different locations in Canada, the U.S. and France. Lionel attended University, in Ottawa, but did not think about writing until much later. He had an assortment of jobs before starting a career as an insurance broker for over forty years. It was during that time that he took a fiction writing course at Loyalist College and a seed was planted. After his retirement from insurance, the writing seed sprouted and his first book was published in February 2024. He is currently writing his second book while enjoying life at his home north of Marmora with his wife Laurane on the shores of the Crowe River. He is a member of the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum, an active member of Westben and sings in the Festival Chorus.
Josée Segouin
Josée Sigouin is French Canadian and lives in Toronto/Tkaronto with her Chinese Canadian husband and their two sons. Watching South Korean films and television series in the mid-2000s launched Josée on a quest to understand the fascinating culture in ever greater depth. She has learned the rudiments of the Korean language, visited the Land of the Morning Calm multiple times, and read extensively about its past and present. She also turned her attention to creative writing, taught by Dennis Bock and Kim Echlin at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, and mentored by Omar El Akkad at a writing residency in Bangladesh. An early excerpt from Our Fifth Season was shortlisted for the 2011 Random House of Canada Student Award. In addition to travelling, Josée enjoys cycling, gardening, and welcoming birds to her tiny garden. Our Fifth Season is Josée’s first novel.
John Hill
This week our guest is John Hill. John is a retired lawyer living in Cobourg. Before retiring, he specialised in criminal and prison law, often representing some of Canada’s most notorious criminals. Now that he is retired, he has taken to writing. He is a columnist for Law360 Canada, an online newspaper for the legal community. He has contributed chapters to several books and has recently published three books of true crime stories based on his former clients. In 2022, he published Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement. Last year, he published The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, which was a finalist for the Best Canadian Non-Fiction Award of Excellence by Crime Writers of Canada. In July 2025, his third book, Acts of Darkness, was released.
Sue Davidson
Our guest this week is Sue Davidson. After finishing a Bachelor of Journalism degree at Carleton University, Sue worked on a weekly newspaper in Renfrew and then went on to complete a Master of Library and Information at Western University. She was a librarian in Ottawa for many years, working in departmental libraries with the federal government. Her interest in short stories began in the mid-1990s when she took workshops with Ottawa writer Richard Taylor. She attended a summer week-long workshop at the Humber School for Writers and, more recently, began courses in the Creative Writing certificate program at the University of Toronto. Sue has had three short stories published. Dread Comes at Daybreak is her debut novel.
Cynthia Reyes
This week we are rebroadcasting an early episode of Word on the Hills with Cynthia Reyes. Cynthia has been a writer all her life.She was a writer and producer for the CBC for many years and won awards both nationally and internationally. Cynthia has given numerous workshops and has taught many memoir writing courses. In this episode she discusses the creation of her own memoirs and reads from A Good Home.
She is also the author, with her daughter Lauren, of a successful series of children’s books about Myrtle the PurpleTurtle. She currently writes a lively blog. Look for her on her own website cynthiareyes.com and on Facebook.
Jennifer Bogart
This is an encore presentation of an interview with Jennifer Bogart. Jennifer is a writer, with three adult novels and two middle-grade books to her credit. For many years she was a publisher and editor at Morning Rain Publications and then became the owner of Let’s Talk Books, Cobourg’s independent bookstore since 2016 specializing in new books, new comics, greeting cards, magazines and gifts. A year ago Let’s Talk Books moved to new premises at 29 King Street and became Readers’ Nook. She frequently hosts writers, whose books she admires and arranges very successful readings for them, as well as organizing a number of book clubs at the store for readers of different genres.
Liz Torlee
This week we welcome Liz Torlee. Liz lived and worked in England and Germany before emigrating to Canada in her twenties. She built a long career in both advertising and market research but is now devoted to her real passion: storytelling.
A Long Walk With Fate (2025), published by Blue Denim Press, is Liz’s third novel. The previous two, also from Blue Denim Press, are The Way Things Fall (2020) and In Love With The Night (2022). She had two short stories published in 2024: Flight, in the anthology Will There Be A Sunset? (Chicken House Press), and Narrowing the Field, in the Hill Spirits VI anthology Change, (Blue Denim Press.) Her story Orion Winked (2025), was one of four chosen to be engraved on a picnic table, as part of the town of Cobourg’s Picnic on Poetry initiative.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 