Allan Seymour

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Part 1:

This week’s show is an encore presentation of an episode we made with Al Seymour last Spring. Recently Al has been involved in organizing a series of walks in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, who visited Cobourg in 1842, which will be taking place on December 7th, 8th and 9th followed by entertainment by well-known local artists, all in aid of the Cobourg Museum and the Sifton Cook Heritage Centre. Al Seymour grew up just north of Cobourg in Creighton Heights, attending Cook’s School, Dale Road and CDCI West, before venturing off to the University of Guelph to earn a degree in Microbiology. For the next 40 years, Al worked in the GTA as a microbiologist. Five years ago, Al and his wife Kathy Toivanen retired to Cobourg. Al is a busy retiree – active with the Cobourg Museum, renovating his home, spending time at family cottages, church, skiing, hiking, walking, and gardening. And writing: Al has written 3 books: an historical novel, a children’s short story, and a political thriller. Only the short story has been published so far. He has “parked” his incomplete WWI story but is finishing the first draft of an 1850’s saga.

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Marsha Smoke

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This week we talk with Marsha Smoke. Marsha is the CEO and President of Moccasin Trails, a company dedicated to environmental principles and policies to protect the land. That is the impetus behind Moccasin Trails Access Matting Solutions, an Alderville-based business which takes Marsha all over Ontario and beyond. The company’s name, Moccasin Trails, comes from a story Marsha learned from her elders about the history of the grass dance.

Marsha believes in the power of storytelling to educate and heal and says there needs to be ongoing dialogue and more opportunities for residential school survivors and their families to share their stories. She sees Orange Shirt Day as giving people that opportunity. She is a one of the driving forces behind the Dibaajimowin Cultural Centre which visits towns and villages, often setting up their HQ in the tipi they travel with as they did in Port Hope this year and to Colborne where the community was invited to join in the special commemorative ceremony in Victoria Square Park for knowledge sharing and reflection, moments of silence, story-telling, flag raising and a smudge ceremony. Orange shirts were available for purchase to support the Dibaajimowan Cultural Centre.

Ted Barris

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This week we are rebroadcasting our most recent interview with Ted Barris in honour of Remembrance Day. On Dec. 29, 2022, Rideau Hall announced its Honours list and Ted learned he would be appointed Member of the Order of Canada, “for advancing our understanding of Canadian military history as an acclaimed historical author, journalist and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press, as well as magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, PBS in the U.S. and on TV Ontario. And after 18 years teaching, he recently retired as a full-time professor of journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College. He is the author of 20 bestselling, non-fiction books, including a series on wartime Canada including Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944 … Days of Victory: Canadians Remember 1939-1945 … Behind the Glory: Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War. His 17th book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, won the 2014 Libris Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award (shared with astronaut Chris Hadfield). Ted’s 20th book, Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in the fall of 2022 and immediately landed on the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestsellers lists. Following the book’s publication, Ted received word that he’d received Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Award, recognizing “extraordinary contributions to our community and Canada.”

Linda Hutsell Manning

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Linda Hutsell-Manning’s publications include 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, which was premiered by VOS Theatre, a memoir, about her experiences as a teacher of eight grades at S.S.#2 Hamilton Township; a one room, one stove, cold water tap elementary school west of Cobourg from  1963 to 1965. She has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in literary magazines. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she now lives near Cobourg Ontario where she writes in a century farmhouse. www.lindahutsellmanning.ca.  Her children’s story Finding Moufette, has just been released by Pandamonium Publications.

Peter Paylor

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Peter Paylor is fast becoming one of Eastern Ontario’s favourite playwrights. His plays are heartfelt and hilarious, engaging audiences by placing likeable characters in the most unlikely situations. Peter is President and Artistic Director of River & Main Theatre Company at Theatre in The Wings in Belleville.

His own plays have been greeted with acclaim by critics and his audience.

 “I laughed more at this play (Christmas in Rosewood) than I have ever laughed at any play I’ve read before. And I’m surprised to be saying that because I’m a tough audience.” – Norm Foster, playwright.

“Paylor is breaking ground in the way he writes parts for older women, giving them voice and space in a world that often renders older women invisible. What’s more, these female characters embody a kind of irreverence, flipping social conventions…he wants to challenge our expectations of what ‘old’ looks like. And he does just that, carefully, cleverly, and always with warmth and humour.” – Lisa Guthro, The Intelligencer

Carol Finlay

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This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Carol Finlay, M.S.M, O.Ont., the Founder of Book Clubs for Inmates (www.bookclubsforinmates.com), a registered charity in Canada. Dr. Finlay received her BA from Trinity College in 1965; her M. Div. in 1990 from Wycliffe College, University of Toronto; and was ordained for The Anglican Church of Canada in 1992. During summers on Amherst Island near Kingston, Ontario, she sensed a call to work in one of the many penitentiaries in the Kingston area. She started the first book club for inmates in Collins Bay Institution in 2008. As of 2023, Book Clubs for Inmates (BCFI), a registered charity, runs more than 36 book clubs (although this number has fluctuated since the pandemic) in federal institutions across Canada with more than 120 volunteers. Dr. Finlay has been recognized for her work with an Order of Ontario, Meritorious Service Medal, and honorary doctorates from Trinity College, University of Toronto and St. Thomas University, in New Brunswick. Please join us.

Janice Barrett

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This week we welcome Janice Barrett to WORD ON THE HILLS. Janice is a mother of three. Her children are her proudest accomplishments. She is a journalist, playwright, ghostwriter and now a novelist. Her debut novel, Authorized Cruelty was released this month by Blue Denim Press She has also written a memoir and gives workshops on memoir writing. She is a member of the Canadian Authors Association. Please join us!

Shane Joseph

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This week meet Shane Joseph. Shane is a Canadian novelist, blogger, reviewer, short story writer, and publisher at Blue Denim Press. He began writing as a teenager living in Sri Lanka and has never stopped. He is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories. His short stories and articles have appeared in several Canadian anthologies and in literary journals around the world. His latest novel, Empire in the Sand, (2022) is a tale of pharmaceutical scandals, robocalls electioneering, and family breakdown. You can find out more about Shane at his website www.shanejoseph.com

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Simon Constam

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Meet Simon Constam! Simon is a Toronto poet and aphorist. Since late 2018, Simon has been publishing, under the moniker Daily Ferocity, an original aphorism every day on Instagram and for an email subscriber base. His first book, BROUGHT DOWN, was published in 2022 to considerable acclaim. His second book, DOMESTIC RECUSALS will be published in early 2024. Simon and his wife, Janice Waugh, live in the Beach where they operate Solo Traveler, www.solotravelerworld.com. Simon and Janice have 8 children and 11 grandchildren. Simon was born in Toronto, but lived for 15 years in Abbotsford, British Columbia where he owned and operated a bookstore. He is a member of The Cobourg Poetry Workshop and has often read at their Third Thursday Readings.

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Beverley Brewer

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This week meet Beverley Brewer. Beverley was born and raised in Ontario; she lived in Toronto until she moved to her Muskoka cottage in 2021, with her husband Jack and their two black labs. When Bev graduated from the University of Toronto her ambition was to become a teacher, a missionary or a social worker. Her introduction to life skills teaching methodology and group facilitation at Seneca College set the stage for her life’s work. At Seneca, Bev’s life skills groups supported adult students in job readiness and academic upgrading. When Bev took a position in the social service worker diploma program at Seneca, she taught what she loved doing––group work and counselling and had the privilege of teaching in the program. Bev retired in her thirty-sixth year of teaching and learning in the community college system. In retirement, Bev writes short-fiction, and completed her first psychological character-driven novel, No One Knew. Her second large project is Dance into Light, a memoir. When she’s not writing, you can find her in a kayak or when the water freezes over, on snowshoes somewhere on the lake. She’s happy to have found like-minded friends who like to sing, hike and play pickle ball year-round.

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