Her short fiction has won small press awards in the US and been a finalist for national contests and awards at home in Canada including the ReLit, Descant Novella, Aurora and others. She is a Pushcart nominee and her short fiction has been taught at universities in Canada and India. She is also an editor, writing coach and creative writing instructor. Ursula was born in Tunisia and grew up in Toronto. English is her second language, German her first. She is neurodiverse, and an obsessive gardener at her hundred-and fifty-year-old house on a river in eastern Ontario. More here: https://ursulapflug.ca
novelist
Ted Amsden
This week our guest is Ted Amsden. Ted went to university in Toronto graduating with an Honours BA in English Literature from Glendon College in 1972. During the early 80’s he became a writer for Gloucester Group at Maclaren Advertising producing TV, radio newspaper advertisements. But then he moved to Mexico with his wife Cynthia. For five years in San Miguel de Allende they ran a boutique manufacturing company, Ay Chihuahua, an aerobics studio called El Sweat. and at night in their kitchen Ted taught himself how to develop film and print photos. On returning to Canada with their two-year-old daughter, they settled in Cobourg enjoying small town life. Ted found a position at the Cobourg Star and for over 20 years covered all kind of events as a photo-journalist. In 2011, Ted became Cobourg’s 3rd poet Laureate and in 2012 he sat down to begin a new career as a novelist.
Terry Fallis
This week’s episode is an encore presentation of an episode we made with Terry Fallis, in which we interviewed Terry and he reads from his tenth, and most recent novel, The Marionette.
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.
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.
Linda Hutsell Manning
Welcome Linda!
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 byPandamonium Publishers in 2023. A novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, released by AOS Publishers is available in bookstores and on Amazon. Linda has also written many pieces of short fiction and poetry published in magazines. Find out more at lindahutsellmanning.ca.
Celia McBride
This week we welcome Celia McBride.
Celia is a writer and spiritual director from the Yukon now living in Port Hope. After graduating from the Playwriting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada in 1995, she spent the next 20 years writing, directing, producing and performing in theatre and film projects both nationally and internationally. Highlights include making “Last Stop for Miles”, a feature film; co-running Sour Brides Theatre, which toured her play “So Many Doors” (Playwrights Canada Press) across Canada; being commissioned and produced by the Stratford Festival of Canada; writing and directing the Yukon’s Victory Ceremonies show for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics; and publishing a spiritual memoir called “O My God: An Un-Becoming Journey” in 2022. In 2024, Celia was part of the Creator’s Unit at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, and her new play Lessons from Providence, was workshopped and read by professional actors as part of the Capitol’s season last year. Celia is currently seeking a publisher for her first novel, “The Yum-Yum Verse about Chinese food, dysfunctional relationships and the multiverse. Please visit her website celiamcbride.com for more.
J. D. Carpenter
This week we talk with J David Carpenter, a poet and novelist who lives in Prince Edward County. He grew up in Toronto and attended York University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Queen’s University, for his B. Ed. He first worked as a journalist for Daily Racing Form and as a freelance writer, then taught high school English for 25 years. David began his writing career as a poet, publishing four books of poetry between 1976 and 1994. He then turned to crime fiction during the 1990s and has published six novels: The Devil in Me (McClelland &Stewart, 2001) This first novel appeared on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list and was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award; his subsequent novels have also received critical acclaim, His most recent books of poetry are All Us Cats on Stage (Cressy Lakeside Books, 2021) and A Road through the Corn: Prince Edward County Poems, 1982-2022 (Cressy Lakeside Books, 2022). He has just completed an MS of list poems and is currently working on a new project which may become a novel. He is also locally known for writing and performing jazz poetry with musical accompaniment.
Kim Fahner
This Sunday our guest is Kim Fahner. Kim lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book, a novel, is The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46 Publishing) and her next book of poetry, The Pollination Field, will be published by Turnstone Press in 2025. Kim was a finalist for the 2023 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and she recently won first place in The Ampersand Review’s 2024 Essay Contest for her essay, “What You Carry.” Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. She read for The Third Thursday Reading series in Cobourg recently and gave a workshop.
Terry Fallis
This week we talk with Terry Fallis about his new work.
And here’s Terry’s “Really Short Bio”
Terry Fallis is a two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, he is the award-winning author of nine national bestsellers, six of them #1 bestsellers, including his latest, A New Season. His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the 2008 Leacock Medal, the 2011 edition of CBC Canada Reads, and was adapted as a six-part television miniseries, as well as a stage musical. He won the Leacock Medal a second time in 2015 for No Relation. He lives in Toronto and teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.
Word on the Hills Radio Program 