novelist

Dave Vaughan

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WORD ON THE HILLS; wordonthehills.com

Dave Vaughan is an author who made a sharp left turn from a long career in transportation into the far less predictable world of fiction and film. These days, the only passengers he deals with are imaginary, loud, and terrible at following directions. He studied writing at George Brown College and went on to write the screenplay for Hokum, which won “Best Thriller Film” at the 2010 New York International Film & Video Festival, and the feature Advocate. His first novel, Ballet of Deception, brought his love of tension and character to the page, followed by the short story Unscheduled Departure, featured in the Hills Spirits VI anthology. His latest novel, Killing Them Again, is a darkly satirical psychological thriller and winner of the first-ever AI-judged fiction contest from MyPoolitzer, Quantifiction, and Blue Denim Press. Dave lives in Cobourg and is currently at work on his next novel.

Mary Worwood

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Mary Worwood is the pseudonym for Canadian author, Mary Louise Dumka. Her writing career began as a part time journalist for a string of community newspapers. (From 2003 to 2007). And she is currently employed by the Trent Hills Public Library. Mary formed the Trent Hills Public Library Writers Group in 2015 and continues to facilitate the group. She has taken writing courses at Trent University and Loyalist College. She credits her instructor, speculative author Ursula Pflug, for recognizing and nurturing her latent talent as an author. Her post-secondary education included: theatre arts, and art history at the University of Victoria, until she was accepted into Langara College’s Studio 58 Theatre Arts Program in Vancouver. She is an avid photographer and enjoys reading, gardening, cross-country skiing, boating and when she can afford it travelling. She lives on a lake in Northumberland County with her husband, artist Jim Dumka and two cats. Her current work Overtime is her first novel.

Ursula Pflug

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Ursula Pflug is the author of eight books of fiction and editor or co-editor of three anthologies, published by traditional Canadian, US and UK small presses. These include the novels Green Music and The Alphabet Stones, the novellas Mountain and Down From, and the story collections, Harvesting the Moon and Seeds and Other Stories. Approx one hundred stories have appeared in Canada, and internationally in literary publications.

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

Ted Amsden

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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.

Linda Hutsell Manning

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.