Women Writing

On Sunday, November 9, I launched Like Water for Weary Souls in Voima Hall at Finlandia Village in Sudbury, Ontario. Thank you to everyone who attended! If you were unable to attend, here’s the recording of my conversation with Emily De Angelis and a reading from the novel.

There are so many people to thank!

First, thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of this novel through a Literary Creation Projects Grant.

Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts and The Writers Union of Canada for supporting this launch.

Great big thank you and hugs to my interviewer, my longtime friend and fellow author, Emily De Angelis. I always enjoy chatting with you in front of an audience, or over a latte.

To my dream team, thank you for your help during the launch and for your continued friendship: Holly B. Gutwillinger, Emily Andrews, Shanon Stewart. And to Frank for always giving a helping hand. Thanks also to Greg Lilko for the amazing book trailer (posted at the end of the video) and Mike Jensen for the music (with kanteles!).

Thanks to Finlandia Village for allowing me to host the event in Voima Hall, the perfect location for a novel about Finnish immigrants. And to Leinala’s Bakery for the delicious Finnish pulla and cake.

Gratitude to my publicist Mickey Mikkelson of Creative Edge Publicity. Here are some of my recent events and reviews and stay tuned for upcoming news and events:

* Tea Time with Elizabeth Gagnon, YouTube recording (podcast)

* The Editor’s Inkpot 021: Writing Process (and Favorite Tudor Queens) with Liisa Kovala, host Margaret McNellis (podcast)

* Liisa Kovala on the 5 Things You Need to be a Successful Author or Writer, Kristin Marquet, Authority Magazine (interview)​

* Book Review: Like Water for Weary Souls, Author Anthony Avina (blog)

* Book Review, Sassy Reviews (blog)

* Empowering Women Writers: A Conversation with Liisa Kovala, Behind the Publisher’s Desk with Colin Mustful (podcast)

Love and thanks to my family and friends for your continued support, and to all the readers who came out, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the novel (and if you do, please write a review). For those of you who took the time to watch the launch, sending you thanks.

Kiitos! Thank you!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with teacher, mentor, and editor Susan Scott.

SUSAN SCOTT leads award-winning ventures that veer off the beaten path. Sarah Selecky calls Body & Soul, championing women writers and poets, “a revelation.” A limited edition chapbook led to a 1,000-mile women writers' tour of the American West. Other cross-border collaborations include Native Immigrant (2013-23), The Spiritual Life Writing Workbook (2025), and an anthology-in-development with women writers and scholars in Canada and abroad. Susan teaches in communities and classrooms in Canada and the U.S. and is a longtime New Quarterly editor and mentor.

We’re writing. Are you? The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with award-winning poet Callista Markotich. And check out Callista’s Women Writing feature article here.

Callista Markotich is a former teacher, principal and Superintendent of Education in Eastern Ontario, living gratefully with Don, her husband of sixty years, on the shore of Lake Ontario in Kingston Ontario, traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Nations. Her poems have been published in Canadian literary magazines across our beautiful provinces, including Room, Pulp Literature, Freefall, Grain, Prairie Fire, Arc Poetry, The New Quarterly, Syncopation Literary Journal, Vallum, The Nashwaak Review, The Antigonish Review and Riddle Fence, and in several American and British journals. Her poems have received first, second and third place awards in Canadian contests, and she is particularly proud of the poems selected in the 2025 The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. Her first collection, Wrap in a Big White Towel, published by Frontenac House in 2024, was a finalist for the 2025 Gerald Lampert Memorial First Book Award. Callista’s recent work has received Pushcart and National Magazine nominations. She is contributing editor for Arc Poetry.

What are you writing? How’s it going? The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with author and book coach Nicole Bross.

Nicole Bross is a certified fiction book coach and editor, and the author of both adult and YA genre-blending speculative fiction. Her debut novel, Past Presence (Literary Wanderlust, 2019), an adult supernatural mystery, was a top-three finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel, awarded by the Crime Writers of Canada. She’s currently working on two dark supernatural YA books and co-writing a nonfiction book for neurodiverse writers called A Novel Approach: Strategies for ADHD Writers. Nicole has been the editor-in-chief of Birthing Magazine since 2015, and her writing has been featured in many print and online publications, as well as nationally-broadcast nonfiction TV shows. You can learn more about Nicole’s writing here.

Goodreads: A Novel Approach: Strategies for ADHD Writers.

Are you writing? Do you need to put yourself on the calendar? Join Women Writing Circle. We meet on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with author Kelly Watt. Check out Kelly’s Women Writing feature here.

Kelly Watt’s gritty collection of poetry and prose, The Weeping Degree: How Astrology Saved Me From Suicide, published by Wild Rising Press, was an International Amazon Bestseller and a five-star finalist in The Wishing Shelf Indie Book Awards, U.K., 2024. A frequent flyer on literary longlists, Watt has published two previous books—the gothic novel Mad Dog, Doubleday Canada (2001) which was a Globe and Mail notable book 2001 and the mini book, Camino Meditations, by Hamilton Stone Editions, U.S. (2014). Watt has lived in five countries, but she now lives in Ontario with her partner and some diverse goldfish. You can find out more about her at: Website: www.kellywatt.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellywattauthor

Instagram: @kellywattauthor

Do you need time to write? So do we! The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, we’re flipping the script. Today, guest host Caroline Topperman is interviewing me about my new release, Like Water for Weary Souls.

Caroline Topperman is a European-Canadian writer, entrepreneur, and world traveler. Born in Sweden, raised in Canada with a recent stint of living in Poland, she holds a BFA in Screenwriting. She is a co-founder of Mountain Ash Press and KW Writers Alliance. Her book, Tell Me What You See, serves as a toolkit for her writing workshops. She has written articles for Huffington Post Canada, Jane Friedman’s blog was the Beauty Editor for British MODE Magazine, and served as managing editor for NonBinary Review. Her hybrid memoir, Your Roots Cast a Shadow: one family’s search across history for belonging with HCI Books, explores explosive intergenerational histories that link war zones and foreign shores with questions of identity and belonging. Her next book, The Road to Tang-e Gharu: family stories, folk tales, and the limits of memory, integrates Afghan folktales and family memories with the story of one of the greatest roads ever built.

Liisa Kovala is a Finnish Canadian writer and book coach. Her debut novel, Sisu’s Winter War, was released by Latitude 46 Publishing in 2022. Surviving Stutthof: My Father’s Memories Behind the Death Gate (Latitude 46, 2017) was translated and published by Docendo in Finland, and short-listed for a Northern Lit award. Liisa’s short stories and creative non-fiction have been published in a variety of anthologies and literary magazines, and she received first prize in Geist’s 18th Annual Literal Literary Postcard Short Story Contest. Like Water for Weary Souls is her second historical novel and available October 12, 2025. Learn more about Liisa at liisakovalabookcoach.com and visit liisakovalawomenwriting.substack.com.

Join us to write! The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions.

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with writer, editor, and teacher Natalie Morrill.

Natalie Morrill is a writer based in Ottawa, Ontario. Her debut novel The Ghost Keeper (HarperCollins Canada 2018) was recognized with the HarperCollins Canada/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction, as well as being shortlisted for the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature. Her short fiction has been included in The Journey Prize Stories anthology, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in Canadian literary journals. She teaches writing, editing and literature.

*Update: If you’re curious about our discussion of Natalie’s latest manuscript, she’s let me know her agent is submitting her novel to the editor in November. Fingers crossed, Natalie!

Ready to tackle your writing project this fall? The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with award-winning author Danila Botha. Grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit back, and enjoy!

Danila Botha is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collections, Got No Secrets, For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known, which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and the ReLit Award and most recently, Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness. The collection won an Indie Reader Discovery Award for Women's Issues, Fiction, and was a finalist for the Canadian Book Club Awards, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the National Indie Excellence Book Awards. She is also the author of the award-winning novel Too Much On the Inside which was optioned for film. Her new novel, A Place for People Like Us will be published in October 2025. Her first graphic novel will be published in 2026 by At Bay Press. She lives in Toronto.

Do you need time to write? So do we! The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this episode, I’m taking a coffee break with author and book coach Josee Smith.

Josee Smith is an indie author and book coach for working moms who want to finish the novel of their dreams. She achieved her childhood dream of finishing a novel and publishing it in 2021, and now she supports other writers with the same dream. As a new mom with a busy job, she understands the challenges of managing it all, and she also believes strongly that writing and creativity can help women feel like themselves again after the chaos of motherhood. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, young son, anxious dog, and semi-feral cat.

IG: @joseesmithbookcoach

Website: www.joseesmithbookcoach.com

Do you need time to write? So do we! The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST with occasional bonus sessions. Come and write with us!

Welcome to the Women Writing podcast. In this re-release of Episode 19, I’m taking a coffee break with author, editor, and podcaster Kerry Clare.

KERRY CLARE is the author of Asking for a Friend, Waiting for a Star to Fall, and Mitzi Bytes. Her fourth novel will be published in March 2026. A National Magazine Award-nominated essayist and editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, Kerry also edits the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, is host of the BOOKSPO podcast, and writes about books and reading at her longtime blog, Pickle Me This. She lives in Toronto with her family.

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Stay tuned for Season 2 of the Women Writing Podcast coming in September. Thanks for taking your coffee break with Women Writing!