My guest this week is author Candace MacPhie. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Candace spent years backpacking and working around the world. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree, an MBA, and worked for twenty years on four different continents and now calls Calgary, Alberta home. She got married, had kids, and things got busy. Time was moving by quickly and her kids were growing up fast. She shifted gears and quit her job to spend time at home. During the COVID lockdown, she had time on her hands and decided to try writing, and started writing the Back in a Year series.

My guest this week is author Tina Susedik. Tina has been researching and writing books since 1997. She is published in non-fiction with military and local history books. She also has published children’s books and romantic mysteries. She loves to add humor in her books, putting her characters in situations and finding a humorous way to get them out of them. As Tina Susedik she writes for Soul Mate Publishing. As Anita Kidesu, she pens spicier romances for The Wild Rose Press. She also self-publishes her romances children's books she writes with her grandchildren. Tina belongs to the Romance Writers of America, Wisconsin Romance Writers of America, and the Wisconsin Regional Writers' Association. In 1996 she established the Chippewa Valley Romance Writers, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in October of 2016. She is a member of the Published Authors Network with the Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

My guest this week is author Matt Hughes. Matt is a Canadian author, he writes crime fiction, fantasy, and space opera. He has sold 24 novels to publishers large and small in the US, Canada, UK, France, and Italy, as well as more than 100 works of short fiction to professional markets.

His magnum opus is What the Wind Brings, a historical novel with magical realism elements. It was the first Canadian work to win the international Endeavour Award. He waited more than forty years to write the novel, and spent a year composing several drafts, made possible by a $25,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.6 publication.

My guest this week is author Carol Snow. Carol is an American author of contemporary fiction and young adult literature. After graduating from Brown University, she spent many years working as a freelance writer and editor. For a time, she wrote essays about motherhood for Salon but wisely stopped before her children were old enough to read. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and Park City Magazine.

​Eventually, Snow turned her attention to crafting heartfelt stories with wider appeal, and in 2006, Berkley/Penguin published her first novel, Been There, Done That, a Target Bookmarked Breakout selection that Publisher’s Weekly called “humorous, wise . . . romance with a bit of social commentary.” Since then, she has written five more books for adults, Getting Warmer (2007); Here Today, Gone to Maui (2009); Just Like Me, Only Better (2010); and What Came First (2011), which Amazon UK chose as a best book of the month. Her next title, The Girl on the Beach, a psychological thriller, is slated for June 2026 publication.

My guest this week is author T.K. Bush. T.K. is a seasoned radiographic/cardiovascular technologist with more than two decades of medical experience, has also been a prolific writer since childhood. Married, with a blended family of 4 children and two Bengal cats, she bravely navigates the complexities of family life, healthcare, and the stimulating world of literature. Bush’s love of reading and writing gives her a unique storytelling voice, shaped by her medical background. Drawing on her own experiences with relationships and trauma, she creates stories that guide readers toward forgiveness, acceptance, and grace, even in the toughest situations. Her debut novel, Unveiled, releases in September 2026. Bush skillfully incorporates her medical expertise into a psychologically intense thriller. Through the complexity of medical and relationship drama, she creates a haunting world filled with emotion, suspense, and deception.

My guest this week is author Alison McBain. Alison was born in Canada, raised in California, and arrived in Canada with a few detours along the way. She has over two hundred poems and short stories published in magazines and anthologies such as Flash Fiction Online, On Spec, and Litro. Her debut and award-winning novel is The Rose Queen: Book 1 of the Rose Trilogy, and was shortly followed by a collection of her short fantasy fiction called Enchantress of Books. When not obsessing over her plan of survival for a zombie apocalypse, she practices origami meditation and draws all over the walls of her house with the enthusiastic help of her kids.

My guest this week is author J.T. Ellison. J.T. is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels of psychological suspense, including the Taylor Jackson series, the Samantha Owens series, and numerous acclaimed standalones. She is the Emmy Award–winning cohost of A Word on Words, the literary television series on PBS.

Over a twenty-year career, her work has earned widespread critical recognition, with titles optioned for television and published in thirty countries, and millions of copies in print worldwide.

A dedicated voice in the writing community, she also publishes The Creative Edge, a newsletter and blog for writers navigating the craft and business of fiction.

My guest this week is author Holly B. Gutwillinger. Holly is an author and podcaster from a small northern Ontario town. Her debut novel, North of Broken & Furever Home, launches February 14, 2026, exploring a woman's complex relationship with her rescue dogs.

Holly's writing is shaped by her deep love of family—she is the proud mother of two adult sons—and her commitment to the animals who enrich our lives.

She holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies and is currently completing her MFA in fiction at the University of King's College. Holly serves on the board of her local writers' guild and volunteers with the Women's Fiction Writers Association.