Webinars

Success in Indie Publishing: A Case Study
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
10:30 am PST / 11:30 am MST / 12:30 pm CST / 1:30 pm EST / 2:30 pm AST / 3:00 pm NST
60 minutes
Closed captioning available

Registration: Free, open to TWUC members only

> This webinar is exclusively for TWUC members. Click here to access registration (member login required).

Ever wonder what it takes to publish your own book successfully? Unsure how to balance the challenges and opportunities of self-publishing? Hosted by Yolanda T. Marshall, 2019 Whistler Independent Book Award winner Ann Shortell will present on her experiences in indie publishing. Plus, Ann will share some ideas on how to compete with traditionally published books. Webinar runs 60 minutes, including a Q&A period.

TWUC members who are unable to attend will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time.

In a previous century, Ann Shortell was a traditionally-published nonfiction writer. This century, she is an indie-published fiction writer. Her debut novel, CELTIC KNOT A Clara Swift Tale, has received favorable reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus. The novel has been honored by a number of competitions, including the 2019 Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction and the 2020 Ontario Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction. A Kingston native, Ann is cloistering in Toronto with her family while writing the next Clara Swift Tale.

Yolanda T. Marshall is the Guyanese-born Canadian author of My Soca Birthday Party: with Jollof Rice and Steel Pans. In 2015, she was inspired to write her first children’s book named Keman’s First Carnival, after becoming a mom. Yolanda is also the author of A Piece of Black Cake for Santa, Sweet Sorrel Stand, and Miles Away in The Caribbean. A world traveller, a jazz lover, and a devoted mother, she embodies art and takes her readers on adventurous, cultured journeys. Yolanda resides in Toronto, Canada.

Picturing the Words
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
12:00 pm PST / 1:00 pm MST / 2:00 pm CST / 3:00 pm EST / 4:00 pm AST / 4:30 pm NST
60 minutes
Closed captioning available

Registration: $10 / free for TWUC members

> Register Now

What comes first with picture books – illustrations or the text? Acclaimed children’s book writer and illustrator Ruth Ohi will be in conversation with Anne Shone (Executive Editor, Scholastic Canada) sharing her process and experiences as an author/illustrator as well as an illustrator for others. Webinar runs 60 minutes, including a Q&A period.

TWUC members who are unable to attend will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time.

Ruth Ohi is the illustrator of over 60 books, 21 of which she is also the author. Her most recent include a paperback reprint of Scribble, which can now be found in your favourite bookstore (thanks to everyone who asked for more “SCRIBBLE”!!). Ruth is also the author/illustrator of No Help Wanted! and the Fox and Squirrel Series, the first of which was a Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award Nominee. Ruth is the illustrator of 2020’s Friends for Real (by Ted Staunton, Scholastic Canada) and is excited for her summer 2021’s author/illustrated release entitled Choose Kindness (Scholastic Canada). Ruth is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and lives in Toronto. Visit Ruth at wwacw.RuthOhi.com. You can also find Ruth on Twitter @Ruth_Ohi, Instagram @RuthOhi, and Facebook: @RuthOhi.

Anne Shone is the Executive Editor at Scholastic Canada. Anne has worked in book publishing for over twenty years, concentrating on children’s books for the last fifteen. In that time, she has worked with many of Canada’s top children’s book authors and illustrators. Recent highlights include: picture books (Friends for Real by Ted Staunton, illustrated by Ruth Ohi; No Help Wanted! by Ruth Ohi; and Nibi’s Water Song by Sunshine Tenasco, illustrated by Chief Lady Bird); novels (Waiting Under Water by Riel Nason; the Almost Epic Squad series with Kevin Sylvester, Ted Staunton, Lesley Livingston and Richard Scrimger; and the Hockey Super Six series by Kevin Sylvester); nonfiction (Keep Up, Katmai by Barrett Hedges and Pili Palm-Leis; and It Seemed Like a Good Idea… by Ted Staunton and Will Staunton), to name just a few. 

Strategies for Writing Discipline
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
12:00 pm PST / 1:00 pm MST / 2:00 pm CST / 3:00 pm EST / 4:00 pm AST / 4:30 pm NST
60 minutes
Closed captioning available

Registration: Free, open to TWUC members only

> This webinar is exclusively for TWUC members. Click here to access registration (member login required).

Looking for practical ways to make time for writing during a pandemic? Natasha Deen leads this presentation on strategies for writing discipline, including how to offer and receive critiques, how to join or start your own writing group, and how to set realistic goals for success. Hosted by TWUC Chair Anita Daher, this webinar runs 60 minutes, including a Q&A period.

TWUC members who are unable to attend will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time.

Guyanese-Canadian author Natasha Deen writes for kids, teens, and adults, and she believes the world is changed one story at a time. She loves visiting schools, libraries, and other organizations to help people to find and tell the stories that live inside of them. Her books have been CCBC Best Picks and Junior Library Guild selections, and her YA novel, In the Key of Nira Ghani, is a Red Maple Honour Book and the winner of the 2020 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. When she’s not writing, she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince her pets that she’s the boss of the house. Visit her at natashadeen.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @natasha_deen.

Anita Daher is an author, screenwriter, producer, show host, and actor based in Winnipeg, MB. She has been entrenched in the book publishing industry since 1995 and has been published in print, audio, and ebook format in Canada, the United States, and Europe. You Don’t Have to Die in the End is her fourteenth novel and fifteenth book. Anita presents at conferences and schools across Canada and is current Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC). When not word-wrangling, she enjoys inhabiting characters on stage and screen.