Meet the Authors
Linda Bond
Linda learned in high school that she could make things happen — sock hops, students’ council, forbidden love. This knack kept its spark throughout a lifelong teaching career that includes children and teachers, mah-jongg players, and aspiring writers. She is the creator of the Writing Your Life Stories – Making It Happen workshop series. Her spirited narratives have appeared in Tales2Inspire – the Opal Collection, Florida’s Lifestyles After 50, and Writers On The Air. She and her husband Martin, both with roots in The County, live and sail on the Bay of Quinte. Linda also delivers a world-class martini.
Nell Davidson
Nell has gone the distance in life locations. Born in South Africa to Chinese parents, she ventured as a young adult to London, England where she met and married her husband, Mike. With two sons in tow, they immigrated to Toronto in 1970. Now retired from owning and operating a campground on Wellers Bay in Carrying Place, Ontario, she fills her time with more travel, writing memoir and perfecting the crackling on roast pork. She has been published in the anthology Grandmother, Mother, Me. Recently, co-authored six stories in their published book Storied, with the Circle of Six. Nell also had stories published in the New Authors Journal Winter edition and Booktalk, a Quinte West Library digital magazine.
Nell hopes her readers enjoy the journey of her life that took her from bookkeeper to book writer.
Kim Fedor
Kim writes creative non-fiction. She crafts vibrant and insightful short stories. Both her narratives, Renewal in 2020 and Have Bullet Will Travel in 2021, were shortlisted in the Wind and Water Writing Contest. A traveler since age four, she has always lived with a sense of adventure saying 'yes' to new experiences. This creative approach to life gives her much to reflect on and write about. Concurrently, she has two memoirs in progress: her tales as a street busker in Europe and her travelogue as a dealer in Asian antiques. Born and raised in Calgary, Kim now lives in Belleville.
Donna McDonald
Donna began writing to document her idyllic, though sometimes bizarre childhood. Wonder Wagon, a story about her family’s cherished 1964 Chevy Nova station wagon was published in Our Canada magazine. She has enjoyed a lifelong career as a veterinary technician and is also a dangerously proud mother of three. These experiences have provided her with endless stories waiting to be told. She resides with her husband in Belleville.
Wendy Russell-Sheppard
Wendy Russell-Sheppard retired twice, first from her various roles as an elementary school teacher/administrator, then from her position as a high school English teacher. A former resident of Prince Edward County, she shares her time between Belleville and her writing retreat in the woods up north. She is an experienced property renovator, general contractor, and race-car driver who is test-driving her writing voice with creative non-fiction pieces including memoir, personal essays and articles. Wendy is an award-winning author in Tales2Inspire – The Opal Collection, an American publication edited by Lois Stern. She is co-author of the Canadian anthology Storied: Chronicles by the Circle of Six with five other congenial writers. She is the administrator of a “writers-helping-writers” Facebook group entitled Use Your Words. As an editor, Wendy worked with local author Connie Carson to publish her recent book Sharing Belleville Memories. Wendy is a feature writer for the Belleville Downtown Business Improvement Area (www.downtownbelleville.ca) and the District 19 Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO) newsletter The Chronicle. Most recently, she founded a writing group for RTO and is offering a writing course to its members. Along with her husband Wayne Sheppard, Wendy has rescued several shelter cats over the years. The Sheppards are dedicated supporters of the Humane Society of Hastings and Prince Edward and encourage everyone to be a part of this important work. She can be contacted at wendy.russell-sheppard@hotmail.com
Pat Whittaker
Pat is a retired journalist. From age eight she aspired to write for a newspaper. After graduating from Western University’s Honours Journalism course, she began her first job as a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Subsequently she wrote radio news scripts for CBC Radio. At the Toronto Star she was a copy editor, section editor and editor of the Letters page. In her ninth decade she reclaimed her writing voice, and now shares her prose and poetry at the Wellington Open Floor and with her Belleville writing group, the Circle of Six. She lives in Prince Edward County with a terrifying cat.