Meet our Thurston Hotel Book authors!
Maeve Buchanan
Maeve Buchanan grew up in the Canadian prairies in a family who loved books. As a girl, she spent much of her time reading and dreaming up stories, often illustrating the stories as she went. As a adult, Maeve studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and then worked at a wide variety of jobs, including graphic arts, building playgrounds in the Arctic, working as an historical interpreter and managing marketing for Chapters/Indigo.
Maeve completed a degree in English Literature and Medieval Studies at the University of Victoria. This was followed by three years of medieval manuscript research at the University of Glasgow, Scotland and extensive travelling throughout the British Isles. Returning to Canada from Britain, Maeve came back to her prairie roots by settling in Edmonton, Alberta.
After joining the Romance Writers of America (Calgary chapter), Maeve’s literary talents found a new home in the Romance genre, and she hasn’t looked back since!
Maeve’s current work, The Starlight Garden is an adult contemporary romance set in the Canadian Rockies. She is currently working on another adult contemporary romance and planning future books set in the regency and medieval periods.
Travelling is one of Maeve’s passions. She has travelled widely in Canada and Britain as well as spending time in Paris and her favorite getaway, the Island of Maui in Hawaii.
Win Day
Win Day is a story-telling geek who loves to read and write about strong men and savvy women. On a Whim, a stand-alone warm contemporary romance in a collection of twelve books by eleven authors, is her first published novel.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Win moved to Canada after working as an engineer in an overseas oil refinery, where she met her husband, Tom. The two have been married for thirty-six years, and have two sons who are all grown up and living on their own. Win and Tom currently live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
A member of her local chapter of Romance Writers of America, Win divides her time between building custom WordPress websites for authors, and writing both fiction and non-fiction. She learned long ago that she needs both the technical and the creative to keep her brain busy and her heart happy!
When she isn’t writing or working on a website, Win enjoys traveling to warm places (she’s solar powered!), cooking (and eating!), and curling up on the couch with a good book. And listening to all sorts of music.
Win believes that everyone deserves their Happy Ever After. And if you’re not living yours right now, duck into a book. Someone else’s story can give you the hope you need, and show you what’s possible.
Find me online:
http://www.windaywrites.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WinDayWrites/
http://www.creativeimplementations.com/
Ellen Jorgy
Ellen Jorgy lives in Central Alberta with her husband and two children on a 10 acre property with a menagerie of creatures both large and small. She works by day as a Medical Ultrasound Technologist, and by night as an unpaid taxi driver for her children. Somewhere in the midst of all that she finds time to write.
An Angel’s Secret is her first published work of fiction.
Find me online:
https://www.facebook.com/Ellen-Jorgy-Author-1500645726921218/?fref=ts
Shelley Kassian
Shelley Kassian, the author of The Scarlett Mark and The Ebony Queen, appreciates the corridors of medieval history and in particular the Tudor period. She has visited the United Kingdom, touring many castles in her pursuit of story.
When asked, Shelley assists novice writers in building fictional worlds and enjoys crafting her own stories into novel-length fiction.
Shelley shares her life with her husband, adores her adult children, and lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Find me online:
https://shelleykassian.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ShelleyKassianAuthor
https://www.instagram.com/shelleykassian/
Katie O'Connor
Katie O’Connor lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She married her high school sweetheart and is living her happily ever after. She is the mother of two grown daughters and is extremely proud of her five grandchildren. She has two wonderful sons-in-law and a large support network of friends, family and fellow authors.
Katie’s career path has been long and twisted, with most of her life devoted to her family. She’s been a waitress, chambermaid, cashier, store manager, as well as a lab and x-ray technician. She is an avid quilter and for a number of years owned and operated a home-based quilting business and designed quilt patterns.
She’s dabbled in writing since high school because something drives her to create stories. She swears that it’s impossible for her NOT to write. She says, “I think my head would explode if I kept all those ideas trapped inside. I even dream story lines. My mind is a wildly creative place and all those ideas have to be downloaded to relieve the pressure.”
She believes in all things magical including dragons, fairies, UFOs, ghosts, and house pixies. But most of all she believes in love, romance and hope.
Katie likes to make it up as she goes along and dreams of publishing a mixed genre novel. It is going to be an erotic, shape shifter, vampire, steampunk, sci-fi, murder mystery, adventure, romantic, western, historical, thriller. It will be her biography.
Find me online:
http://www.facebook.com/katieohwrites
http://www.twitter.com/KatieOhWrites
http://katieoh.blogspot.com/
Jan O'Hara
Although she knew she wanted to write fiction in grade school, Jan O’Hara left her dreams behind for a time to become a family physician. She provided birth-to-death healthcare to her patients and served as an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, teaching medical students and residents about patient-centered care and human sexuality.
Jan lives in Alberta, Canada with her two children and husband (aka The ToolMaster). She writes a regular column for the popular blog, Writer Unboxed. Once obsessed with helping people professionally, she has retired from medicine and now spends her days torturing them on paper. See? Win-win scenarios really do exist.
While Opposite of Frozen is Jan’s first published novel, she is hard at work on its successor.
Find me online:
http://janohara.net/
http://facebook.com/janoharabooks
http://twitter.com/jan_ohara
Alyssa Linn Palmer
Alyssa Linn Palmer is a Canadian writer and freelance editor. She splits her time between a full-time day job and her part-time loves, writing and editing. She is a member of the RWA, the Calgary RWA, and RRW (Rainbow Romance Writers). She has a passion for Paris and all things French, which is reflected in her writing.
When she’s not writing lesbian romance, she’s creating the dark, morally flawed characters of the Le Chat Rouge series and indulging in her addictions to classic pulp fiction.
Find me online:
http://www.alyssalinnpalmer.com/
http://www.facebook.com/AlyssaLinnPalmer
http://www.twitter.com/alyslinn
Sheila Seabrook
Sheila Seabrook writes love stories with heart and humor from her home on the beautiful Canadian prairies. Her romantic books are filled with smart, sassy women, hot men who love them, and a wild assortment of family members guaranteed to try to steal the show.
When Sheila’s not writing, she can usually be found in her favorite chair doing research (code for reading romance books) or devising multiple excuses to avoid cooking, laundry, housework, and shoveling the snow. She does, however, love to shop for flowers in the spring, and spends copious hours digging in the dirt to plant them…although her marriage contract clearly stipulates that the man of the house must pull the weeds.
Her mission in life is to give readers emotional romantic stories and unforgettable characters, a relaxing treat for the end of the day. And if she can help them escape the laundry pile, she’s totally on board.
Find me online:
http://www.sheilaseabrook.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SheilaSeabrookAuthor
https://twitter.com/sheilaseabrook
Brenda Sinclair
Brenda Sinclair is a writer of historical western romance and contemporary romance, a member of her local chapter of Romance Writers of America, past leader of her TOPS weight-loss group, a gardening enthusiast and dog lover.
Brenda was raised on a farm in southern Manitoba and taught school on a semi-remote reservation in northern Manitoba. She worked in the accounting field for over twenty-five years. A few years ago, she retired and traded in numbers for words when she decided to be a full-time writer.
Brenda and her husband have been married for forty-five years, and during that time they raised two sons. She is extremely proud of her three wonderful grandchildren.
During writing breaks, Brenda enjoys walking the beautiful Fish Creek Park trails near her home in Calgary, Canada with her little dog, Kelly, checking out what Jack Abbott is up to on today’s installment of The Young and The Restless, or snuggling with Kelly on the sofa and enjoying a good book.
Brenda believes life is good, and for days that life isn’t so good, just get over it. There’s always tomorrow.
Find me online:
http://www.brendasinclairauthor.com/
http://www.facebook.com/brendasinclairauthor
https://twitter.com/bsinclairauthor
M. K. Stelmack
I live in a small town in a big country. Not as small as the town I bussed to as a child growing up on a farm. This town has street lights for instance, and crime. But kids still bike the streets in random patterns, the mayor’s youngest goes to the same school as my youngest, I sit on my front porch and gab with the next door neighbours, and there’s a good chance you’ll know somebody written up in the weekly rag.
It is this town on which I’ve proudly based my fictional Spirit Lake. Pride, and a sheer lack of creativity. I mean, I would never think of a statue of a Rubinesque mermaid or million dollar outhouses or the wonky downtown intersection that requires the chutzpah of a New York taxi cab driver to cross.
The people are all a product of my imagination and any resemblance is coincidental, of course.
With Open Arms is the first of what I intend to be a great many more small-town romances.
Find me online:
http://www.mkstelmackauthor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MKStelmackAuthor
Suzanne Stengl
Suzanne Stengl writes a blend of sweet romance, coming of age and cozy mystery.
When she is not at her keyboard, she is hiking in Banff or taking her new grandson for long strolls in his buggy.
Find me online:
http://www.suzannestengl.com
https://www.facebook.com/SuzanneStenglAuthor
http://www.twitter.com/SuzanneStengl
