Creative Academy presents Expertpalooza

Do you wish you could just ask an expert to give you the lowdown on what they do rather than googling for hours? Want to know how a chef becomes a chef? What really goes on behind the scenes in a hotel? How about asking a lawyer how he lawyers? Well the Creative Academy for Writers can help with that.

Join us to watch the recordings from our Expertpalooza! As always we have a fabulous community who are willing to share their daily work experience and knowledge so you can build better characters!

Our Experts

Military/RCMP 
Sayeh Hejazi

Librarian 
Joel Sutherland

Q+A with Kevin Moul and Elissa McColl, Hoteliers

Kevin Moul is a hotel and resort specialist with over thirty years of experience at nine international properties, a destination winery, and where it all began, an exclusive private golf and country club. The diversity of the guests, the fast-paced environment and the endless variety of challenges make it a rewarding and fulfilling career.

As a ‘creative’, he is a widely published professional photographer and a passionate writer. He writes to achieve the same discovery with words that he captures with his camera.  Writing projects include the paranormal thriller ‘Landers Gate’ (available November 2020), personal development essays available on medium.com. He has other novels and short stories in development that explore his lifelong interest in speculative fiction.

Elissa has worked for five years at a family-run inn and a small resort in the Rocky Mountains of Canmore, Alberta. Between guest inquires she is hard at work on her Young Adult action novels. She is also a certified Alpine Ski Instructor and White Water Kayak Instructor and is the organizer of the annual Alberta Ladies Whitewater Kayaking Festival. She has an honors degree in Geophysics and previously worked as a Field Exploration Geophysicist on six continents.

Masterclass with Deb Potter – Advanced Amazon Ads

Deb Potter is an Amazon ads enthusiast. Deb wrote Amazon Ads for Authors to give authors introductory and advanced tools to get the best from the ads platform. Her insights come from marketing multiple genres herself, and coaching authors writing in many more. She admins the Facebook page: Authors Optimizing Amazon and Facebook Ads with four other experts. Deb is based in New Zealand and has a background in data and analytics, and public policy. She has a Masters in Creative Writing, a BA in Education and Social Policy and Certificates in Children’s Literature and Journalism. 

Q+A with Joel Sutherland, Librarian 

Joel A. Sutherland is the Silver Birch and Hackmatack Award-winning author of Be a Writing Superstar, numerous volumes of Haunted Canada (a series that now has more than 400,000 copies in print), and Summer’s End (a Red Maple Award Honour Book). His new series, Haunted, including The House Next Door, Kill Screen, Night of the Living Dolls and Field of Screams, has been praised by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. Joel’s short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Blood Lite II & III (Pocket Books) and Cemetery Dance Magazine, alongside the likes of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

He has served as a juror for the Bram Stoker Award, the John Spray Mystery Award, the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction & Fantasy, and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.

Joel appeared as “The Barbarian Librarian” on the Canadian edition of the hit television show Wipeout, making it all the way to the third round and proving that librarians can be just as tough and crazy as anyone else. He has a Masters of Information and Library Studies from Aberystwyth University in Wales and lives in southeastern Ontario with his family, where he is always on the lookout for ghosts.

Q+A with Jen Blacker, Firefighter and Kaye Kennedy, Firefighter + Author 

Jen Blacker is a 43-year-old, queer, Brit, firefighter (for almost 20 years) and mother to a three-and-a-half year old son. She spent 12 years firefighting in Manchester, England before embarking on a lifelong dream to move to BC, Canada where for the past 8 years has been a career firefighter with the City of Vancouver. Also for the fun of it, Jen is a volunteer firefighter with the Britannia Beach Fire Dept.

Kaye Kennedy is a CEO by day & contemporary romance author by night! Her Burning for the Bravest series features NYC firemen who love hard and make love harder. If you’ve read any of the books in her debut series, then you may be asking yourself, how does this chick know so much about firefighting? Well, she used to be a firefighter in New York until she sustained an injury in a house fire putting an end to that. Kaye comes from a firefighting family and she even dated her lieutenant…so she has experience in being a firefighter and in being with a firefighter.

Kaye now lives on the Florida coast with her husband, who often inspires her characters (she’s a sucker for an alpha with a soft side). She earned her degree in English Literature and taught college composition & literature classes before switching gears entirely and becoming an entrepreneur, starting three businesses.

Kaye writes steamy contemporary romances because who doesn’t love love? In her books, you can always expect a happily ever after that kisses and tells.

Q+A with Will Dages from Findaway Voices

Findaway Voices is the self-publishing arm of Findaway, a company that’s been in the audiobook business for over 15 years. With Findaway Voices, authors anywhere in the world can upload audiobooks to reach more than 40 retail and library platforms. If you don’t have an audiobook yet, we can also help you find the perfect narrator to perform your book, and manage your production from end-to-end.

Will Dages is Head of Findaway Voices. He’s been immersed in the audiobook industry for more than 8 years, and is an avid audiobook listener himself, listening to about 50 books a year. He’s passionate about growing the audiobook market and opening up new opportunities for authors.

Q+A with Lauren Brown

Q+A with Renee Saklikar, Poet

Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s ground-breaking poetry book about the bombing of Air India Flight 182, children of air india, won the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Prize. Her book, Listening to the Bees, co-authored with Dr. Mark Winston, won the 2019 Gold Medal Independent Publishers Book Award, Environment/Ecology. 

Trained as a lawyer, Saklikar is an instructor for SFU and VCC. She was the first Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, (2015-2018) and was the 2017 UBC Okanagan Writer in Residence. Passionate about storytelling, Renée offers writing coach services and loves helping others find their creative voice.

Q+A with Shawn Jones, Lawyer

Shawn went to law school because of a bar bet.    Luckily it worked out. As a lawyer he’s often a quiet diplomat, but he can be ferocious advocate when needed.  He throws a mean party and his vegetarian cooking makes even the most committed crittervores reconsider their choices.  

Danielle Boyd, Olympic Athlete

Danielle competed for Canada in the sport of sailing at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Life has always been about pursuing her dreams, inspiring others, and doing what she loves. She started sailing at 6, and grew up around the water. At 14 she began competing and her passion developed. Qualifying for the Olympics and being selected to represent Canada in the 49erFX was an unforgettable experience that changed her life. 

Today she encourages girls to stay active as an ambassador for Fast & Female and fights for clean oceans. She earned a BA in English and Psychology from Dalhousie University, and a Graduate Certificate in Interactive Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College. She also completed The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in 2019 and was published in the class anthology Emerge 19. In storytelling, she hopes to continue inspiring girls with strong and diverse female characters.

Q+A with Derek Barker, Chef + Restaurateur

When my childhood home was emptied out and put up for sale a small yard sign was found buried between debris and other memories. “The Gude Fude Dude,” was painted on one side. On weekends I would find my mother’s handwritten recipe book and make pancakes for the neighbours across the street on a plug in electric griddle. The process required standing on a chair. That recipe book and more specifically that pancake recipe are my first memories of reading.

As far back as I have memory I have had a love of all things related to food. To my parents dismay and disapproval I rejected any path that did not put me in a commercial kitchen. Food and cooking have been a lifelong passion. Until a few years ago that is. I’m done playing chef now. Too old. Too broken. Too Jaded.

Rather than go to culinary school my chosen path was to work in the industry and learn by doing. Twenty years ago I remember compiling a list of more than forty kitchens that I had worked at least one full shift. More than a dozen names on the list did not get a second shift. Less than three saw me stay more than a year. That’s not an unusual path to becoming a chef. I worked at places that offered something to learn under people who sometimes did not refer to themself as a chef. I chose not to go to culinary school. Later in my career I was offered a teaching position at the New England Culinary Institute.

The person in charge of any kitchen is the chef. That person is, “Chef.”  My definition is that simple. Referring to self as chef says nothing about ability or experience. The title gives the holder control over how things are done in a kitchen. I’ve had the privilege of working under professionals who give the word chef greater meaning. I’ve walked away from those who do not.

Chefs have a tendency to become prima donnas. We get used to getting what we want and for things to be done the way we want. Eventually it’s easy enough to be insufferable. 

My experience has run the gamut. My passion for food has supported me and allowed me to travel. The food industry is a wonderful congruence of people from all manner of socio-economic backgrounds. The culture is insestuous. Drugs and drug use are common. Alcohol is free, or heavily discounted.

Q+A with Sayeh Hejazi, Ex- Military, current RCMP + Tyner Gillies, RCMP