Our markets this holiday season! Come see us for all your book gift giving needs!

Conversations with the people of Oshawa. Man, I love my hometown. 🥰 Warts and all.

Here's where to find the shop this month! See you soon!!

I am terrible at marking milestones. Just awful. In general, but specifically, my milestones. It may be due to a deep-seated disdain I have of self-aggrandizing, and it seems my brain refuses to make the distinction between braggart behaviour and the simple, public acknowledgement of an achievement. Anywho, let's get this out while my brain is distracted. As I sat quietly on the train the other day, it occurred to me that my pop-up bookstore, …

Celebrating All Things Entertaining! Come see us this week in Ajax and in Oshawa to stock up on fun activity books for the kids, puzzles, games, and more! Interested in the scandals and behind the scenes workings of Hollywood? Check out our selection told through Memoirs and Photojournalism! Remember, you can preorder your books and pick them up at the booth! See you at the Markets!

Celebrating Poetry, Memoirs and Biographies Come see us this Saturday to stock up on your poetry, memoir, and biography books! Remember, you can preorder your books and pick them up at the booth! See you at the North Oshawa Farmers' Market on the weekend!

My morning commute read today is the new release from Chalkboard Publishing! 😁 This middle grade anthology is chock-full of stories to delight and entertain! My story is called Joey's Not a Basketball Pro. If you're anything like me and decidedly not the athletic one of the family, you just might enjoy it! 😄 10 stories from 10 different authors... You Never Know What You're Going To Get!

Want to support small businesses, but don't want to pay for shipping? Order your next new read on the Quips & Quills Bookshop shop site and pick up your purchase at the Farmers' Market! Browse what we have on location and take a walk through the market to shop other vendors, farmers, and craftspeople! Click the link and start shopping now!

The start of Quips & Quills Bookshop’s Farmers’ Market season is tomorrow! We have a number of market dates this season, and we will be traveling around the Durham Region and to other regions like rural Hamilton area and Windsor-Essex county. We are excited to have a home base at North Oshawa Farmers’ Market, and […] Market Season Opening Day!

The start of Quips & Quills Bookshop's Farmers' Market season is tomorrow! We have a number of market dates this season, and we will be traveling around the Durham Region and to other regions like rural Hamilton area and Windsor-Essex county. We are excited to have a home base at North Oshawa Farmers' Market, and that is where the adventure kicks off tomorrow! Need something for Mother's Day this weekend? Come by the market and peruse our selection! Looking forward to seeing you at an event this season!

I am far from knowledgeable about the ins and outs of traditional publishing, but I have learned a thing or two. I have learned there can be real joy in letting go of the process. Having self published 7 books, I am pretty familiar with the highs and lows of that world. The writing and editing, of course, but also, cover design, formatting, decisions regarding trim size, texture, weight, and release date.

My second poetry and prose collection is available today! It is an intimate, personal compilation which contemplates the ideas and ideals surrounding love, sacrifice, loss, and healing. This collection gives space for you, the reader, to engage with your own reflections and to sit with the words, allowing them to lead you wherever they will. I will have copies at the markets this year, so come on by and pick up your copy!

Today is my birthday, and I am grateful for another trip around the sun. Last year saw a new path being forged with the expansion of my writing life making room for the retail side of the publishing game with the opening of the pop-up shop Quips & Quills Bookshop.  This year Quips & Quills Bookshop has a full time home at the North Oshawa Farmers' Market from May to October, with lots of other dates sprinkled throughout the season from Durham Region to Essex County.

One year ago today, I was sitting in the Morgan Firestone Community Centre waiting for Kevin to finish his first charity ride of the 2024 season - the notorious gravel race, Paris 2 Ancaster. While I was waiting, I wandered back and forth to the car, took a leisurely walk around the grounds, and eventually found myself settled in the atrium, where I sat, overlooking an empty ice rink, staring at my reflection in the glass while riders and volunteers participating in the event scurried around in the background.

I took a turn around some familiar halls. A spin around the old and the new. New walls, fresh paint. What was once wide, now narrow; once open, now closed. I returned to some place I knew. A place …

When I heard that my former elementary school, Glen Street Public School, was putting on a spring market fundraiser, I jumped at the chance to participate and, in a small way, pay forward the support the school had given me as a young person and budding writer. April 5th, Quips & Quills Bookshop will be on the road to my hometown of Oshawa, Ontario.

Exciting news! I’m a vendor at the Town of Ajax’s International Women’s Day event, Her, Your, Our Story, on March 5th from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Quaker Meeting House.  It’s going to be an amazing day celebrating local female entrepreneurs, featuring master classes, delicious food, and beautiful art. I’m proud to be part of this empowering event, and can’t wait to see you there. Let’s celebrate women supporting women!  Register at ajax.ca/IWD