Daniel and Steven Shehori founded Sweat Equity Publicity in 2002 (www.SweatEquity.ca). They are an award-winning duo based out of Toronto, are quite possibly the busiest siblings working on the Canadian entertainment scene today. Between them, they’ve garnered three Gemini Award nominations (Canada’s Emmys), a Dora nomination (Canada’s Tonys), plus 15 Canadian Comedy Award nominations (and three wins!) as writers, directors, and producers. They’ve written for several national TV programs, including This Hour Has 22 Minutes,The Hour, Naked News, and 11 national award shows. The brothers have produced over 100 live comedy shows, and served as producers for Just For Laughs’ Sarah Silverman & Friends, featuring comedy legends Sarah Silverman, Louis CK, and David Cross.
Category Archives: Breakfast Speakers 2018
Holiday Party December 8, 2018
The Holiday Party and Members Readings will take place at our breakfast meeting on Saturday, December 8, 2018. This is always a fun meeting and we encourage everyone including friends and family to attend. There will be holiday music and decorations, door prizes, fifty-fifty draw and a special menu served up by Canadiana. In addition, this meeting includes our bi-annual members readings where you can listen to and marvel at all of the talent from fellow authors in our club.
Breakfast Speaker November 17, 2018
Can we talk? Meet The Mesdames of Mayhem, a collective of 16 local mystery writers who love to talk about mysteries – theirs and other people’s. We have three anthologies out – Thirteen, 13 O’Clock and 13 Claws. Many of the Mesdames are well-known authors in their own right who deliver cracking good workshops and talks. One, some or all of us is/are available for just about any speaking (and book sale) opportunity. Here’s what we can deliver:
1) Mesdames Group Talks:
Beyond the top drawer: getting that manuscript published
Crazy thought? So you might want to be an author
You bet women rule the crime-writing world
Why we just love mysteries
Canadian mystery writers you should know about (and a couple of Brits and Yanks as well)
A little help from our friends: why we believe in writing groups and collectives like ours
Branding, posting and other promotional tricks and tools
Where we get our ideas. Hint: They’re not just ripped from the headlines
So you want to do an anthology. Learn the pitfalls, perils and payoffs from the Mesdames who have done it
The art – and blood, sweat and tears – of writing a short story
2) Mesdames Group Workshops/Events:
Ad lib: Learn how to harness your imagination by joining the Mesdames in an improv plotting session
Do you know your stuff? We read the opening of famous (or maybe not) mystery novels. The audience name the books.
Idea Fest: The Mesdames get ideas – everywhere from the dime store to the doctor’s office. How can the audience get ‘em? They are about to find out in this high-octane, audience-participation idea improvisation session.
Edit Fest: Bring forth those novels, short stories, and yet-to-be published bestsellers. The Mesdames are ready for them with their poised blue pens and pencils. Make it a social evening and everyone gets to be a critic!
3) Talks and Workshops by Individual Mesdames:
Madame Rosemary McCracken has written three mysteries featuring financial planner Pat Tierney. The first one – Safe Harbor – was shortlisted for Britain’s prestigious Debut Dagger award. She teaches novel writing at George Brown Community College. One of her workshops covers the four-act plot structure of any good novel. In another workshop, Rosemary assesses and edits the first page of participants’ novels in progress.
Madame Melodie Campbell has been hailed as Canada’s queen of comedy. The Bootlegger’s Goddaughter is shortlisted for the 2018 Ontario Library Association Golden Oak award. The Goddaughter’s Revenge won the Derringer Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Writing. She has taught fiction writing at Sheridan College since 1992. Melodie’s workshop on crime-fiction writing has been given at many libraries. Please note: This workshop involves an honorarium.
In her workshops, Madame Lisa de Nikolits explores 16 – count ‘em – shades of crime noir. Want to know what they are? Revenge noir, short story noir, literary noir, young adult noir, noir love, noir soundtracks, noir@twitter, Toronto noir, Dystopian noir, graphic noir. She can also talk about self-editing and how to become a better writer. And how to write the traditional narrative arc.
Versatile Madame Caro Soles writes mysteries, erotica, gay lit, the occasional bit of dark fantasy, and science fiction. She won the Derrick Murdoch Award from the Crime Writers of Canada. Her latest novel, A Friend of Mr. Nijinsky, is the inspiration for this workshop: Historical mysteries; more than just dressing up your characters in muslin and ribbons!
- H. Callway’s debut novel, Windigo Fire, was short-listed for the Debut Dagger and the Unhanged Arthur awards, but getting traditionally published still proved to be a challenge. Madeleine shares her journey and eventual success in her workshop How To Get Published. Windigo Fire was a runner-up for the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel award.
For more info: www.mesdamesofmayhem.com; Catherinedunphy@rogers.com
Breakfast Speaker October 27, 2018
Angela Murphy is the Foreign Editor at the Globe and Mail.
Mission statement (from my LinkedIn bio) : I am a believer in the power, and the ethical practice, of the vocation of Journalism and am focused on learning how to tell stories in new and even more compelling ways as technology changes. I am a leader and a coach at work and the proud parent of two young adults. I’m also teaching journalism at Humber/Guelph in its degree program.
I lead a group of nine correspondents world-wide, with bureaus in Beijing, New York City, Washington, San Jose, Johannesburg, London (2), Rome and Mexico City.
Past positions:
Special Projects Editor at the Globe from 2014 to 2017: Headed the Globe’s multi-year project on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, among others. The MMIW work won several awards in 2016 including the Canadian Hillman Prize, An Online Journalism Award (USA) two Gold medals from the Digital Publishing Awards (Canada) and two of reporters on the project were honoured with a National Newspaper Award and the Landsberg Award (CJF).
The Trafficked https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-trafficked-sexual-exploitation-is-costing-canadian-women-their-lives/article28700849/
And numerous other stories about Unidentified Remains https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/substantial-gap-discovered-in-rcmp-database-of-anonymous-dead/article23467796/
and individual cases https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/disappeared-reconstructing-a-life-to-find-a-missing-mother/article31388904/
Toronto Editor at The Globe from 2010-2014: Led the coverage of the mayoralty of Rob Ford, including the crack investigation as well as several conflict-of-interest investigations and spearheaded a digital-first project on one of Canada’s fastest growing and most diverse communities: Brampton.
Backdesk editor (night desk copy editing and assigning) at The Globe: 2007 to 2010.
Front Page Editor at The National Post: 2005-2007
Copy Editor at The National Post 1998-2007
Life and Entertainment Reporter and Copy Editor at The Standard in St. Catharines: 1989-1998.
Education: M.A. in Journalism from Western University, B.A. Honours in English and Political Science from U of T (Victoria College).
Breakfast Speaker September 15, 2018
Winning book Step Into the Spotlight!: A Guide to Getting Noticed. TSUFIT is a former lawyer who has been described by the Toronto Star as “a starburst of energy― bright bubbly and upbeat” and by Publisher’s Weekly as a “coaching dynamo”.
Her book, Step Into the Spotlight! has been endorsed by Tom Peters, Jay Conrad Levinson, Jack Trout, BNI founder, Ivan Misner, Les Brown, Al Ries & many other New York Times best selling authors and experts.
A singer, television actress and comedienne & the subject of 100’s of feature newspaper articles, television & radio appearances internationally, TSUFIT has appeared doing stand-up comedy in night clubs and on national TV and has appeared on television and film commercials internationally. TSUFIT coaches professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, speakers, coaches, consultants and CEOs to catapult their personal brands and themselves into a starring role! She coaches her clients to get seen, get heard and get noticed! Once named a Super-Achiever” by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, TSUFIT is a Dean’s List Law School Graduate who practiced litigation law for 10 years before leaving law for the limelight. Her music CD “Under the Mediterranean Sky” has made Top Album lists all over North America and is played on the radio internationally. TSUFIT’s unique story was the subject of a national television documentary which aired on several networks across Canada. TSUFIT is in demand as a keynote speaker, radio and TV show guest, seminar leader and mom (although she points out that she is not currently taking on any new clients in the last category!)
Members Readings July 21, 2018
Breakfast Speaker June 16, 2018
Leonard Rosmarin is Professor Emeritus of French literature and former Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Brock University in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. He received his Doctorate from Yale University where he began his teaching career in 1964, then was appointed Assistant Professor at WesleyanUniversity, also in Connecticut.
He returned to Canada in 1969 to take up a position as Associate, then Full Professor at Brock, which, at that time, was only five years old. Leonard felt it would be an exciting challenge to create programs and traditions at a place that was just beginning its existence.
Before reincarnating himself as a novelist, Leonard has been an internationally recognized scholar and published nine books that have taken him all over the map of literary scholarship, from the 17th century to the 21st.
He has been decorated twice by the Government of France for distinguished service in the cause of French letters. From 1992 till 2002 he was Visiting Professor at the School for Doctoral studies at theUniversity of Perpignan in Perpignan, France.
A self-confessed opera addict, he has written a study on the relationship between literature and lyric drama titled When Literature Becomes Opera. He is especially proud of the essays he has devoted to the works of some of the great Franco-Jewish writers of the 20th century: the novelist Albert Cohen, the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, the dramatist Liliane Atlan and the Nobel Prize winner, Elie Wiesel.
His English adaptation of Mme Atlan’s finest play, Les Mers Rouges, was mounted by the very popular Toronto Fringe Festival in 2005 and will eventually be made into a film for television.His essay on the novels of Elie Wiesel has been enthusiastically endorsed by the great man himself. Leonard is fully fluent in both French and English, and navigates effortlessly between the two languages and cultures.
Leonard has become a novelist rather late in life, at the ripe old age of 70! Why did it take so long? Here is how he relates his unusual trajectory: “For literally decades I had wanted to immortalize my over-the-top, larger-than-life Jewish family. They were refreshingly un-hypocritical. In fact, they were always brutally frank. They would never stab you in the back; it was always in the chest. So at least you knew where the blows were coming from. They were absolutely transparent. What you see was what you got.
“But whenever I felt inclined to sit down and actually write about them, I would begin to worry about what would happen to my academic career. As of the late 70s, Canadian, just like American universities, were becoming afflicted with the neurosis of ‘Publish or Perish.’ In order to rise through the ranks, I simply had to concentrate on my scholarship and leave novel writing on the back burner.
“Once I retired, however, I had no more excuses. My immediate family and friends got after me to finally put down in writing all the tantalizing, scandalous stories I had been relating to them for years about the extended family of my childhood. So I sat down and started working on the novel in earnest.
“I had written a few chapters way back in 1982, twenty-six years earlier. At that time, all I intended to do was to make fun of my relatives and throw in some sex into the story for good measure. When I returned to them so many years later, my attitude had, by then, changed radically. I felt a deep empathy towards them. I could no longer mock them. Instead of making my readers laugh at them, I wanted my readers to laugh with them. I still wanted my novel to be hilarious, but I wanted it to have poignancy, too. Hence the title, Getting Enough.
“It’s the story of a group of individuals from the same family who are desperate for emotional and spiritual fulfilment but go about seeking it the wrong way. They get short-circuited by their erotic cravings. Rubbing epidermises is not the same thing as being in love with another human being.
“The two main characters, at least, come out stronger and better people. Once they stop typecasting one another, they can move towards a loving reconciliation after 26 years of an acrimonious, hate-ridden marriage.
“Now that I have written my first work of fiction, I would love to continue. When you create a novel, you experience the thrill of roaming, untrammelled, within your imagination. The sense of freedom is boundless. You are absolute master of the world you are building. And what is so wonderful is that by creating imaginary destinies you can see more clearly into yourself and our whole human condition.”
Breakfast Speaker May 19, 2017
Born in Mexico City,[1] Patricia Pearson is one of five children of Canadian diplomat Geoffrey Pearson and former Ontario Senator Landon Pearson, and the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Lester Pearson.[2] She was educated at Netherwood School in Rothesay, New Brunswick, Trinity College, Toronto, the University of Chicago, and Columbia School of Journalism in New York.
Pearson has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, Toronto Life, Reader’s Digest and Business Week.[3] Her newspaper work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The New York Times, National Post,The Guardian, and The Daily Telegraph.[4] She’s also written for CBC Television, The History Channel and TVOntario.[5]
Pearson resigned her weekly column at the National Post in 2003 to protest that newspaper’s support for the Bush administration in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Her subsequent satirical writing has been hailed as “hysterically funny” by the Los Angeles Times and “highly amusing” by the New York Times.[6]
Pearson has lived in New York City, Delhi and Moscow, and now resides in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and two children.
Novels
- Playing House (2003) Random House Canada
- Believe Me (2005) Random House Canada
Non-fiction
- When She Was Bad: How and Why Women Get Away with Murder (1998) Viking USA, Virago UK, Random House Canada
- Area Woman Blows Gasket (2005) Vintage Canada
- A Brief History of Anxiety – Yours and Mine (2008) Bloomsbury USA, New York
- Opening Heaven’s Door– What the dying tell us about where they’re going (2014),Simon & Schuster
Awards
- 1994 National Magazine Award (Honourable mention, Science, Health and Medicine category, for “Murder on her Mind”)
- 1995 National Magazine Award (Gold, Essay category, for “Behind Every Successful Psychopath”)
- 1998 National Magazine Award (Gold, One-of-a-kind Articles category, for “Death Becomes Her”)
- 1996 National Author’s Award
- 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for best non-fiction crime book
- 2004 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, finalist
Breakfast Speaker April 21, 2018
Jael Richardson is the author of The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, a Father’s Life and The Stone Thrower children’s book, which was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award. Richardson is a columnist on CBC’s q and is two-time TDSB Writer-in-Residence. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario where she serves as the founder and Artistic Director for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD).
Breakfast Speaker March 17, 2018
Retired Councillor Howard Moscoe is releasing his memoirs this fall. Call Me Pisher – A Madcap Romp Through City Hall will be released this October from Yorkland Publishing. Howard Moscoe has been threatening to do something like this for years, since before he retired from a 32-year career in municipal politics back in 2010. And this October, the former councillor for Eglinton-Lawrence is making good. Moscoe, who former mayor Mel Lastman once described as “the best excuse for birth control I know,” is publishing his memoirs. “It is a madcap romp through city hall,” said Moscoe on a visit to the Toronto City Hall press gallery Aug. 22. “I had a lot of bizarre things happen in politics. I have four chapters I call the ‘Bizarre of the Bizarre’ — just bizarre incidents that occurred. But bizarre incidents occurred through my whole run at city hall.” Call Me Pisher: A Madcap Romp Through City Hall has an opening line that Moscoe promises sets the tone for the rest: “My grandfather was a horse thief, my grandmother a bootlegger, my father a bookmaker and my brother a scalper; so there was nothing left for me but politics.”