PRIZES to win! PROMOTIONS
Carolyn Jean Nicholson was born in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, worked in the health information management field, taught in post-secondary education, and was in ministry in The United Church of Canada. After her retirement, she began researching her ancestors; after many years she discovered her Nicolson ancestors were from the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands, and she began to visit Skye with her sisters. Skye, she learned, was always full of fairies, witches, water monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures. As a project for her small writers' group, she wrote a 1,200-word story about fairies, witches, etc., then decided to play some more with what she had written. In time, this became a larger and larger story. Carolyn decided to take a course offered by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia on how to write a children's story. Then, daring to believe the story might be worth publishing, she contacted OC Publishing and the rest, as they say, is history.Wishes sometimes do come true, and Carolyn's wish would be that this little story might bring happiness and pleasure to children and that they might come to love little Magaidh and her friends and family as much as she does. Elizabeth M. Gales lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After spending the last twenty years working with seniors, creating programs and day-to-day activities that utilized art, music, and dance, she decided to retire early to give herself the opportunity to work on projects that have been on the back burner for far too long. Over the last decades she has taken many workshops through community colleges, the University of British Columbia, as well as Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver where she was accepted in to their fine arts program, almost completing her first year there before life sent her in another direction. Many years later life once again set her adrift. A move from BC to Nova Scotia was a way to reinvent herself and become the person she has dreamed of being since her earliest memories. Workshops offered by the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) helped her continue her artist journey. Along with writing and illustrating, Elizabeth loves gardening, walks by the ocean, the wind, and cold cozy sweater weather. Her illustrations utilize pen and ink, coloured ink, watercolour, and acrylic as well as digital art. Learn more about Elizabeth on her website at www.elizabethmgales.com/.
The Last Witch on Skye has all the imaginative ingredients for a page-turner: a portal between the world of fairies and the world of humans; witches both good and bad; spells with power to bring out the worst or the best in people; and secrets that could destroy or unite a family. Nicholson has created a bubbling caldron of exciting exploits, sibling rivalry, friendships, humour, and a race against time. Will peace or revenge win out? - Sylvia Gunnery, YA author Nicholson's mystical novel of witches, fairies, and dragons is sure to delight readers of all ages. Don't be surprised to find yourself cheering Magaidh on as she learns one good turn brings another. Be prepared to lose yourself in this delightful novel of Celtic culture. - Deborah Toogood, author of Chasing the Phantom Ship Carolyn Nicholson, a Canadian whose ancestors are from the Isle of Skye, has perfectly captured the mysterious magic of the supernatural on the Misty Isle in her delightful tale of Magaidh, a young witch who loves the people of the island I call home. - Donnie Nicolson, Chairman, Clan MacNeacail Society of Scotland
