This Week on Finding Your Bliss: October 16th

Oct 11, 2021

By Jordan Chakravarty

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Coming up this week on Finding Your Bliss, we have a show devoted to one of Judy’s favorite things: writing! So whether you’ve always dreamed of writing the next great Canadian novel or an award-winning screenplay, this is the show for you! 

Chris Kay Fraser is a writing coach and founder of Firefly Creative Writing, a small business whose mission is to help people reconnect to the joy and power of writing. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.Ed in Adult Education and Community Development. She has devoted her life to walking with others to the authentic, raw and delightful places words can reach. She lives with her partner Ian, her dog Marshall and many books. 

 

 

Firefly Creative Writing is a small-but-mighty team of writing coaches and support staff based in Toronto, and available internationally to help writers melt their blocks, understand their unique, perfect processes and pull their dreams down onto the page.

Also on the program we have author Sharon Neiss-Arbess, who just wrote the motivational book Get Up, with David Newton and published by Lisa Borden. After working as a copywriter in the advertising industry, Sharon decided that it was time for a particular story to leave her mind and land instead on the blank pages in front of her. 

 

 

Her novel Me And My So-Called Friends was written over a nine-month period in a local Toronto coffee shop. A favourite among the middle school crowd – including the parental units as well, Me and My So-Called Friends stirred up many crucial conversations, which lead to producing a teacher’s manual called Brave The Waves – A Program for Building Resiliency.

Get Up is Sharon’s second book that contains a collection of short stories that explores unforgettable life lessons. Each tale is perfectly paired by a physical exercise followed by a few words of advice from a collection of mentors that have made an impact on our world. 

 

 

Sharon also writes blogs. She writes self-care tips, and she even writes insanely simple recipes. What does she do when she is not tip-tapping on her keyboard? She loves eating her own homemade almond butter and drinking great coffee, and most importantly, taking care of herself and spending time with those that matter. 

A graduate of Concordia University in Communications Studies, that is where Sharon found her writing voice. Algonquin College’s Advertising program showed her that she could handle any pressure and deadlines, too. 

Born in Montreal, Sharon presently lives in Toronto with her husband, Gordie, and their three children, Josh, Adam, and Olivia. Sharon is very excited to share her latest book Get Up with our audience! 

 

 

Our Featured Artist this week is songwriter and performer Phil McGovern, who originally hails from Ireland and has made his home in Canada for more than 40 years. His Irish roots are strong in his music (“and accent!”), and he has performed for years as a solo artist and in small ensembles. Having composed many songs describing his homeland of County Tyrone in Ireland, he is also deeply inspired by the profound beauty, diversity and wonder of the Canadian landscape and peoples. The composition which best illustrates this is “From Sea to Sea to Sea”, a track produced by the award-winning producer/multi-instrumentalist Don Garbutt. Summing up Canada in a 4-minute song is no easy task, but Phil has risen to the challenge. 

Check out this piece of music here: 

 

As a vocalist, the baritone Phil McGovern was mentored by the internationally known Rosemary Burns (a.k.a. Patricia Burns), whose credits include many operatic performances with La Scala at the Milan Concert House, the Ed Sullivan Show and performances at Madison Square Garden. 

A solid finger-picker and strummer in his own right, many heavy-hitting performers have also added their talents to his recording sessions, including Dennis Pendrith (Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLaughlin), Doug Johnston, Terry Clements, Barry Keane (Gordon Lightfoot), Hurricane Mike Thompson (Shania Twain) and Al Briscoe (Kris Kristofferson, Frank Zappa, Tommy Hunter). 

Phil has performed many diverse engagements that include two performances for Cardinal Carter and family, guesting with John Allen Cameron, Barbara Hamilton, The Mistletones, The Foggy Duo, CFTO Television, and has been a regular performer on many Canada Day Parades in the Newmarket/Aurora area of Ontario. He has performed internationally in countries including Australia, Ireland and the USA. 

Contact: [email protected]

Join us this Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. For more information on our show, you can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram and Facebook. Also be sure to visit our online magazine at www.findingyourbliss.com

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