OTF: Elizabeth Ruth and Chef Michael Smith

eWriter-in-Residence… without the “e” – Elizabeth Ruth, Thunder Bay’s new eWriter-in-Residence, was in town last night to introduce herself, and I managed to get away to the event. Author of Ten Good Seconds of Silence, Smoke, and the upcoming The Matador (none of which I’ve read… yet), Elizabeth will be putting on workshops for the Northwestern Ontario Writers’ Workshop (NOWW) and reading manuscripts.

It felt good to connect with other writers, not something I do often in the “real” world. I even met Twitter friend and fellow blogger @ShuniahWriter (Marion Agnew) for the first time.

Bad news though is that I’ll have to miss the first workshop taking place this weekend — hockey season is upon us, and I already have a practice/game conflict to sort out…

What’s Cookin’? – For my day job today, I met and interviewed Chef Michael Smith, Canada’s “best-known chef”. He was at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for the day, talking about the importance of eating locally grown food. He’ll be cooking a dinner for many (don’t have the exact number of guests) people tonight at the cafeteria using. The menu is almost entirely made up of local ingredients.

Very cool man and very down to earth — every inch the nice guy he seems to be on TV. I took special note of his book signing skills, and the way he held his Sharpie… they’ll come in handy when I’m on my own book tour.

~Graham