A terror attack in Belleville greets Yom Kippur 5787

Ezekiel's vision from the Leipzig mahzor {prayer book for the high holy days}

On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed – how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time and who before time, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague  …

-         From the high holidays machzor

 May you all be inscribed and sealed for a good year, a healthy year, and a happy year.

Special for this year, the City of Toronto has erected signs in front of all the synagogues saying it's against a bylaw to harass Jews while we’re praying. (Actually, the sign’s a few hundred words long and doesn't mention Jews, but I thought I'd boil it down for you.) Thank you, Toronto. But in our current antizionist times, it's the policemen with guns that are actually more helpful....

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/suspect-involved-in-shooting-outside-belleville-ont-synagogue-identified-live-updates-here/   

Scene of attempted terror attack outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville
Constable Jeff Smith was critically wounded by the terrorist. Our prayers go out for his swift recovery

"Clinging to what saves me" by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt

Tanya at work

 Clinging to what saves me

Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt

 

When I’m writing a novel,

there are certain things I can control:

who says what, and where, who gets to fall in love

and who must die a tragic death

alone, on a bridge, under a moonless sky.

 

I make wondrous things happen:

like finding hidden treasure

or a message in a bottle,

a new constellation

or a city hidden beneath the sea.

 

It’s exhilarating and exhausting

to exert such control, to be the mastermind

of my detailed maps and charts and timelines,

my lists of names and dates and perils.

 

But when the world beyond my desk tilts sideways,

slides off the edge and is swallowed into the abyss,

when catastrophe and plague threaten

like pirates to set my ship on fire,

grab me by the throat and rob me blind

 

my stories are the flotsam that will save me,

the driftwood oars that will row me to shore,

build a fire to warm my shivering body

and shelter me from the raging storm.

***

Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt is an accomplished author. Her latest memoir, Carrying War, was published by Dundurn Press in August 2026 (see here). She’s also the author of her critically acclaimed memoir Peacekeeper’s Daughter, available through the publisher, Thistledown Press here or order it through your local bookstore (see here). 

Tanya has also published two volumes of poetry with Shoreline Press: Chaos Theories of Goodness (here) and The Hospitality of Trees (here).

Tanya’s award-winning essays, poems and fictions have been published in numerous journals and anthologies including Grain, Prairie Fire, Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, and Best Canadian Essays 2015 and 2019. She holds an MA in English Literature from McGill and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC.

Visit Tanya online here.

Read more short pieces about reading and writing here (and scroll down). Read other short stories, essays, and reviews by your fellow writers here (and scroll down).

See Brian Henry’s upcoming weekly writing classes, afternoon workshops, and wonderful writing retreats here.

19 literary agents at Creative Artists Agency are seeking new authors

Karolina Sutton, who represents Margaret Atwood, is one of the agents at CAA who's open to new authors

Creative Artists Agency

https://www.caa.com/entertainmenttalent/books/

Creative Artists Agency is a leading entertainment and sports agency. that includes a full-service literary agency with two dozen US-based agents in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, and another five agents in the UK. More than 100 of their books appear on the New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers lists every year. Their clients include myriad Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, and Baillie Gifford Prize, and National Book Award winners.

Most of their agents are open for submissions. Including:

Hillary Jacobson represents a wide array of adult and young adult fiction, as well as select nonfiction. Quick Brown Fox readers may be familiar with her as Laurie Elizabeth Flynn’s agent.

Hillary began her career at Independent Creative Management in 2015 and joined CAA in 2022 following the agency’s acquisition of ICM.

A lifelong obsessive reader, she is always on the hunt for writing that provokes a strong emotional reaction, adds an important perspective to the cultural conversation, or challenges the reader's beliefs. She is particularly drawn to suspense, coming-of-age narratives, sweeping family sagas, moving love stories and rom-coms, as well as speculative fiction.

To submit your work, please send your pitch and the first 10 pages of your manuscript in the body of an email. She responds to every query, and her average response time is approximately one month.

Submit through Hillary’s profile page here.

Gaby Sheiner is Hilary Jacobson’s assistant and has just begun building her own list – so she definitely needs authors! Gaby represents both fiction and nonfiction. On the fiction side, she’s looking for commercial and upmarket authors and is always on the lookout for buzzy book club fiction, thrillers and suspense, romance, and family sagas. 

On the nonfiction side, she is particularly interested in cookbooks and lifestyle, psychology, memoirs, and books by experts with distinctive perspectives and authority in their fields. 

Gabby began her career at CAA in 2023. She is from Toronto, Ontario, and is a graduate of Tufts University.

Gaby doesn’t have her own profile page yet at CAA (when it comes to acquiring authors, she’s that new!), but if you’re interested in meeting her and perhaps submitting to her, join us for “How to Get Published” on Sunday, Sept 27, where Gaby will be our guest speaker. Details here.  

Tia Ikemoto is another relative newcomer to CAA. Based in the New York office, she represents a diverse range of nonfiction and fiction across the commercial to literary spectrum.

She began her career at ICM Partners in 2019 assisting the co-head of the Publishing department and joined CAA in 2022 following the agency’s acquisition of ICM. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Communication and a minor in Business.

She is seeking fiction and nonfiction projects that resonate with a wide audience. She is drawn to compelling and propulsive storytelling, emotionally resonant narratives, and high concept projects with unique hooks or fresh perspectives.

Submit through her profile page here.

See profiles of all of CAA’s US-based agents here.

Rachel Mann is based in CAA’s London office. She represents a broad range of work – largely fiction, with some non-fiction – from commercial to literary, in adult, young adult, and middle-grade markets.

Her clients include Eliza Clark, Caleb Femi, Jade LB and Aisling Rawle, and have won and been listed for major prizes, including the Granta Best Young British Novelist, the Forward Prize for Poetry, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, the YA Book Prize, The Bookseller Discover Prize, and the Carnegie Medal.

She spent ten years editing and commissioning fiction for young people at houses including Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, and was global publishing director at the Roald Dahl Story Company. She became an agent in 2018 and joined CAA in 2023.

She gravitates towards darkly comic and formally inventive works. She seeks compelling voices, unpatronizing writing, and vivid, complex characters. International settings and traditions and radical social commentary will always capture her attention. To submit, please send a cover email, one-page synopsis and the first three chapters of your work, or the rough equivalent.

Submit through her profile page here.

Margaret Atwood and Karolina Sutton
at the Alhambra in Granada

Karolina Sutton (also based in the London office) is known for launching successful debuts in literary and upmarket commercial fiction, as well as shepherding long-term literary careers. Sutton is always keen to hear from new voices in both fiction and non-fiction, including traditional storytellers and writers introducing new ideas or challenging form and convention.

Sutton does not limit her interests to specific genres; her work spans literary fiction, crime and psychological suspense, historical fiction, serious non-fiction, and memoir. She enjoys works that are ambitious, innovative, intellectually curious, immersive, and psychologically astute.

She has worked with some of the most loved and admired novelists, journalists, academics, politicians, artists, and public figures, including winners of the Booker Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Costa First Novel Award, and the UK's premier non-fiction awards, from the Orwell Prize to the Baillie Gifford Prize. Sutton represents writers from around the world. Her clients include Margaret Atwood, Oliver Bullough, Philippa Perry, and Amia Srinivasan, among others.

In 2020, Sutton was named Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards.

She is looking for literary and upmarket commercial fiction, as well as narrative and ideas-based non-fiction. Please send a query letter and the manuscript to: ukbooksubmissions@caa.com

Or submit through her profile page here.

See profiles of all of CAA’s Uk-based agents here.

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, afternoon workshops, and wonderful writing retreats here.

Navigation tips: Always check out the Labels underneath a post; they’ll lead you to various distinct collections of postings. If you're searching for a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post: here.

“Two visits to Sherwood Inn, 80 years apart, in 1943 and 2023” by Elizabeth Sime

Bag unpacked and I’m almost back to my normal routine, after a stimulating October weekend at a writing retreat with Brian Henry at Sherwood Inn. The last time I was at Sherwood was in August 1943 during the second World War when I was ten.

My father learnt about Sherwood Inn from Mr. Draper, a business associate from Bay Street in Toronto. Father was looking for a small Inn on Lake Joseph where he could take Mother and I for a week of day trips by canoe.  My parents’ main interests on this holiday were canoeing, good food, and staying in a friendly place with like-minded people. Mother was in agreement and I didn’t have a choice, but was looking forward to being in or on the water. 

Mr. Draper arranged for a red cedar strip canoe to be ready on the beach for our adventures. We brought our own paddles which were suitable for our height. Father always paddled stern and had a wider paddle. There were no life jackets in those days. I was dumped in deep water and taught to kick the canoe to shore. At ten, when I was learning to paddle, we stayed close to the shore. 

Young Betsy Draper's dog Jet in
the formal dining room at Sherwood Inn

Each morning when not raining rattlesnakes, we set out with a packed lunch for a day trip on the lake. There were lots of rocks and places to swim for our lunch time stops.  I was happy. 

Now the lake is ringed with palatial "cottages." [Supermodel Cindy Crawford and her gazillionaire husband Rande Gerber own a quaint mansion here.] But in 1943 only a few simple cottages suitable for living in the bush could be found on Lake Joseph. These cottages had no electricity other than provided for by a small generator for lights. There was an outhouse, a wood stove for cooking, and a box with a block of ice to keep food cool.  The cottages had large screened-in porches to deal with the summer bug problem.

Mothers spent July and August with their children at the cottage, enjoying nature away from city activities. In the 1940’s polio was on the rampage and it was safer for children to be out of the city.  The cooler breezes up north were better than spending the summer in the city without air conditioning. And, there was always a lake to jump into when it was hot. 

To get to Muskoka in 1943 was a journey. Some travelled by car and others by train. In those days, 50 miles an hour was the speed limit on highways and Number 11 was the only road to the north. It went through the busy centres of all the villages and towns between Toronto and Muskoka. Gas was rationed but my father saved up enough coupons for the summer holiday trip to the north. 

At the slow speed of travel, we had time to absorb the change in landscape. When the highway went through the blasted rock-cut at Severn,  I remember thinking , We are now in rock country.  The trees also changed, to pine, spruce and hemlock. This was not a gradual change; suddenly we were in a different world. I felt as if I was really going to the north, far away from city activities.

Thomas B. Costain, author of The Silver Chalice and 85 other novels on one of his many stays at Sherwood Inn

Other guests would go by train to Gravenhurst and proceed by boat to Sherwood. I remember the supply boat coming to the main dock. I think it was called the Constance. The boat was a floating store to provide supplies to the few cottagers on the lake.  

On a rainy day, when we weren’t out paddling, I heard a bell ring when the boat was about to dock.  I ran down with twenty-five cents to buy two Neilson’s Burnt Almond Chocolate bars with blue wrappers. I even got five cents in return. Chocolate was a real treat during the War, as sugar was rationed. I ate one of the bars before I got to my parents to share my purchase.

We arrived at Sherwood late in the afternoon in time for dinner, tired after the long curvy drive from Toronto in our blue Plymouth.  Not like today when it only takes a couple of hours to speed along the straight 400.  At dinner, it was expected males would wear jackets and ties and females a dress. Even at home, my father always wore a tie and jacket for dinner and my mother changed from her daytime attire. For my family, this was a normal routine.

Artist Lawren Harris was another frequent
guest at Sherwood. The tranquility of the setting
attracted writers and artists – and still does. 

Customs have changed at Sherwood. In 2023, I brought a dressy sweater to wear at dinner just in case the dress code still existed.  I don’t own a dress or skirt anymore. The sweater went home unused, which was okay with me. This weekend the majority of guests were with me on the writing retreat. It was not necessary to change clothes between activities. Wearing something comfy was more important.  

Activities blended into each other. Breakfast, lecture time from Brian, rapid writes, one-on-one project discussion with Brian, lunch, more writing tips from Brian, then time to write. Dinner was at six, followed by a session of listening to pieces written by group members. The day was full.

I did have time to absorb some nature. I watched the lake changing from whitecaps one day to being like a mirror the next.  To stand under the tall majestic pines, smell and see a log fire burning each night just outside the front door reminded me I was staying in a northern forest. It was stimulating for me to spend time with like-minded people who shared a common interest in writing. Canoe tripping in 1943 and writing in 2023, were both very enjoyable experiences at an Inn where the personal touch is still important, the staff are all delightful, and the company of fellow writers is the best of all.  

***

Elizabeth Sime is a retired Public Health Nurse who practiced in the Yukon and Ontario. In her retirement she enjoys painting and writing. She is currently working on a memoir about her time with Indian and Northern Health Service in the 1950's.

For details of Brian's upcoming writing retreat at Sherwood Inn, see here.

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, afternoon workshops, and wonderful retreats here. 

Congratulations to Jane, Denisha, Pierre, and Sandra!

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. 

Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Hi, Brian: 

Summer greetings! Pleased to tell you that “Baby Love,” a story workshopped with you in Intensive Creating Writing has been published in The Ravens Perch. See here.  

And you can read story #2 published this week “Mother Love,” here.

All the best,

Jane

Jane Finlayson

For information on submitting to The Raven’s Perch (and a fewer other places), see here.

 

Hi, Brian.

I just wanted to reach out and say hello. I hope you’ve had a good summer despite the air quality.

I’m working on a teleplay right now with someone I met at the Pennwriters Conference last year, Diana Dru Botsford (https://dianabotsford.com/). It’s put my other writing projects on hold.

My poem, “Cowboy Sonnet,” was accepted for publication in The Saddlebag Dispatches so it hasn’t been a complete failure of a summer for poetry at least. My passion project is to write a chapbook of Cowgirl poems. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Hope to get back into your workshops one of these days!

All the best,

Denisha

denishanaidoo.com

See the submission guidelines for Saddlebag Dispatches here.

 

Hi, Brian.

Thank you, after many years I have now self-published a YA novel with Friesen Press.

For a long time, I kept this story inside me. I wasn’t sure the world was ready for it. Then I realized — maybe the world needs it right now.

Dad at 14 is my debut novel.

It tells the story of Edwin Barker-Ouellet — a 14-year-old boy who discovers he is a father.

No warning.

No preparation.

No manual.

Just a baby boy named Joshua — and a decision that changes everything.

When Joshua’s mother walks away, Edwin faces a choice most adults would struggle with.

He chooses to stay.

While balancing school, hockey, friendships, and fatherhood — Edwin discovers something most people spend a lifetime learning: Growing up isn’t about age. It’s about responsibility.

This book is for every parent who sacrificed everything quietly.

For every teenager who had to grow up too fast.

For every family that found strength they never knew they had.

I wrote this because I believe stories have the power to change how we see the world.

Dad at 14 is available now. Visit the official website here.

Kindest Regards,

Pierre Gagnon

 

Hello, Brian;

I am thrilled to announce that I’ve just published my new picture book, When the Moonbeam Comes to Call published through Friesen Press. During these troubled and anxiety-provoking times, this picture book is a lyrical swim through cousins connecting over summer in nature.  Exquisitely illustrated by Madison Appleby, this picture book is the perfect summer bedtime story or cottage hostess gift. 

Follow us on Instagram @When.The.Moonbeam

Thank you, Brian, for your courses and critique groups. Every book takes a community to bring it into the world. Quick Brown Fox has provided such a community for many of us. 

Write on;

Sandra Appleby

When the Moonbeam Comes to Call is Available from Chapters / Indigo here.

See where else your fellow writers are winning accolades or getting short pieces published here (and scroll down). And see more new books by your fellow authors here (and scroll down).

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, afternoon workshops, and wonderful writing retreats here.

Shanah Tovah ~ Happy New Year 5787 (dated from Creation, because when else would you start your calendar ;-)

 

שנה טובה ומתוקה

 

Shanah tovah umetukah

 

May you have a good and sweet year.