Annette O'Brien

   After her 25 year career in the fashion business with the now long gone Eaton family stores, Annette O'Brien began her long time dream of being a writer. Her first venture into the field was a controversial newspaper story on a rural community's unsafe drinking water from a stream that supplied both country and city water enthusiasts who filled gallons with its glacial yet unclean water.

             Her calling into the field of journalism covered profiles of out of the ordinary people, local events until several years ago when she was requested to put her thoughts on the topic of aging into a seniors' column called Independence. Her bimonthly popular column appears in Thunder Bay's daily newspaper, The Chronicle Journal.

             As well as her journalist writing, Annette is a regular freelance writer for Lake Superior Magazine. Her articles have covered families living along the shores of beautiful Lake Superior, as well as the Northern communities of Schreiber, Marathon and the long ago war prisoner camp at Neys.

                                   Her hobbies naturally including reading the latest best sellers, and classics, travelling, and an enthusiastic tai chi admirer and qui gong teacher.   She is also a member of the Thunder Bay Historical Society, the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), and a volunteer for a local genealogy researcher.

                          In Laurence Sterne's words, Annette believes "Writing when properly managed (as you can be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation."

Contact Annette O'Brien at [email protected]

                     Writing Excerpts: Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, Lake Superior Magazine

                              ** They call themselves "The Uncalled Four" and the name seems to fit, with their tongue-in-cheek attitude. Sadly, they do not take themselves too seriously as a great musical group, but they sure have a lot of fun playing great music.....

                            **I do not remember who said "you can't go no more to your house, neither shall your place know you any more, "or words something like that, but I did feel saddened as I thought of all the happy times I had spend in that part of my town, and how it had changed....

                       **What does the word fossil mean to you? Old, right? Something that is really old. In fact sometimes old men and women too have been called fossils, haven't we? However my eureka moment on fossils came the other day when I had a lively visit with some dear friends.

                        **Three independent singers, songwriters, musicians have traveled east, west, north and south, in search of their aspirations and dreams, and they have never found anywhere better than Thunder Bay, Ontario, the city at the head of Lake Superior to express themselves musically, and to call home.

                        **The city is unique with its true north atmosphere in the heart of Northwestern Ontario. With its impressive Nor'Wester range flat topped and steel-sided mountains filled with lakes and Indian legends along with its natural freshwater harbor of Lake Superior it boldly lends itself beautifully to folk songs, and melodies that illustrates its splendor.