A half dozen female authors from the Bay of Quinte  who go by the name ‘Circle of Six’ launched their first book called Storied earlier this month at the CORE Centre in Belleville.

Ranging in age from their mid-50s through to mid-80s, the Circle of Six all come from different backgrounds from veterinary technician to restorer of historic buildings but all with the passion of the written word.

Among the authors is Pat Whittaker, a Prince Edward County resident and a retired journalist. From the age of eight she aspired to write for a newspaper. 

Whittaker has worked as a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, wrote radio news scripts for CBC Radio, served as a copy editor, section editor and editor of the letters page at the Toronto Star.

She now shares her prose and poetry at the Wellington Open Floor and with her Circle of Six writing group.

“To actually have the book published is a little bit beyond reality really,” expressed Whittaker. “We worked towards it for quite awhile but now that it’s actually happened it just seems unreal so far, I guess we will get use to it.

The group of women met in the fall of 2017 at a month-long weekly workshop to share stories and get help with them if needed. By the time the workshop ended,  six members of the group wanted to continue and agreed to meet monthly at the Belleville library.

Authors include Linda Bond, Nell Davidson, Kim Fedor, Donna McDonald, Wendy Russell-Sheppard and Whittaker

Each author has six stories in the book that look back at cherished moments in their lives.

“My stories are not from any particular part of my life,” Whittaker stated. “My stories are from various parts of my life and some of them are straight memoir and others are what would be classified as creative non-fiction. They’re taken from actually happenings but they’re told differently in a more interesting way I would hope.”

For more information in the Circle of Six please visit https://circleofsixwriters.ca/