My novel, The Showrunner, features three strong-willed women who work behind the scenes on a TV drama. Ann is the Older Established Boss who is losing her grip, Stacey is the disciplined Younger Up and Coming Producer headed to the top, and Jenna is the Struggling Actress turned Assistant looking out for herself.

If you've ever toiled in a competitive, back stabbing work environment – and who hasn't? – you've known an Ann, Stacey or Jenna. Maybe you've been one yourself. Try these quiz questions and find out:

The Indigenous peoples of Canada can be forgiven for believing that successive governments over the 150 years and more since Confederation were following a master plan devised by an evil genius to eliminate them once and for all through drastic measures of assimilation. And, of all the cruel steps taken to accomplish this goal, the most vicious was the relentless attack on their children, taking them away from their homes on reserves across the nation to residential schools, little better than reformatories, to forget their languages and families.

My friends often look at me as if trying to understand what goes on in the recesses of my brain. “Where do you get your ideas?” they ask. “You know, for murder and stuff.”

“I’m not really sure,” I usually respond, but the truth is that an idea for a storyline can come from a number of unexpected sources. A writer only needs to be open to grasping onto one when it flashes by.

“Look, this is your book,” my four-year-old nephew tells me, brandishing a copy of Journey through Genocide I’d gifted to my sister.

“Right, now give it back to mom,” I say, waiting for the moment he would ask me what it was about, somewhat dreading it.

You've heard the hits, but do you know the stories behind them? Here are my top 10 favourite songs by the one and only man in black, Johnny Cash.

Click the song title to listen to the song on Spotify.

It's here! Leslie Shimotakahara's debut novel about Lily, her mother Rita, and a life of closely kept secrets is finally out!

Watch the trailer below, and you can order the book straight from us.