Our Editors

Ed Janzen (1932-2023)

Managing Editor
Guelph, Ontario

Ed was from Manitoba, born into a teaching family. Married Susan in 1952, taught an 8-grade one room school for 4 years, worked on BSc, MSc, PhD in chemistry (U of Manitoba and Iowa State University) for the next 8 years, taught chemistry and managed a research program at the U of Georgia, and U of Guelph, chaired the department of chemistry and biochemistry, directed the MRI program in the OVC, U of Guelph and the Center for Spin Trapping in the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City until retirement in 1997.

Susan and Ed were fortunate to be invited to many countries during Ed’s career including Germany, Holland, Sweden, England, Finland, Hong Kong, China, Japan, most states of the USA and Porto Rico. They have two children, Charles who owns a record store and Beth who teaches ESL and is a poet and short story writer.

In 1997 Susan and Ed created CANADIAN STORIES, a magazine with national coverage containing submissions from every province with a mailing list of over 300 addresses. The 100th issue was printed December 2014/January 2015.

James Deahl

Senior Editor – Poetry
Sarnia, Ontario

James Deahl was born in Pittsburgh during 1945, and moved to Canada in 1970. He has lived in Ottawa, Almonte, Sudbury, Wanup, Toronto, London, and Hamilton. At present he lives in Sarnia with the writer Norma West Linder. A full-time writer / editor / translator for the past decade, Deahl is a former teacher / adult educator (he still gives the odd university lecture) and research financial analyst with The Financial Post. (In a former life he wrote a book on economic trends in late capitalism: The Figure 8 Economy.) For ten years he was the managing partner of a literary publisher.

In the spring of 2017 he will celebrate a half-century as a published author with a huge and glorious party. Deahl’s byline has appeared over 275 times in magazines and newspapers in such countries as Australia, China, Cuba, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, as well as here in Canada, and even once in a university textbook.

He is the author of twenty-three literary titles, the four most recent being: Two Paths Through The Seasons (with Norma West Linder, 2014), North Point (2012), Rooms The Wind Makes (2012), and North Of Belleville (with Richard M. Grove, 2012). He is the father of three young women, Sarah, Simone, and Shona, and the grandfather of Rebekah.

Anna Christine Rumin

Associate Editor – True Stories and Creative Non-fiction
Ottawa, Ontario

Anna Rumin began writing stories during quiet time when she was banished to her bedroom for an hour every afternoon. Instead of lying on her bed, she watched what went on outside her window and later, the comings and goings of her neighborhood became the fodder for her first stories.  After quiet time, her mother would take her to the library where she greedily consumed whatever she could get her hands on and to this day, a good work of non-fiction is almost as delicious as double chocolate brownies, slightly under-cooked.

She began married life in the Eastern Townships of Quebec where she joined the faculty at the Bishop’s University School of Education and where her children were born. Her graduate work was rooted in narrative inquiry and the role life-stories play in education.

After ten years of life in Quebec, her family packed up and moved to Switzerland where she continued to teach, write and travel at almost every opportunity.  Her children met their relatives in Russia, came face to face with lions and elephants in Kenya, rode double-decker buses in London, fed pigeons at the base of the Eiffel Tower, ignored their sea-sick father in Malta, and learned to love the mountains and eat fondue in the tiny chalet they stayed in at the weekends.

Upon their re-entry to Canada the children were somewhat stunned at what they called “the pancake landscape” but they have all settled in nicely, and Anna writes short fiction, designs and teaches a variety of writing courses in Ottawa, teaches online, eats chocolate on a daily basis, travels when she can, generally whines when she can’t be outdoors on a daily basis, works as a story-scribe, and continues to consume good fiction.

Renate Ford

Associate Editor – Fiction
Maple Ridge, British Columbia

I was born in Germany, but immigrated to Canada as a young child. I grew up in Vancouver, attended UBC and the University of Hamburg (Germany), and graduated with the equivalent of a B.A. degree in Cultural Geography. Belize was my next stop, where I worked on a Mayan archaeology project and then taught high school in Belize City for two years. Sacramento, California, eventually became my home for 30 years. I taught middle school English, and later trained/coached teachers throughout California.

In 2004, I returned to Vancouver, where I now live with my elderly mother. Here in Canada, I keep busy tutoring high school students (writing skills especially), continuing my Spanish studies and, of course, writing my own stories whenever I can find time. I am excited about the Story Quilt and look forward to working with you on it.

Peter Joyce

Associate Editor – Travel Stories
Ottawa, Ontario

Born and raised in the countryside near London Ontario, Peter had a life-long love of words from his earliest remembrances. When not reading everything upon which he could lay his hands, he would wander the fields and forests, and jot down tales to relate at family dinners. Not surprisingly Literature was his favourite subject throughout all of his schooling.

Carleton University lured him to Ottawa in the Sixties for a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Soviet and East European Studies. That Degree led him to a 33-year career at the Communications Security Establishment. In his final government years, Peter served as Branch Historian and coined “Time Capsules” – one-page historical vignettes that were published in Web and paper form, and even turned into videos. The Union of National Defence Employees also contracted him as their Historian, and he still serves in that capacity to this day.

Peter has been contributing submissions to Canadian Stories since the magazine’s early days. Additionally, numerous pieces have been published in various journals, newspapers and Web sites.

Travel is his second greatest passion. Exploring by foot led to buses and trains and cars and planes that have taken him all over North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. His goal is to visit all the continents so “Look Out” South America, Australia and Antarctica here he comes. Stories pour forth from all his wanderings.

An early marriage blessed Peter with two fine offspring: Niky and Tim. A long-standing marriage was ended all too soon by cancer but left him with the fondest of memories and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Peter is currently in a committed relationship with the lovely Louise O’Connor. She too loves to travel.

Nardo & Louisa Kuitert (U-C WEBS)

Web Developers
Fergus, Ontario

Nardo & Louisa started U-C WEBS in 2001. A lot has changed since then, as the Internet is an ever-evolving medium moving at the speed of light.

Services that U-C WEBS offer include website building, social media posting, online reputation marketing, and website promotion (search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, display advertising, retargeting).

A relatively new area of expertise has grown tremendously in importance: online reputation. “Reputation First” emphasizes the fact that without a steady flow of positive reviews all other website promotion will be for naught as the conversion from prospect to customer will not happen.

People review anything online these days, so you better make online reviews marketing a top priority!