Word Up in Barrie, Ontario

I had the pleasure of being invited by Word Up Barrie to speak at the Barrie Public Library on the 15th of September 2022.  For those not familiar with Ontario geography, Barrie is a town of about 100,000 located on the west side of Lake Simcoe just south of Algonquin Provincial Park. I was joined by Peter PJ Jennings, journalist and author. 

We had a panel discussion of our writing methods and then went off searching for Lake Simcoe's lake monster Kempenfelt Kelly. (If there is a lake, there is always a lake monster.) The creature’s legend goes way back in Huron First Nation folklore and has been spotted by locals regularly over the last few centuries. 

By chance, I was able to obtain some grainy photos of the creature.