In Them Days

I first met Isobel after I found her creative writing class listed in the Month Ahead. Her gentle but firm encouragement helped me recover my writing voice and I am forever grateful for her fierce commitment to the written word and what it stands for in each individual.

Isobel was a journalism student at Ryerson who wanted to write about music, but was discouraged to do so by the all-male faculty because there were no female music critics. Although she regrets this decision, she gets her classical music “fix” from her soon-to-be 59 years of marriage to Milan, a life-long musician who is principal percussionist with the Markham Concert Band, as well as their Juno-nominated, violin-wielding (among myriad instruments), vocalist daughter, Annabelle Chvostek.

Isobel came to travel writing at mid-life while serving as editor to CARP news. Having visited upwards of 60 countries (“I’m never sure whether some of those South Seas islands are countries or merely volcanic eruptions of unknown ownership”), she now only travels to carefully chosen, familiar destinations although she hasn’t lost her sense of adventure, with Canada’s far north high on her wish list.

Isobel entered the teaching profession three decades ago after being begged to fill in for a friend. She was delightedly surprised to find she both loved and excelled at it. She has taught at the University of Toronto, Seneca College, Humber College and the University of Guelph prior to her Newmarket Public Library classes. Many of her students are now published writers but that’s not her purpose; so many more are simply enjoying the therapeutic benefits of writing. “Being published should not be the goal,” she adamantly insists.

Co-owner and operator of Cedar Cave Books, she is the author of five books: two novels and three travel guides, and editor/publisher of WORDPLAY. Isobel currently has two books under wraps, too early to share any tidbits as of yet. She will be reading an excerpt from her latest novel, In Them Days.