Rick Roberts is the co-founder of Global Genealogy, a company that sells books and software on line and at genealogy conventions. The company also publishes Canadian history and genealogy books with over 350 books in print. Last year, his company introduced a new service providing professional printing and binding services for self-published authors.

Janet Uren is a professional writer who, among other kinds of projects, researches and writes family histories – including that of her own family. Her specialty is sketching in an historical background to provide context and bring the lives of ancestors into focus. Projects have ranged from Acadia in 1636 to an 18th century Louisiana plantation to the Upper St. Lawrence in the era of the United Empire Loyalistsr

Eugene Fytche graduated in Electrical Engineering from University of New Brunswick and he later obtained an MBA from London School of Economics and McMaster University. He worked for electric utilities in Canada, Brazil and the UK and then continued his career with the Canadian Federal Government. For twenty years, he and his wife Janet operated a commercial sheep farm in Almonte, Ontario and during that period, he intensively studied protection of livestock and poultry from predators. He authored two books: May Safely Graze  and Wild Predators.  His recent work is focused on the preservation of log fences through a new book: 400 Years of Log Fences.

Edwinna von Baeyer has been researching and writing landscape histories in Canada for over 30 years. Her writing and research experience is wide-ranging and includes books, articles, bibliographies, etc. that focus on landscape history. Her books have been published by Random House Canada and Dundurn Press. For her work in landscape history, she received the Ontario Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Certificate of Achievement for research and writing on Heritage Gardens.

Susan Code is a local author and historian who delights in sharing stories about Perth and the Rideau. She also teaches history at Algonquin College and serves as a senior editor for General Store Publishing House.

A native of Kent, England, Dianne Graves is the author of three books; A Crown of Life: The world of John McCrae, Redcoats and River Pirates; and In the Midst of Alarms: The Untold Story of Women and the War of 1812. In addition to her work as a writer, Dianne also undertakes historical research and has acted as a consultant to several film and television projects. She is married to Canadian military historian Donald E. Graves and they live in Balderson, Ontario.

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers, and author of seven acclaimed books of literary non-fiction. Her most recent book, Nellie McClung, part of the Extraordinary Canadians series, tells the story of Canada’s remarkable feminist, politician and social activist. Charlotte’s bestselling book, Reluctant Genius: The Passions and Inventions of Alexander Graham Bell, won the Ottawa Book Award and the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, won the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Non-fiction Book of the Year.

Born in England and educated at Oxford and the London School of Economics, Charlotte has written for most major magazines and newspapers in Canada — including a regular column on national politics for Saturday Night Magazine — and has won many awards for her journalism. She is an adjunct research professor in the Department of History at Carleton University and has been awarded the University of British Columbia Medal for Biography and the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing and promoting Canadian history.

Terry Currie was raised in the rural Ottawa Valley and for most of his adult life, he has lived on the farm which is ancestors settled a century and a half ago.  For many years, he taught at the Almonte District High School and after retiring from teaching and widowed, he returned to the University of Ottawa to obtain his master’s degree in history.  His book “The Ottawa Valley’s Great Fire of 1870″ is his first generally distributed work.

Glenn J Lockwood specializes in writing local history books about Eastern Ontario communities.  His published books to date include a study of City of Ottawa’s heritage buildings, histories of the City of Brockville, the town of Smiths Falls, the townships of Beckwith, Kitley, Leeds & Lansdowne, Montague and the Parish of Kitley.  At present he is Archivist of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.  He divides his time after hours between researching and writing a history of Saint James’s Anglican Church, Perth, and editing his grandfather’s diary, Diary of a Rideau Country Farmer. 

Michael Vance is Professor of History at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia where he is responsible for teaching modern British and Irish history.  His research focuses on early nineteenth century Scottish emigration and settlement, but he also has an interest in the nature of Scottish overseas identity.  He has co-edited, with Marjory Harper, Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory: Scotia and Nova Scotia (1999) and, with Scott McLean, William Wye Smith: Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian (2008).  His new book: Imperial Immigration: The Scottish Settlers of the Upper Ottawa Valley 1815 – 1840 isto be published in the Fall.

Since 1995, Ken Watson has been the web-site developer of www.rideau-info.com , now the largest canal-related website in the world.  His published books include:  A History of the Rideau Lockstations; Engineered Landscapes: The Rideau Canal’s Transformation of a Wilderness Waterway, and The Rideau Route – Exploring the Pre-Canal Waterway.  He edited he Sweeney Diary: Journal of Rideau Lockmaster Peter Sweeney 1839 to 1850” and later this year, he will publish a new book titled “Tales of the Rideau.”

Darren Jerome is a writer whose stories tend to centre on the extraordinary experiences of “ordinary” people. His first collection of historical fiction short stories, Rideau, Whispers in Stone, was published in 2009. Darren lives in Ottawa and writes historical fiction under the name Craig McCue.

Ed Bebee is a life member of the Friends of the Rideau. A keen fisherman, he is the author of Pathfinders: The Guides of the Rideau and Fish Tales: The Lure and the Lore of the Rideau. His latest book, Invisible Army: Hard Times, Heartbreak and Heritage tells the story of the lock staff who toiled on the Rideau Canal from its opening in 1832 to the present. Certainly there were good times, but there were also long periods of hardship and hard work, when the Canal didn’t enjoy the public attentionthat it gets today. The "Rideau Navy" and the skilled "mechanics" (carpenters, masons and blacksmiths) are also celebrated.

Michael Vance is Professor of History at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia where he is responsible for teaching modern British and Irish history.  His research focuses on early nineteenth century Scottish emigration and settlement, but he also has an interest in the nature of Scottish overseas identity.  He has co-edited, with Marjory Harper, Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory: Scotia and Nova Scotia (1999) and, with Scott McLean, William Wye Smith: Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian (2008).    

Gavin Watt is president of the Museum of Applied Military History, a confederation of some 45 volunteer historical animators, but he is perhaps best known as a founder and commanding officer of the recreated King’s Royal Yorkers. He is the author of a nine books on the revolutionary wars 1776-1782 including his most recent book I am Heartly Ashamed – the Revolutionary War’s Final Campaign  as Waged from Canada in 1782.

Victor Suthren is a writer and historian with a special interest in the history of colonial seafaring and exploration. The former director general of the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, he sails frequently in traditional ships and small boats, retracing epic voyages of the flintlock era.  As well as being the author of several works of historical non-fiction, he has also written two series of historical sea fiction (Paul Gallant and Edward Mainwaring).

Donald E. Graves is an internationally renowned Canadian military historian and the author or editor of six books on the War of 1812, He is best known for his trilogy “Forgotten Soldiers: The War of 1812 in the North” which includes seminal studies of the battles of Crysler’s Farm and Chateauguay in 1813 (Field of Glory), and Chippawa and Lundy’s Lane in 1814 (Where Right and Glory) with a third volume to appear later this year.  His most recent book is Dragon Rampart: The Royal Welch Fusiliers at War 1793 -1815.

Rene Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada’s National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including 30 Osprey titles. An enlarged second edition of his book Uniforms and Equipment of the US Army in the War of 1812 has recently been republished.

Born and raised in southern Ontario, Kevin Gray attended the University of Toronto where he obtained a degree in biology and physical anthropology.  He became a police officer in 1990 and served for 18 years with Peel Regional Police.  After leaving the police service, Gray moved to Perth and studied heritage masonry at Algonquin College.  For the past ten years, he has spent much of his spare time participating in reenactments and working on his first book Where the River Narrows, a historic novel that takes place in Quebec City during the Seven Years War. 

Born in Kingston, raised in Arnprior and now an Ottawa resident, David Mulholland began his writing career as an advertising copywriter in private radio.  He went on to work as a researcher, story editor and interviewer for CBC Public Affairs television, a general-assignment reporter and music reviewer for the Ottawa Citizen, a syndicated country-music columnist, a part-time stand-up comic with Yuk Yuk’s, and a speech writer for various federal government departments.  Since 2001, he has been a full time writer and his novels include McNab (2006) and DUEL (2009).

Roy MacSkimming is the author of four novels, including MacDonald and the forthcoming Laurier in Love. One of his non-fiction books, The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada’s Writers was a Globe & Mail Best Roy MacSkimming is the author of four novels, including Macdonald and the forthcoming Laurier in Love.  100 Book of the Year and a finalist for the National Business Book Award.  MacSkimminghas been a book publisher, books editor at The Toronto Star, and policy director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.