Page 29 - Reader's House Magazine Issue 53

STAR INTERVIEW
BARBARA AVON
Barbara Avon grew up Italian in the Niagara Falls Region and attended Notre Dame High School, and then Brock University. In 1999, she moved to Ottawa to pursue work and has worked for two major Ottawa area magazines. Being a shy kid in school, she created stories in her head, and when her Grade 9 English teacher awarded one of her short stories an A +, she knew that she would one day write a novel.
Avon is a multi-genre author. She’s written Romance, Romantic Thrillers, Time Travel, Mystery, Horror, and Paranormal Romance. Her work appears in various anthologies including Steering 23 Publications, Storytime for Grownups, and Beyond the Levee. In October of 2022, “Revived” was chosen as “Horror Book of the Year” by the “Feed My Reads” community, and in February of 2025, “Sultry Is the Night”, received the Literary Titan Gold Medal Award for Fiction.
When she’s not writing, she’s experimenting in the kitchen, reading, watching 1980s movies, and working on her next novel. Avon has quoted: I believe in magic. Books are magic. Love is the most remarkable magic.
“My first protagonist, Peter Travis, will always be
a part of me.”
I run my own business as an author. I am
my own publisher. The biggest challenge is marketing and being seen in a sea of other authors. Being passionate means never giving up.
How does cooking influence your creativity or writing process?
One doesn’t influence the other. I simply share my love of cooking in a fictional sense. My food descriptions almost read like recipes which is a bonus for any reader who is inter- ested in cooking, and especially Italian food. I love that both writing and cooking are the same. Both require a pinch of imagination, an ounce of patience, and whole lot of love.
What legacy do you hope to leave behind through your writing, and how do you want to be remembered as an author?
I was never able to be a mother. My books are my legacy. Within them, a reader can catch glimpses of me and who I am (or who I was). In the end, the stories are what matter, and they will be like time capsules, of sorts. Once a reader opens one of my books, my en- tire life – from my Italian roots to my fiercely independent nature – can be read between the lines.
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