First publication
Annette McRae wrote her first book comprised of short stories, both fictional and non-fictional. McRae got the idea of writing a book from a writers group she’s apart of. They encouraged her to do so after sharing story ideas with each other.   Glover photo

Kory Glover
Record Staff
FINCH – Avonmore local, Annette McRae’s first book, Odds and Sods is now officially available for purchase, she is currently in the middle of a local book tour and signing throughout Dundas County.

“Odds and Sods is a collection of short stories of fact, fiction, poetry, with many coloured photographs, a couple of recipes and even a children’s story and exerpts from when I wrote for the The Royal Roots,” said McRae. “So, it really is what it’s called, just some odds and sods.”

McRae continued that “The book comes in at about 200 pages, most of the stories would be between two and four pages, some a little longer, some shorter.”

McRae has belonged to a writers group who came up with various topics for stories every couple of weeks. Everyone would then read their contribution.

“The fellow members of the group would say, ‘Oh Annette, you should publish a book, you should put them together in a book’, enough times that finally I said, “You know what? Why not’,” she said. “And to put photographs in there as well, that means a lot to me because they’re my photos. It feels really positive for me to be able to illustrate my own stories with my own photographs.”

Many of the stories that McRae wrote are very personal to her because they are fictionalized stories based on events that happened in her life.

“Some of them resonate to me because they have actually happened,” she said. “However, the short stories that I’ve written that are fictional, I re-read later and think, ‘Wow, where did that come from, that’s very interesting.’ I find it a nice book to read and find different things in it, it’s pretty amazing to me.”

McRae has had book signings at Sweet Clover Flowers & Gifts in Finch and The Village Green Flower Shop in Ingleside. The final book signing will be held at The Planted Arrow in Winchester from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thurs., Dec. 13. 

Anyone interested in contacting McRae about the book can email, annette@shantero.com.