SDG Library staff interviewing bestselling author Shari Lapena at SDG Reads event. Soule Photo

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

AVONMORE – On Oct. 5, 2026, North Stormont Place was packed with readers excited to get a peek into the mind of bestselling Canadian novelist Shari Lapena. The SDG library staff put on a wonderful evening with detailed decorations (including a tape body on the floor, evidence markers, and more), refreshments, and a silent auction to benefit the SDG Reads program.

The evening started with a VIP event, followed by a fully reserved public event and question/answer period. Before leaving, readers could have their books signed and enjoy a moment with the bestselling author.

Lapena gave the audience insight into her writing process and kept everyone laughing with her quick wit and dark sense of humor. Specifically, Lapena shared that it typically takes her four months to write a first draft followed by four to five months editing. Shari spends approximately four hours writing a day, aiming for 1,500 words. Promotion used to be centred around book launches but with social media, she explained that it’s become an ongoing process.

An interesting thing about Lapena’s writing process is that she never knows how her book will end when she starts writing. “I’ve never been able to plot a novel where I know what’s going to happen because I can’t think of anything unless I am in their heads,” Lapena explained, “They’re very character driven books.”

“I like to look at people who are having really strange situations that they would never imagine themselves to be in, and then they don’t know how they are going to behave,” she added.

Lapena is a big fan and supporter of public libraries, and does her best to do library events when requested. As a child, Lapena was a bookworm who took out many library books, as did her own kids when they were growing up.

“Toronto had this program called The Writers of Residence program. They would have a well-known writer as a ‘writer in residence’ and what you could do was send a draft in of your novel and then they would invite you in and discuss it with you and sometimes have little writing groups,” explained Shari, who had the opportunity to work with Dennis Falk, Helen Humphreys, and Eliza Clark through the program.

“I remember when I did the first one, it was Dennis Fawk, and I said that I was writing ‘in the closet’ and he said ‘it’s time to get out of the closet’. He was the first one to ever give me confidence to admit that I was writing,” Lapena said.

Lapena, who lives on a farm in Ontario and spoke fondly of her cat and pony, has written 10 psychological thrillers in the last 10 years. Her next novel is going into editing, and Lapena teased that it is her first book to tackle a cold case.

Of her books, Shari took readers she is fondest of The Couple Next Door. She said that one was fun to write since there was no timeline pressure and it was the first. When it comes to her favorites, her most recent two, Getting Away With Murder and She Didn’t See it Coming, stand out.

“I think its because they’ve got characters that are outside the norm,” stated Lapena, who explained that her books often have normal people under extraordinary circumstances, or extraordinary people ruining other people’s ordinary circumstances.