Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 411 - Small Acts of Kindness in Every Little Thing With Janice Landry

Apr 18, 2025

58:09

Mark has a conversation with award winning writer and veteran journalist Janice Landryabout her seventh book, Every Little Thing: How Small Acts of Kindness Make a Big Impact, her 2023 diagnosis of Lyme disease which was part of the inspiration for this book, Janice's life as a writer, how having lived adjacent to the ocean in Canada's East Coast has impacted her creative spirit, and so much more.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a personal update, comments from recent episodes and reads a word about two Canadian conferences taking place at the end of April 2026: Toronto Indie Author Conference and GritLIT. (You can use code gritLITfriends at checkout to save 25% off the cost of registration).

Mark and Janice talk about:

Being of the generation that spent their entire summer days outside and not-connected to anything except friends and the world around them
The old school-style desk Janice had when she was young and starting to write which was shoved up against a window that looked out on the ocean
Telling herself fictional stories to amuse herself when she was young
The ocean being one of the single biggest factors on Janice's creative life
The importance of Janice's 2022 book EYE OF THE OCEAN
Why it's priceless that we create and share Canadian stories
How so much of what we do is about all of the people who help us in our achievements and why it's one of the core messages in Janice's latest book
The dramatically debilitating side-effects of Lyme disease
Why small acts of kindness and sharing uplifting and positive stories is so important
The tiny thing (a tick) that ended up inspiring Janice to write the book EVERY LITTLE THING
Importance messages of hope and that you're not alone, which come from the book
A very special note that a teacher gave to Janice when she was 10 years old, and why she carried it around for fifty years
Advice Janice would offer to beginning writers
And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on three different things that came up in the discussion.

Links of Interest:

Janice Landry has won four national awards for her writing and work. In March 2025, Halifax West MP Lena Metlege Diab presented Janice with the King Charles III Coronation Medal from the Government of Canada for her body of work, books, and longtime mental health advocacy.

Janice is a veteran journalist and proud Haligonian. In May 2025, she released her seventh book, Every Little Thing – how small acts of kindness make a big impact, following her 2023 Lyme disease diagnosis. Janice has since fully recovered and wrote this “small book with big messages” to thank society’s many and varied helpers, including some of her own. Janice’s longtime publisher is Nova Scotia’s Pottersfield Press. Her last two books, Eye of the Ocean and Silver Linings, were both bestsellers.

Janice’s biggest inspiration is her family, husband, Rob, and daughter, Laura. Through her writing, she also honours her late parents, Baz and Theresa. Janice began writing longform non-fiction to tell the gripping story of her firefighter father’s national Medal of Bravery for his part in the near-death rescue of an infant from a harrowing 1978 Halifax house fire.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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