Welcome to ssmatheson.ca

Professional:
The biography that I authored of retired banker and Canadian philanthropist, titled A Royal Balance – the Life and Times of Hal Wyatt, was launched at two venues: Mount Royal University on Saturday, December 7th, 2013, and at the Hilton Garden Inn on Sunday, December 8th.

SEE MORE INFORMATION about Hal Wyatt 

Hal, who had celebrated his 93rd birthday on November 30th just a couple weeks before the launch, vividly recalled the challenges and excitement of his military service in the Second World War (retiring with the rank of Flight Lieutenant); his work the financial sector in Canada and abroad, retiring in 1986 as Vice-Chair of RBC; and his philanthropic contributions ranging from universities to the arts to business. The 450-page book, published by Frontenac House of Calgary, has been well-received, and was a joy to write.

Heritage House Publishers of Victoria are launching a new young adult line called Wandering Fox, with updates and new editions of former award-winning novels that have gone out of print and to which the rights had reverted to the authors. Choosing four authors from one of each of the western provinces, my books Prairie Pictures and City Pictures are currently being given hot new covers and a complete edit and rewrite. Much has changed since Prairie Pictures was first published in 1989! Release of this title is expected by August.    SEE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PRAIRIE PICTURES

NOTE: "Lost: True Stories of Canadian Aviation Tragedies” is currently being updated and a new edition published by Frontenac House Publishing of Calgary.  More news to follow upon release of this edition!

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NEW Digital Book Reader
Copies of my books.

Maverick in the Sky on Kindle

Amazing Flights and Flyers on Kindle

Amazing Flights on Kobo

Maverick on Kobo very soon.

In a pinch:
Maverick paperback on amazon.com

Amazing Flights pb on Amazon.com

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Personal: Continuing to learn to play mandolin and banjo – but having fun with the eternal struggle!  Playing mando every week with Prairie Mountain Fiddlers (the novice group!). Just had my father’s 100-year-old violin restored, so perhaps will add that to my musical determinations!

Photo by Elisa Sereno-Janz (My music teacher)

*Check for on-line editions of many of Shirlee's books - and more to come!

Jailbird Kid, ISBN-10: 1554887046, ISBN-13: 9781554887040, a teen novel by Shirlee Smith Matheson, is published by The Dundurn Group, Toronto. "Angela Wroboski has recently moved with her mother from their small hometown into the city to rid them of a dark past. Now Angela must deal with the fact that her home will be anything but "normal". Her dad, the infamous Nick "The Weasel" Wroboski, is being released from prison on June 5th - Angela's 15th birthday."

January 2010 News Release

Amazing Flights and Flyers    Price: $19.95. ISBN 978-1-897181-29-4, Frontenac House Publishers, Calgary

Book launch February 28, 2010 @ Aero Space Museum of Calgary.

"The latest in Shirlee Smith Matheson's popular Canadian aviation stories, Amazing Flights and Flyers, is a fascinating collection of adventures ranging from aerial hijackings to secret Nazi weather stations in Labrador, from the missions of the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association to an incredible aerial rescue expedition in the Antarctic. Every story is different, every story is astonishing, and every story is completely true!"

Available at bookstores including AeroWorks c/o Aero Space Museum (email: aeroworks@asmac.ab.ca), or contact distributor: Alpine Book Peddlers, email: info@alpinebookpeddlers.ca.


Artist Dan Ryan's painting (used with artist's permission) of this Canadian Pacific Air Lines' DC-4 (CF-CPC) has garnered much admiration in aviation circles. The original hangs in the south terminal of the Vancouver International Airport, and "shows" the airliner, with 37 persons aboard, about to disappear forever in the vicinity of Mount Fairweather near Sitka, Alaska, on July 21, 1951. Its whereabouts remains a major Canadian mystery, and is the subject of one of the stories contained in Amazing Flights and Flyers, titled "The Unfair Weather of Mount Fairweather."

 

Aero Post News Fall Issue #4/08
"CuNim Glider Flight" - Shirlee Matheson's Excellent Adventure Click here to read article

 

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Fall 2007 News Release

 

Published Fall 2007 a new book by Shirlee Smith Matheson - Maverick in the Sky   The Aerial Adventures of WW I Flying Ace Freddie McCall


Fred McCall, son of Captain Freddie McCall, and Shirlee Smith Matheson, author

 

Aviation adventures are Shirlee Smith Matheson's narrative specialty. In her new book she paints a portrait of the fascinating life of WW I flying ace Freddie McCall. In so doing, she not only brings us back to place and time in one man's life full of risks, but she also recreates a moment in our own history. From his World War I combat victories, to his back-home stunt flying, Freddie McCall, a true Canadian hero, comes to life on every page.

price: $9.95 ISBN 978-1-897181 16-4

Review - Maverick in the Sky by Shirlee Smith Matheson (Frontenac House) by Major John Scott. Open review by Captain John Scott in the October 2007 issue of PX magazine

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Fall 2006 News Release

Fastback Beach   has been reprinted for the third time! Read this exciting teen novel about hot cars, and the price one is willing to pay to sit behind the wheel of a racy hotrod

Fastback Beach, 2003, (former working title Hotrods Forever) by Orca Publishers in their "Orca Soundings Series." This hard-hitting, high action, young adult novel is centered in the world of hot rod cars - those who own them and others who would do anything to sit behind the wheel of one of these high performance souped-up vehicles.

open reviews

First review in for Fastback Beach - reviewer calls it "highly recommended"! Deanna Einarson, teacher at Springfield Collegiate Institute in Oakbank, MB, writing for CM Magazine (Vol. X, No. 2, September 19, 2003), states:

"Fastback Beach does a superb job of illustrating the struggles teenagers go through when there is a conflict between what they believe is right and what their friends are doing. This is the story of an adolescent becoming an adult, making decisions, and dealing with the consequences of his actions. Highly recommended."

Open more reviews about Fastback Beach

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Book Release - A New Edition (2003) of This Was Our Valley   Shirlee Smith Matheson and Earl K. Pollon (Detselig/Temeron Books).

This award-winning book was released in a brand new edition with an update that details the ongoing effects of a mega project, in this case the monstrous W.A.C. Bennett Dam and its Williston Lake reservoir on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia.

See details under book section.   To order

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April 2006 News Release<

Shirlee Smith Matheson is interviewed by Joanne Elves in Our World April 2006. To download article in acrobat reader click here article Our World

 

Fall 2005 News Release

Lost   True Stories of Canadian Aviation Tragedies, Fifth House Publishers, (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Toronto) ISBN 1-894856-18-X

Sorry, this book is out of print

Thank you to all of you who sent me stories and contacts dealing with "unsolved mysteries of the air." Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Open Review PX magazine, Retired Airline Pilots of Canada, October 2006, Vol. III, No. 3, p.26.

Please see Canadian Owners' and Pilots' (COPA) Newsletter Flight Lines, October 2005, p. B-17, interview with author by Lynn Fraser, titled "Do You Know Any Canadian Aviation Mysteries?"

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March 2005 News Release

New Project Shirlee Smith Matheson has been hired by the Glenbow Museum to research the story of one of Canada's World War I flying aces, Captain Freddie McCall, DSO, MC and Bar, DFC, for the Glenbow's fabulous exhibition, Mavericks of Alberta, scheduled to open in 2007.

March 2003 - Shirlee Smith Matheson awarded Athabasca University 2001 Distinguished Alumni Award

May 2001 - Shirlee Smith Matheson awarded an Honorary Associate of Arts Degree.

June 2001 -Shirlee Smith Matheson a 2001 Emerald Award finalist

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