About Catherine Ann O’Brien

Biography

Catherine has been writing professionally for more than forty years, but writing privately all of her life. With a background in advertising and design, she has continued to write promotional copy for advertising agencies, PR firms and clients of her freelance writing business – Visual Interaction. As a regular contributor to major Toronto publications, Catherine has also written for Homes and Cottages, Good Times, Harrowsmith, Reno & Décor, Condo Life, Active Life, HOMES and Watershed magazines, to name a few. For fourteen years she was an editor for HOMES Publishing Group and contributed to all of their magazines until the pandemic hit. It was at this time that HOMES Publishing Group were forced to shut their doors after 34 years. Sadly, advertisers were no longer supporting print publications, and it was increasingly difficult to stay afloat.

The cessation of a full-time job imposed an earlier-than-expected retirement. While quarantined, a good friend suggested meeting on Zoom three mornings a week to write. As this writing community continued to grow, three days turned into five days, and now dozens of writers gather to work on their own projects and share snippets of their work more than five years later. This dedicated time has proved to be invaluable. Catherine’s preferred genres are fiction, short stories, poetry and personal essays.

Visual Interaction was an umbrella company for her interior design work, as well as a series of creative workshops that were held at the historical log home that she resurrected. These full-day programs were taught by a series of different artists who introduced participants to a variety of art forms. Commonly referred to as the Dora Mavor Moore house, this log home was built in 1817 and was considered to be one of the oldest residential structures in Toronto, until it was moved – piece by piece. It now resides just south of Uxbridge, Ontario, backing onto acres of protected conservation lands. An esteemed collection of occupants lived in this home for more than 180 years – many contributing to Canada’s historical lineage. For more information on the resurrection of this home, please click on the heading – Construction & Design.

Catherine was also the contractor for a second build, which was featured in Reno & Decor magazine. Here, she married a new house with an existing dwelling, both of which had the look and feel of being a well-established homestead.