Anne Louise O'Connell grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and has lived around the world, escaping the cold of Canada on a hunt for warmer climes, with stops in Florida, Dubai and Thailand. In 2007, after 17 years in the PR business, she decided to focus on her real passion and just write. In 2016, she returned to her hometown and established OC Publishing.In addition to being a partner/hybrid publisher working with authors internationally, O'Connell is a multi-genre author who has written both fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, Mental Pause, won an IPPY (Independent Publisher Magazine) Book Award, and her second novel, Deep Deceit, is the first in the Deep Mysteries series. Book II, Deep Freeze, is coming in March 2025. Her non-fiction books include @Home in Dubai... Getting Connected Online and on the Ground (Summertime Publishing, UK); a collection of her expat living and travel stories titled Swimming with the Elephants and Other Adventures; and a co-published collection titled Phuket Island Writers - An Anthology of Short Stories (both fiction and non-fiction). In her role as publisher, O'Connell loves to mentor first time authors, does developmental editing, and assists others in developing their author platforms, while liaising with professional editors and designers throughout the publishing process. The genres she publishes include: women's fiction, historical fiction, mystery/suspense, memoir, YA, first chapter books, and children's picture books. While living in Thailand, she was a contributing writer for The Wall Street Journal Expat Blog and Global Living Magazine and a regular columnist for Expat Focus. She is also the creator and facilitator of the Paradise Writers' Retreat. O'Connell is a two-time graduate of Mount St. Vincent University - Early Childhood Education (1984), hence her love of children's literature; and a Bachelor of Public Relations (1990).