Summary : writer/researcher/publicist with experience in radio (advertising and continuity writer); television (PA, news and advertising writer); corporate event PR (Montreal International Jazz Festival; translating and writing press releases, promotional packages); pharma advertising (copy, research); e-business (research, writing, administration); --and as a freelance journalist.

Conference Reporter: I report on keynote speeches, workshops, meetings,etc. for private and public diffusion,in corporate newsletters, major market magazines and newspapers,etc. I cover events in English and French.

Essays: I have been contributing essays this year to the award winning magazine Education Canada.

Radio Play: I have just completed a play for radio about my grandmother's life in colonial Malaya and her work as secretary of the Kuala Lumpur Book Club and trials as civilian internee at Changi, A working version is available online here. I am at work on a narrative prose version of Looking for Mrs. Peel for a well-known Canadian publishing house, that has expressed an interest in publishing it. Editors there described the story as "fascinating."

The pic above is one she drew of herself at Changi.

I am beginning research on Jules Crepeau, first Director of Services for Montreal 1921-1930, a key and powerful position. Jules is my mother's father. My story is to be a Two Solitudes style historical drama thriller with a social welfare theme.

This website: Tighsolas enjoys a high profile in the search engines, usually coming up within the first few items for relevant searches such as Laurier Era. The McGill Faculty of Education includes Tighsolas as part of their fourth year practicum. New York State's Technology in Education Program highlights the site as a model local history site.

Freelance journalist: I've contributed articles to many major market magazines and web sites, including,Salon.com, Chatelaine, Today's Parent, the Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Hudson Gazette (education reporting during the teachers' rolling strikes) and for CBC radio.

Education Writer: Many of my essays have been reprinted in education texts, in the US and Canada. I've contributed a number of essays to the bestselling ESL series Brass Tacks, Open Windows and Writer's World. Pearson Education marketing research has revealed that teachers consistently cite my essays as among their favourites.

I edited the Quebec Federation of Home and School Association News on a volunteer basis in the 1990's and continue to contribute to its pages.

I've worked as a researcher for a CBC documentary on Expo 67 ( Looking For Mrs. Peel, about that amazing year 1967)

Literacy Advocate: I edited a 50 year old education quarterly for the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations. I researched and wrote their 2005 Children's Literacy Resource Guide, which contains over 100 tip sheets on 21st century literacy issues, spanning reading, writing, math, the arts, media and parental and community involvement.

I am on the Literacy Committee of the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations where we support a number of projects that provide books to babies, toddlers, school-age children, as well as 'high-interest' reading materials to reluctant and under-developed readers in high school. I personally continue to add pages to the Literacy Guide, on timely issues, often relating to the new technologies.

I was on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Literacy of Montreal, a cutting-edge teacher training facility and think tank.


Links to TIGHSOLAS themed essays available for free classroom use - and more of my previously published essays, articles and exposes. Also free pages for download of the Children's Literacy Resource Guide.

I was a paid columnist on the Web years ago, supplying material to a parenting website in Oprah's Oxygen Network (Mom's Online) where I wrote essays and family movie reviews interviewing kids.

I was a talent coordinator on the 22 hour Telethon of Stars at CFCF and, more recently, I administered an experimental e-publishing venture created by a children's television producer.

Lately I conducted research for a company that produces Broadcasting Industry Events. I compared Film Festivals across the world.

Email: dottynixon@
           videotron.ca; CD portfolio available upon request

Here's a testmonial (written in 2009) for an article I wrote over 10 years ago which is still posted on a parenting website.

"Wow I stumbled onto this site and this article by accident today while looking for something to do with my 2 children (ages 6 and 8) tomorrow since they will be off school and I will be off work. I feel guilty everyday that I can't be home with them. Society really has put alot on the shoulders of mothers (working or not) and has surely been the source of depression fuelled by guilt. I loved your article! I'm glad to have stumbled on it. It will help me in the times when I'm feeling like the worst mother because I desire a home life and a professional life. Thanks."