Welcome to the author and editor website of Moomor Publications which is the handle used for publications by the late Ian Moore-Morrans, Scottish-Canadian author, and Gayle Moore-Morrans, American-Canadian editor, writer and blogger! Pictured in our header is a photo of the six books we have published so far with Ian as the main author and with Gayle as editor and sometimes co-author. The shelf pictured below our books include annual volumes of Esprit, the Magazine of Evangelical Lutheran Women, Inc. of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from 1986 until 2010. Gayle wrote a number of articles in that magazine and served as its editor from 1997 until 2004.  Over  the  course  of  time  she  plans  to  reprint  many  of  those  articles  and  editorials  in  her   blog.

We are happy you have come here to check out our writings and to find out more about us. In a section “about the author and editor” from Ian’s book published in 2012,  From Poverty to Poverty: A Scotsman Encounters Canada, he explains that we (by then both widowed)  met in 2003 in a coffee house in Winnipeg and were quickly drawn into a conversation about the eclectic assortment of books that Ian had begun to write after retiring from many years working as a machinist both in Scotland and in Canada. He was fascinated to learn that Gayle was a magazine and program editor at the time and quickly started planning to woo and marry her and to make our marriage one of happily living together but also of happily working together. We are pleased to say that was a totally satisfying reality for over 15 years, until Ian’s death in February 2019. Go to the “About Us” page for more details.

While you are checking out the site, we hope you will click on the pages of our six already-published books: – Ian’s do-it-yourself (DIY) book, Metal Machining Made Easy; Ian’s novel, Beyond the Phantom Battle: Mystery at Loch Ashie; Ian’s first memoir (1932-1970), From Poverty To Poverty: A Scotsman Encounters Canada; a children’s chapter book, Jake, Little Jimmy & Big Louie; and a second memoir (1970-2004), Came To Canada, Eh? Adventures of a Scottish Nomad, which Gayle published several years after Ian’s death. In the latter two books, Gayle is listed as co-author. Then in October 2024, Gayle published a combination travelogue and memoir based on emailed letters that both of us wrote during our two-and-a-half year adventure/misadventure in Mexico (November 2004 to March 2007) entitled Mexican Follies.

Starting in late December 2012, Gayle began to blog the children’s chapter book as a Christmas present for our great-grandchildren. Jake, Little Jimmy and Big Louie is a story about an 11-year-old boy in Vernon, British Columbia, who adopts two unique birds that become his best friends.  We blogged those draft chapters  to give readers a taste of the book in its final pre-publication draft, to enable our great-grandchildren to draw pictures and give feedback for the book and also to solicit any feedback from other readers. That book was completed for publication in January 2015, including illustrations originally drawn by our then-pre-teen great-granddaughter, Hannah German, and age-appropriate consultation from our then-teenage great-grandson, Leland German.

Gayle continued to busy herself editing and contributing to a number of other stories that Ian wrote during the period 1997-2008. She has blogged more about each book as they neared completion and publication.

In addition, for your reading pleasure online, we’ve also included Ian’s published short story, “The Moonlit Meeting” in its entirety, as well as Gayle’s published account of “Canadian Ex-Pats and a Poodle Celebrate Robbie Burns Day in Mexico,” both originally written for English-language magazines in Mexico. Both of those stories eventually were published as part of the text in Mexican Follies. From time to time Gayle also blogs past and present writings she has done. She doesn’t write fiction as Ian does, but concentrates on spiritual, personal, family-related and travelogue writing.

We continue to host a number of book launches and readings as books are published. Photos from those events are posted as they occur. These can be found in the menu section “BLOG” which will be updated from time to time. So, happy surfing and cheerio the noo (in Scots English that means “bye for now”!)

Ian (who was also known over the years as “Scotty,” “The Happy Highlander,” “Haggis McBagpipe” and probably some other colourful names as well) and Gayle, who prefers to be called Gayle with a “y”. (Her pet peeve is having her name misspelled as Gail, Gale or even Gael.)