Shannon Lee Mannion claims she isn’t rich and famous “Well not rich anyway,” but she can’t claim she isn’t supercharged. Shannon is the quintessential modern woman, freelance reporter, multi-antique car owner-driver, automobile enthusiast since childhood and bursting with energy.

She specializes in writing, not so much about cars as about the people who drive them, collect them, rebuild them, and even the people who wash them. Every week her column “Auto Biography” appears in the ‘Driving’ section of the Ottawa Citizen.

I met Shannon at a freelance writing class in Ottawa. Teacher Patrick Meikle had invited her to tell us about ‘the writing life.’

She told us of a recent interview with David Dodge the gloomy, scratchy-voiced Governor of the Bank of Canada. Shannon had done her research and was able to break the ice by asking, “What’s your lucky number, Dave?” She knew that he was the seventh Governor of the Bank and was appointed to serve seven years. Was seven his lucky number? She didn’t tell us.

Shannon lives the writing life. She is a hardworking, knowledgeable writer and the entire class of aspiring ink-stained wretches took away valuable advice.

To sum it up. “It’s not the cars or the other things, it’s the people."