Word on the Street Coming Soon!

Two weeks from today, (Sept. 25th) the annual Word on the Street National Book and Magazine Festival will be happening in cities across Canada. The website indicates that Vancouver, Lethbridge, Saskatoon, Kitchener, Toronto, and Halifax will be participating for a fun day of workshops, panel discussions, musical entertainment, author readings, to name a few. This free event celebrates literacy and the written word in as many forms as possible. Poets and children’s writers have been well represented in the past, as have non-fiction authors, graphic novelists, and so on. WOTS is a fun, upbeat time with lots of great information about local organizations, publications, and educational opportunities on writing and publishing.

I and my colleagues will be manning the Crime Writers of Canada table in “the Village” located around the perimeter of the main Vancouver Public Library on Georgia Street, from 11 to 5 PM. We’ll be handing out cool bookmarks and letting people now about our organization and BC crime writers, and selling books, of course!

I, Robin Spano, Elizabeth Elwood, and Joan Donaldson-Yarmey will also be participating on a panel called De-Mystifying Mystery Writing in the library’s Peter Kaye room from 12 to 1 PM, so if you’re in the area, please stop by!

If you live near one of the WOTS venues, give this event a try! To learn more go to http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/

THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, http://bit.ly/i983XE, Chapters/Indigo http://bit.ly/gtFSFw
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Word on the Street - Vancouver

Today, I was at the Word on the Street Fair, in Vancouver. This day-long celebration of reading and writing was born in Toronto over twenty years ago, but has since expanded to other Canadian cities. Each year, all cities hold the event on the same day.

This was my sixth year at the fair and I never grow tired of it. This event is not just about selling books—although that’s a bonus—it’s about meeting friends, new and old, and discussing books, conventions, writers, and publishers, and all other writing-related things. It’s about sharing the love of reading with strangers.

The fair hasn’t changed much over the years and still has plenty to offer everyone: kids’ tents, a tent for poets to read aloud, and two more for novelists and nonfiction writers. One thing I’ve noticed since first attending in 1996 was the growth of graphic novels and comic books. I don’t remember them being much of a presence back then, but these writers now fill one very large room.

Technology has also changed the event a little. This year, Margaret Atwood was reading live from Toronto, yet Vancouver fans could participate in a question and answer session. They also could have their copies of her latest, The Year of the Flood, signed by Atwood using LongPen technology.

It was good to see colleagues again. Many of them travelled a fair distance to get there, but I think all would agree it was worth it. We sold some books, promoted Crime Writers of Canada (you do know there is such an organization don’t you?) caught up on each others’ lives, and exchanged smiles with tons of people on a gorgeous sunny day. What more could one ask for?

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/.

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Word on the Street Fair

Last Sunday, September 27th, was Vancouver's annual Word on the Street Fair. This free, one-day event is held the last Sunday of every September in Vancouver at the main library and in Toronto as well as a couple of other cities (this can vary from year to year). It's a wonderful opportunity for people to meet local writers, talk about books, attend readings and panel discussions, and browse through the many small press magazines and books published in our province. Lots of musical entertainment is also provided and it's just a great day of fun all round. Fun being the key word here.

Writing and promoting is hard work, which is why it's good to get out there and simply talk to people when you can. Find out what they like to read, what they'll buy and won't buy, and who for? Themselves? Someone else? One of the interesting things I learned was how many mystery readers are out there, yet how little they know about the local writers. Many of them hadn't heard of our national organization, Crime Writers of Canada, but we did our best to change that by handing out a catalogue of authors' books and signing people up to receive more info about us and CWW. One by one, we're spreading the word about who we are and what we write. It was great fun and if anyone has an opportunity to attend next year's WOTS as either author or reader, I really recommend it.

Near the end of the day, a couple came up to me and bought a copy of each of my books to read on their long flight back to Australia. I should be so lucky to travel that far!

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/