Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Nominees

Crime Writers of Canada announced this year’s slate of nominees for the Arthur Ellis Awards at events across the country. Established in 1984, the awards are named after the nom de travail of Canada’s official hangman. (Yes, our country once had one). The Arthur Ellis awards celebrate excellence in crime writing. Eligible books were published in 2016, with the exception of the Unhanged Author, which awards a prize to the year’s best unpublished novel. Good luck to all of the nominees:

Best Novel
Kelley Armstrong, City of the Lost, Penguin Random House of Canada
Michael Helm, After James, McClelland & Stewart
Maureen Jennings, Dead Ground in Between, McClelland & Stewart
Janet Kellough, Wishful Seeing, Dundurn Press
Donna Morrissey, The Fortunate Brother, Viking Canada

Best First Novel sponsored by Kobo
Ryan Aldred, Rum Luck, Five Star Publishing
R.M.Greenaway, Cold Girl, Dundurn Press
Mark Lisac, Where the Bodies Lie, NeWest Press
Amy Stuart, Still Mine, Simon & Schuster Canada
Elle Wild, Strange Things Done, Dundurn Press

Best Novella: The Lou Allin Memorial Award
Rick Blechta, Rundown, Orca Book Publishers
Brenda Chapman, No Trace, Grass Roots Press
Jas. R. Petrin, The Devil You Know, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Dell Publishing
Linda L. Richards, When Blood Lies, Orca Book Publishers
Peter Robinson, The Village That Lost Its Head, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Dell Publishing

Best Short Story
Cathy Ace, Steve’s Story, The Whole She-Bang 3, Toronto Sisters in Crime
Susan Daly, A Death at the Parsonage, The Whole She-Bang 3, Toronto Sisters in Crime
Elizabeth Hosang, Where There’s a Will, The Whole She-Bang 3, Toronto Sisters in Crime
Scott Mackay, The Ascent, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Dell Publishing
David Morrell, The Granite Kitchen, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Dell Publishing

Best Book in French
Marie-Eve Bourassa, Red Light: Adieu, Mignonne, Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature, vlb éditions
Chrystine Brouillet, Vrai ou faux, Éditions Druide
Guillaume Morrissette, Terreur domestique, Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur
Johanne Seymour, Rinzen et l’homme perdu, Libre Expression
Richard Ste-Marie, Le Blues des sacrifiés, Éditions Alire

Best Juvenile/YA Book
Gordon Korman, Masterminds: Criminal Destiny, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.
Norah McClintock, Trial by Fire, Orca Book Publishers
John Moss, The Girl in a Coma, The Poisoned Pencil-Poisoned Pen Press
Caroline Pignat, Shooter, Tundra Books
Eva Wiseman, Another Me, Tundra Books

Best Nonfiction Book
Christie Blatchford, Life Sentence: Stories from Four Decades of Court Reporting — or, How I Fell Out of Love with the Canadian Justice System, Doubleday Canada
Joe Friesen, The Ballad of Danny Wolfe: Life of a Modern Outlaw, Signal McClelland & Stewart
Jeremy Grimaldi, A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story, Dundurn Press
Debra Komar, Black River Road: An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect, and the Question of Character, Goose Lane
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon, Shadow of Doubt: The Trial of Dennis Oland, Goose Lane

Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel sponsored by Dundurn Press
Mary Fernando, An Absence of Empathy
S.J. Jennings, The Golkonda Project
Charlotte Morganti, Concrete Becomes Her
Ann Shortell, Celtic Knot
Mark Thomas, The Last Dragon

The winners will be announced at a Gala Awards Dinner in Toronto on May 25, 2017. For more information, check out Crime Writers of Canada’s website at www.crimewriterscanada.com

Debra

Crime Writing is Alive and Well in Canada

Having stepped up my writing efforts this year, I haven’t taken part in many writing events. But when I was asked by Crime Writers of Canada’s Vice-Chair, Cathy Ace, if I’d like to take part, how could I refuse? It’s been a couple of years since I attended one of these events and they were great fun in the past. I also wanted a chance to catch up with colleagues and our friendly Vancouver mystery booksellers, Dead Write Books. 

As anticipated, the night was terrific. I met a new author who’s just signed his first contract. Also, two of the shortlisted nominees (and in the same Unhanged category!) were in our audience and understandably delighted to hear their names read out.

This is a great time for Canadian crime writers. The talent in this country is among the best! If you’d like to know  more about  these folks, or if any of them live in your area, please check out the Crime Writers of Canada website.

You’ll find a list of bios, newly released titles and upcoming events. You’ll also find the complete list of shortlisted nominees in all eight categories. The winners will be announced at a gala in Toronto on Thursday, May 26 (more details are on the website).

The Author Ellis awards, by the way, were first launched in 1983 and named after the nom de travail of Canada’s last hangmen. As you can see,the award is a little wooden hanging man that is far cuter than gruesome.

Crime writing is alive and well in Canada, and given that May is National Crime Writing Month, I invite you to purchase a book by a Canadian crime writer.

Debra

Bookstore Signings Still Work

I’ve taken part in my fair share of book signings over the years, and have to admit that I often found them a little disappointing. It wasn’t because the store didn’t promote or I wasn’t bringing a positive attitude, but because I was an inexperienced introvert. I’ve slowly learned over time to bring things like bookmarks to hand out, and to engage with people, although this is still a challenge. I’ve also learned to quickly assess which shoppers might be interested in mysteries or not. It’s a gamble, but I’ve found that the more people I talk to, the greater the chance of sales.

I had the good fortune to take part in joint signings these last two Saturdays with mystery authors Allan J. Emerson and Cathy Ace. Both are extremely personable and Cathy excels at drawing potential customers to our table. Because Allan’s book is called Death of a Bride and Groom, he also created a faux wedding cake. What a great idea! As you can see from the photo, yesterday’s event took place on Halloween, so they got into the spirit and dressed in costume. (I still can’t find my old box of costumes…).

As you can imagine, all types of people dropped by our table, and we sold books! Cathy is also Vice-President of Crime Writers of Canada, so we handed out brochures that lists other Canadian crime writers whose work may interest readers.

A large part of any author’s success comes from collaborating with colleagues. It’s about working together and sharing expertise and experience. With book signings, it not only increases the chances of sales but can be a lot of fun. These last two signings have renewed my enthusiasm for bookstore events, and increases my belief that we’re all better off when we work together.

Debra

Final Thoughts on Word on the Street, Vancouver

As mentioned last month, I and several others were taking part in the annual Word on the Street event in Vancouver. I wanted to give my feedback to the organizers before I followed up here. Now that this is done, I can say that, all in all, it was a great day.

I was very grateful to have a large number of volunteers help out at our Crime Writers of Canada table. They did a great job of telling people about our organization and talking about the display of books. As you’ll see from the photo, we know how to draw people in! Don Hauka thought it’d be fun to have a chalk outline in front of our table, so he volunteered to be the body, while Robin Spano drew the outline. Of course, the rain washed most of it away later.

Four of us also participated on a well-attended mystery panel called De-Mystifying the mystery. Attendees gave us great feedback, and one of them blogged about it, which you can see in the link below:

http://noahjdchinnbooks.com/2011/09/de-mystifying-mystery

The only downside to the day was a couple of organization glitches. While it was great to be on a panel located inside the library where it was warm and dry, we had to be out of the room at a specific time to make way for the next group. To continue answering questions the attendees had, however, meant following us up the stairs and outside to the booksellers’ tent, which wasn’t a tent, but a canopy above four tables, three of which were wet from the rain. There were only two chairs for several people, and most of the attendees understandably didn’t hang around.

I would have preferred to see a table outside the room, where there was plenty of space, and discussions could easily have continued, and suggested as such on the feedback form organizers provided. I’m not sure why the fair wasn’t better prepared for bad weather, but for awhile there, some of the booths looked like there were going to be completely rained out! Still, once the sun came out again at three, so did the people, and displays survived. It can’t be easy to organize something this big, so kudos anyway to all of the volunteers who helped make it happen.

THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, http://bit.ly/i983XE, now out on paperback at http://tinyurl.com/30dlx64
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Why and What If?

Yesterday, I took a seaplane for the first time in my life. The flight was exhilarating, probably because the day was warm, calm, and sunny. Though I wouldn’t want to tackle one of those single engine planes on a rainy windy day.

I flew from Vancouver to Victoria to take part in a day of crime writing at the Victoria Public Library. Thirteen writers participated in four different panel discussions and shared a wide variety of experience, tips, and anecdotes about writing and publishing crime fiction.

It was a great day. I met new writers and caught up with others I hadn’t seen for some time. But what was really amazing was that over sixty attendees gave up their beautiful sunny Saturday to come and listen to us. Crime writing appears to be alive and well, as just about everyone in the group of sixty was working on a book. Oddly enough, only four of them were men. According to statistics from Sisters in Crime, the ratio of women to men mystery writers is about fifty/fifty. I’m not going to even try and guess why the guys didn’t show up, but there you go.

The day was amazingly interactive with lots of questions after each session. Our panel was “Sin and Salvation: Do's and Don’ts in Crime Fiction”. So much information was shared that I couldn’t begin to list all of it here, so I’ll leave you with one of my tips.

When starting to write a crime novel, there are two questions you need to keep asking yourself. What if? and Why? What if is especially handy when you’re plotting your novel. It’s a tip that Anne Perry gave at a workshop a few years back, and one that has proven really useful for me. While you’re plotting and forming characters and motives, ask yourself why your characters are doing the things they do. This single question addresses pretty much everything you’ll need to know about motive, which will show through techniques such as actions, behaviour, dialogue, and flashback.

And one more tip. If you’re a writer, keep going. Even a little bit of writing every day will end eventually turn into a polished novel.

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

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/

The Nicest Thing That's Happened So Far

If you've read my posts you'll know that I've been embroiled in promotion and marketing since April, and that there've been ups and downs. Today I want to share the nicest thing that's happened so far - and I'm happy to say there've been many good things - but this particular incident happened during my first book signing on August 9th. My table was set up and I was chatting with a customer when a little girl of about eight walked by with her mom. The little girl looked at my table, then at me, and smiled shyly. She said, "I want to be a writer". I thought that was terrific and told her so. I said,

"Do you keep a diary or a journal?"

"Yep."

"Do you write stories?""

"Uh-huh."

"And you read?"

A big nod.

"Well," I said. "You're doing all the right things. Just keep doing it."

Her eyes lit up and she looked at her mom who grinned. She took a bookmark and left the store. And I was left with the sensation that it feels terrific to make a child happy.

So, here we are in September and I have two more events lined up. One is an open-mike reading on Saturday, September 27th from 1 to 4 p.m. at Semiahmoo Library, 1815 - 152nd Street, Surrey, B.C.

I'll also be helping at the Crime Writers of Canada table at this year's Word on the Street Fair in Vancouver. The event takes place at the Main Library on Georgia Street from 11 to 6 p.m., and shoulds be lots of fun with music, readings and panels.

And Big News!!! FATAL ENCRYPTION is now available on Mobipocket and Kindle! For Mobi, go to http://www.mobipocket.com/ and look under mystery and crime.

Kindle is at http://www.amazon.com/ under Fatal Encryption, where you can see the cool new cover my publisher designed.

And, of course, excerpts for FATAL ENCRYPTION and TAXED TO DEATH can be read at http://www.debrapurdykong.com/