Interviewing the Auroras

A heads-up for SFF readers:

In the next few weeks I'll be running a series of short interviews with pals of mine who are also on the Prix Aurora Awards ballot for the best in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy.

This isn't an exhaustive list by any stretch as 

a) I don't personally know all the authors on the ballot (but since last weekend at When Words Collide - Calgary's most vibrant multi-genre lit-fest - I can also count Fonda Lee among my personal acquaintances), and

b) an exhaustive list would have required me to start interviewing the day the ballot was announced, at which time I was otherwise occupied with attending the Saskatchewan Festival of Words - my first time back to Moose Jaw in 18 years - and launching the first in my contemporary crime novels 

(When the Flood Falls, by J.E. Barnard, released by Dundurn Press in July 2018)

So, watch this space and give thought to which stellar works of Canadian SFF you'll vote for on September 8th. 

Or, if you haven't already done so, buy your CSFFA membership ($10) and get yourself registered ASAP. There's still time to read the entries for some categories - or maybe you've read some of the nominated works already - and make your informed choices on some or all of the ballot categories.

Maddie's Third Adventure Already!

It seems like barely yesterday I was dressing up in my black-and-purple Steampunk outfit for the launch of  MADDIE HATTER AND THE DEADLY DIAMOND, and wondering privately whether anyone besides family and Tyche Books staffers would show up to find out about this debut novel from a relative unknown.
Yet it was two years ago last week. 
 
How time... or in this case, taffeta... flies!

It hasn't happened in isolation. Although I write the stories, their production is truly a team effort. My heartfelt thanks go out to the following stalwart supporters of Maddie's adventures:  Steampunks of SASS and The Airship's Mess Deck; fellow writers from Sisters In Crime and Calgary Crime Writers; the dedicated production team at Tyche Books who keep on the hop getting everything together in time for launch day; Super-Fans Lex Robertson, Cindy Bedford, and Karen M. Owen; my agent and cheerleader Olga Filina of The Rights Agency; and of course Kevin, who handles a lot of daily life for months on end while I live in Maddie's world with Tweetle-D and the other talking clockworks.

From the Book Jacket: 

Maddie Hatter’s third Adventure finds her in Venice on an all-expenses-paid assignment: report on the season’s most extravagant Carnevale costumes. Determined to land an inside scoop, she enlists the help of her half-Venetian friend, Lady Serephene, to penetrate Madame Frangetti’s Costume Atelier in disguise.

Serephene is pursuing plots of her own: training in secret for a career that’s forbidden by her family, and flirting madly with a low-born Scottish inventor in his airship laboratory.  When the inventor’s fabulous new fabric is targeted by industrial spies, Serephene risks not only her family’s displeasure but her own safety to protect him and his work.

Pursued through the floating city’s legendary canals and squares, Maddie must draw on all her hard-won survival skills to keep herself and Serephene out of the spies’ clutches. With the help of unexpected allies among Venice’s underdogs, the daring young ladies just might reach Carnevale’s grand finale alive.

If you're in the Calgary area, you're very welcome to attend our LAUNCH PARTY on October 23rd at 7 p.m. at Owls Nest Books in Britannia Plaza (149th St & Elbow Drive SW). Costumes welcome but not mandatory. There will be prizes! Check out the details on Facebook.

Pre-orders of MADDIE HATTER AND THE TIMELY TAFFETA are now available at:

Barnes & Noble (Nook) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/maddie-hatter-and-the-timely-taffeta-jayne-barnard/1127175003?ean=2940154941607

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07613F87Q

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07613F87Q

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/maddie-hatter-and-the-timely-taffeta/id1292381422

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/maddie-hatter-and-the-timely-taffeta

When Words Collide 2017 - August 10-13 in Calgary

It's August again, and you know what that means: it's time for When Words Collide, Calgary's wildest wrangling of genre-crossing literature, a Festival for Readers and Writers.

The convention has been sold out since June but there are a few areas open to the public. Check the website at When Words Collide to learn what events you can access from outside.

I'll be appearing on several panels to discuss the amazing alternate-Victorian world of Maddie Hatter, how to plot the perfect crime, who my favourite paranormal authors are, and other topics of interest to readers and to writers of crime and/or speculative fiction.

My Schedule:

Friday, August 11th 

* at 7 p.m. in the Canmore Room (Atrium Building): When, Where, Why and How Would You Kill This Character?  Audience participation as writers brainstorm. With only a setting, character, and motive, how will each panelist kill the character and hide the body?

* at 9 p.m. (room TBA)  Tyche Books Ltd and Steampunk Arts & Sciences Society (SASS) present their annual  absinthe and Scotch tastings. Learn about malts from true aficionados  and watch a perfect absinthe drink created from the fountain manipulated by the Commander's experienced hands.

Saturday, August 12th
(all in Tower Building from here on unless specified)

* 12 noon in the Fireside Room:   Tyche Books Presents their annual book social with editors and authors presenting the 2017 collection. Panel discussion and Q & A. 

* 2 p.m. in Bonavista Room: Paranormal Mysteries by subtype and style. How much woo-woo is too much? What authors do it well?

* 8 p.m. in the Parkland Room: Mass autograph session, where I'll be signing my two Maddie Hatter Adventures, two Enigma Front anthologies, and whatever other anthologies or old magazine stories of mine readers bring along.

* 10 p.m. in a semi-secret location: Bundoran Press's combined party and triple book launch. I'm just going as a spectator and cheerer-on of the authors.

Sunday, August 13th

* 2 p.m. in the Parkland Room: Elements of Suspense (a Sisters-in-Crime panel), in which we discuss what keeps readers turning the page and sleeping with the lights on.

* 4 p.m. in the Fireside Room: Women of Mystery (a Sisters-in-Crime panel), in which 4 long-time mystery writer/readers discuss their favourite new and established female crime writers, and reveal a few secrets of our own.

Looking forward to seeing lots of friends old and new!

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Launch Party for MADDIE HATTER AND THE GILDED GAUGE

It was May 10th, 2017, and dusk was creeping over Calgary when MADDIE HATTER AND THE GILDED GAUGE leapt from the printed page to party and parasol duel at Owls Nest Books.

 And from there to the #1 slot on the Calgary Herald Bestseller List for Fiction! 

Same as MADDIE HATTER AND THE DEADLY DIAMOND did 18 months ago!

Yay, Maddie! 

Friends and family in the packed store ate, drank, and made merry to the lively tunes of Calgary folk duo Hazel Gray. Their song, PAPER-THIN KINGDOMS, is a book-lover's classic!.



 We raised $100 for charity, to be split between CALGARY READS and GIRLS NOT BRIDES.

 Some characters from the book showed up:

Countess Olga, wearing the Dragon Draper Necklace which is our prize for the entire summer's charity fundraising.

Emmy Gat Ain't No Flat!

Cat Cheshire - Look at that GRIN!

Muffet, the littlest Urchin, and one smart cookie!

Tyche Books represented by Editor-in-Chief Margaret Curelas and substantive editor Adria Laycraft.

Fabulous food and wine was provided by Tyche Books and Owls Nest Books.

Some lucky folks took home a Steampunk Statue of Liberty Chocolate Bar.

The Urchins were never far from the food!

The March Pair (Rabbit and Hare) with Muffet and the snacks

These kids go nowhere without their crazy scooter.

In the white and black, the first World Parasol Dueling Champion, mentally preparing to face down Countess Olga, the World Street Dueling Champ!

 

Amanda and her daughter drove 5 hours to be there on the night.

 I told a tall tale or two of parasol duels by daylight and darkness.

Add caption

Emmy Gat and Cat Cheshire set to duel. Those far at the back of the store couldn't see the duelists well, but they were closer to the refreshments.

 

 

With great support from Steampunks of SASS and Madame Saffron Hemlock's Parasol Dueling League, and the warmest of welcomes from Owls Nest's Mike Hare, Judith Duthie and Sarah Johnson, MADDIE HATTER AND THE GILDED GAUGE got off to a great start!  Thanks, all of you!


Available at Owls Nest Books in Calgary or through any of the links below:  Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Amazon.CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Amazon.UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/maddie-hatter-and-the-gilded-gauge 
Nook & iBooks: https://www.books2read.com/u/bxgDJv
For up-to-the-minute news about Maddie and my other writings, find me on Facebook or Twitter 

It's Time to Find The Gilded Gauge!

Book trailer by Kevin Jepson of 4k Consulting, with his photos and stock photos. Music by Two Steps From Hell (Toys Come Alive). 

 MADDIE HATTER  and the GILDED GAUGE 

May 2017 from Tyche Books 

Amazon.com   Amazon.ca   Amazon.uk  Kobo  Other formats

A mysterious message from a midnight duelist sends fashion reporter and aspiring investigator Maddie Hatter to New York City's finest parasol dueling academy, where she foils a daring daylight kidnapping, saves the girl, and embarks on her most perilous adventure yet!

From the Back Cover:

"A mysterious message from a midnight duelist sends fashion reporter Maddie Hatter to New York’s finest parasol dueling academy, where she foils a daring daylight kidnapping.

The grateful rescuee, only daughter of an American Steamlord, offers Maddie a job as her bodyguard. Soon both young ladies are up to their lace gloves in industrial intrigue and irrepressible street urchins. Maddie’s clockwork bird faces danger too: hungry owls, curious inventors, even a clockwork foe that hides sneaky tricks behind its jewel-green eyes.

From the mansions of Park Avenue to the Statue of Liberty, Maddie hunts a fearless spy and confronts an unexpected power from her past."

 Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Amazon.CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Amazon.UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJ9YT31 
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/maddie-hatter-and-the-gilded-gauge 
Nook & iBooks: https://www.books2read.com/u/bxgDJv

For up-to-the-minute news about Maddie and my other writings, find me on Facebook or Twitter 

Happy First Birthday to DEADLY DIAMOND

 A year ago today, this photo and the one below

- of me and my dear airship captain - 

were taken at the official launch party for 

Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond. 


Thanks again, Owls Nest Books, for hosting our horde of Steampunks and Maddie fans!

We've had a fabulous and fun year dressing up,  meeting fans, and playing Steampunk games. 

 
It was impossible then to predict how well Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond would be received, or that it would acquire 3 award nominations, including for the Prix Aurora Awards.


Watch for Book 2, Maddie Hatter and the Gilded Gauge, coming out from Tyche Books in Spring 2017.  Check our our teaser photos and keep your eyes peeled for a chance to win an Advance Reading Copy!

I'm already busy on Book 3 in the Maddie Hatter series. No leaks, no spoilers for at least 6 months. Think I can keep my word even though I'm so excited about this story?

For up-to-the-minute news about Maddie and my other writings, find me on Facebook or Twitter

Keeping Creativity Fresh

My friend and fellow YA Aurora nominee, Sherry Peters, has an excellent column this month in Coach's Corner at SPECULATIVE CHIC.

In "Dream by Day" she's advocating to allow ourselves off the purpose-driven leash once in a while. We can keep our creative selves fresh by letting go of the need to be productive with every activity, every hour, and just have fun with some of them. 

One of her examples was sewing purely for fun. It's clear from the description that she and I share an equivalent absence of skill in this arena.

True Confession #1:  I have to ask other people to thread my needle for hand sewing.

After turning in the manuscript for Maddie Hatter and the Gilded Gauge a couple of weeks ago, I filled in the brain-drained days before When Words Collide by attempting to sew one of those pretty, drape-y vests all the chic older women seem to be wearing these days. 

My pattern-reading comprehension is on a par with my needle-threading, but I managed, with help from my trusty assistant and my long-suffering partner, to cut something approximating the pieces required. Google provided a few tips I'd never learned, even back in my younger days of Theatrical Costuming classes. 

The fabric's colour and flow was a joy to play with. The result... well, as long as nobody looks too close and I never show the inner side of those little pleated panels to anybody, I can have a lot of fun wearing it.

True Confession #2: This is the inner side of those panels. Very messy.

This is the outside of that panel. My faux-pas in pinning the pleats was revealed AFTER I'd blithely sewed in two pleats too close together, thus leaving a highly visible gap. 

Thanks to my pack-rat tendencies, there were scraps of purple ribbon around to fudge a fix, because this lovely georgette is VERY unforgiving about having errant stitches picked out.

True Confession #3: While trying to tidy up the inner side of those pleats, I snipped a hole right through to the front.

More ribbon (and some clear nail polish) to the rescue!

Here's the finished product, which I wore, and felt great in, at When Words Collide last weekend. Someone, somewhere, may have a photo of me standing up, so you can see how long and float-y the sides are.

Thanks, Sherry, for validating my decision to keep poking away at this sewing project even though it often felt like 'wasting time' during the run-up to When Words Collide.

I wonder what form my creative play-time will take before When Words Collide 2017?

Another Day, Another Award Shortlisting!

What a summer it has been so far! 

First Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond made the Prix Aurora ballot. Then When the Flood Falls arrived on the Dundurn Unhanged Arthur Award shortlist, and, 5 weeks later, WON it. 

If that wasn't enough excitement in my fledgling career in long-form fiction, now Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond is on the shortlist for the Alberta Book Publishing Awards. 

 
For more on the Alberta Book Publishing Awards, click HERE. 


Maddie's up against 3 other authors' 2015 releases, including one from Tyche Books:  

Simon Rose's Flashback.

Well done, Simon, and best of good fortune to all four of us when the awards banquet rolls around in September.

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And the Winners of the 2016 Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian Crime Fiction Are...

Crime Writers of Canada announced the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award winners. Congratulations to All

Best Novel: Peter Kirby, Open Season, Linda Leith Publishing

Best First Novel: Ausma Zehanat Khan, The Unquiet Dead, Minotaur

The Lou Allen Memorial Award for Best Novella: Jeremy Bates, Black Canyon, Dark Hearts, Ghillinnein Books

Best Short Story: Scott Mackay, The Avocado Kid, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

Best Book in French: Luc Chartrand, L'Affaire Myosotis, Québec Amérique

Best Juvenile/YA: Stephanie Tromly, Trouble is a Friend of Mine, Kathy Dawson Books

Best Nonfiction: Dean Jobb, Empire of Deception, Harper Collins Publishers

The Dundurn Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel:

 Jayne Barnard, When the Flood Falls

(Yes, that's my novel manuscript! So exciting!)

CWC also announced the 2016 Grand Master Winner Eric Wright. Eric Wright wrote eighteen crime novels, in four different series, as well as novels, a novella, and a memoir. Eric’s first novel, The Night the Gods Smiled (1983), won the first Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, the John Creasey Award from the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), and the City of Toronto Book Award. The Kidnapping of Rosie Dawn (2000) won an Arthur and was nominated for an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America (MWA). His writing career spanned over forty years and his contribution to Canadian crime writing was, without question, immense. This was recognized in 1998 when Eric received the Derrick Murdoch Award for lifetime contribution to Canadian crime writing. Eric Wright passed away in October, 2015, shortly after being notified that he had been selected for the Grand Master Award. Eric continued writing until shortly before his death, and in May 2016, Cormorant Books released The Land Mine, a historical novel loosely based on Eric’s own childhood in World War II London.

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An Unhanged Arthur Finalist

For the second time, I've got a manuscript on the shortlist for the Unhanged Arthur. 

To learn more about the Arthur and the story, see When the Flood Falls

Here are the complete shortlists. Congratulations to all my friends listed in the various categories. 

Best Novel
Peggy Blair, Hungry Ghosts, Simon & Schuster
John Farrow, The Storm Murders, Minotaur
Andrew Hunt, A Killing in Zion, Minotaur
Peter Kirby, Open Season, Linda Leith Publishing
Inger Ash Wolfe, The Night Bell, McClelland & Stewart
Best First Novel
J. Mark Collins, Hard Drive, iUniverse
David Hood, What Kills Good Men, Vagrant Press
Ausma Zehanat Khan, The Unquiet Dead, Minotaur
Alexis Koetting, Encore, Five Star
Brian R. Lindsay, Old Bones, Volumes Publishing
Best Novella
Jeremy Bates, Black Canyon, Dark Hearts, Ghillinnein Books
Alison Bruce, Deadly Season, Imajin Books
M.H. Callway, Glow Glass, Carrick Publishing
Barbara Fradkin, The Night Thief, Orca Book Publishers
Brian Harvey, Beethoven’s Tenth, Orca Book Publishers
Best Short Story
Karen Abrahamson, With One Shoe, Playground of Lost Toys, Exile Editions
Hilary Davidson, The Seige, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Sharon Hunt, The Water Was Rising, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Scott Mackay, The Avocado Kid, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
S. G. Wong, Movable Type, AB Negative Anthology, Coffin Hop Press
Best Book in French
Luc Chartrand, L'Affaire Myosotis, Québec Amérique
Jean-Louis Fleury, L'affaire Céline, Éditions Alire
André Jacques, La bataille de Pavie, Druide        
Jean Lemieux, Le mauvais côté des choses, Québec Amérique
Guillaume Morrissette, L'affaire Mélodie Cormier, Guy Saint-Jean éditeur
Best Juvenile/YA Book
Robert Hough, Diego’s Crossing, Annick Press
Jeff Ross, Set You Free, Orca
Kevin Sands, The Blackthorn Key, Aladdin
Allan Stratton, The Dogs, Scholastic
Stephanie Tromley, Trouble is a Friend of Mine, Kathy Dawson Books
Best Nonfiction Book
Gary Garrison, Human on the Inside: Unlocking the Truth about Canada’s Prisons, University of Regina Press
Dean Jobb, Empire of Deception, Harper Collins Publishers
Debra Komar, The Bastard of Fort Stikine: The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Murder of John McLoughlin Jr., Goose Lane Editions
Jerry Langton, Cold War, Harper Collins Publishers
Colleen Lewis and Jennifer Hicks, Mr. Big: The Investigation into the Deaths of Karen and Krista Hart, Flanker Press
The Dundurn Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel
Jayne Barnard, When the Flood Falls
Alice Bienia, Knight Blind
Pam Isfeld, Brave Girls
J.T. Siemens, Better the Devil You Know
J.G. Toews, Give Out Creek

It's still a thrill when people enjoy Maddie's first adventure:

"one of the most delightful tales I’ve read in a while. It’s a lovely mix of mystery, science fiction, humor, froth and adventure that can be found in the best steampunk"

For the full review, see Buried Under Books

Come for Coffee with Jayne

Ask your questions about Maddie Hatter, the Deadly Diamond, the airships, the clockwork birds, or any other aspect of Maddie's first, fun-filled Steampunk adventure.

Bring your favourite beverage in your favourite mug or teacup.

Live online interview  
Saturday, October 17, 2015
1 p.m. Mountain Time