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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When the Flood Falls - Judges' Comments

And the 2016 Dundurn 

Unhanged Arthur

for 

Best Unpublished 

First Crime Novel:

Jayne Barnard for 

When the Flood Falls

Judges' Comments:

"When the Flood Falls impressed us with the author's polished writing. The protagonist, and ex-RCMP officer, is engaging and flawed. Lacey's police career and marriage are in tatters, and she's currently working as security detail at a new art museum. Until she finds somewhere else to live, she's staying with a friend, the president of the building committee of the museum. Suspense is created by the threat of a midnight prowler.

What made this entry stands out is that a woman with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome plays an integral role in solving the case. Formerly smart and successful, her cells no longer produce enough energy and she deals with debilitating fatigue, watching the world through her window. A new medication allows her brain to briefly function the way it used to before the illness, and she is able to help solve the mystery.

When the Flood Falls depicts the shadier side of a favourite Canadian sport, portraying the power hockey team owners and agents have over their players. The writing shows confidence and the pacing expertly keeps the story moving toward its conclusion."

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Sleuthing for Girls

Did you know Nancy Drew wasn't the first young, female sleuth in the annals of American mystery literature? Did you read Nancy, or some other contemporary crime-solving girl detective?

By pure coincidence, my bedtime book is a mystery by Susan Kandel, author of "Not a Girl Detective" which is not about Nancy but about the obsessive fans who collect her books, go to conventions, and even mimic Nancy in their clothing and decor. An author worth sampling if you enjoy well-crafted mysteries about Golden Age American mystery writers

Back to Girl Detectives: 

I favoured Trixie Belden over Nancy, in large part because Trixie's community felt more real and accessible to me than Nancy's idealized, chore-free existence ever could.

 In adventures published between 1948 and 1986, Trixie dived headlong into risky situations in a way that made my timid pre-teen heart beat green with envy. And she had friends, staunch ones, who had her back and helped her out of scrapes while still carrying on with their own lives. I yearned for friends like Trixie's. She got to go exciting places (in the vein of the Bobbsey Twins I'd read voraciously in my earliest reading years). 

The series didn't age gracefully as it grew; the later books lack the lively curiosity of the younger Trixie and acquire a more formulaic feel akin to the Nancy Drews. See more about Trixie at this website run by devoted fans

Pre-dating Trixie was Judy Bolton, created by Margaret Sutton. I discovered Judy in my 20s, though, by the accident of working in a small prairie library in the 1980s. The elderly librarian there hadn't yet seen the need to weed out Judy Bolton books in favour of more modern series. Older by five years than Trixie at the start of her series, Judy had more personal autonomy (more like Nancy) and a strong sense of what some call moral justice, rather than legalist justice. While solving a mystery, she looked at people as much as at objects. She grew up, got married, moved along with her life. That series ran to over 30 books between 1932 and 1967, with one new title (finished by another author) released in the late 1990s and the 39th book published in 2012.

Nancy and Judy were approximate contemporaries, Trixie came a bit later. Years before them all, books were being written about teenage and young adult girl detectives. This article linked below is a good introduction to some of the most popular. The social and historical root-stock - the Women's Suffrage movement and the First World War, for example - were particularly interesting as (I almost blush to confess) I had not considered how the great social changes of the early 20th century would naturally have been reflected in books for girls as much as for any other audience.

I've read some of the authors discussed in this article, but not heard of others that were likely quite popular in my grandmothers' youth. More books to seek out and add to my teetering To-Be-Read pile!

The Secret History of the Girl Detective

Who's your favourite girl detective?  

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Great new review for Maddie from a fellow mystery author

From Eileen Coughlan, author of Grizzly Lies and Dying By Degrees

"Maddie is an original and engaging main character, who is just naughty and driven enough to be believable and highly likable. What’s more, the story is full of delightful surprises that keep the reader turning pages"

 Read the full review on Amazon

Full Disclosure: Eileen was my writing instructor at an AWCS workshop back in 2003, and pointed out a fatal flaw in my first full-length mystery manuscript. She was correct. Although 'Tea & Tommyguns" made the longlist for the Unhanged Arthur a few years later, it did not progress further and was never published. Looking back, I can see the structural flaws more clearly, and am sometimes tempted to revise it, bringing to bear all the craft skills hard-learned in the intervening decade.

Christmas in Cairo

Miss Maddie Hatter, foreign fashion reporter for the London Fog & Cog, passes the Christmas of 1898 at Shepheard's Hotel Anglaise in Cairo. 

Picture the hotel's lovely Egyptian-inspired dining room all dressed up in English holiday finery while you read the excerpt below:

The hotel’s little orchestra played Christmas music at every possible occasion, until Maddie began to prowl the streets around the hotel, ever surrounded by loudly begging children just to escape from the relentless tunes. The British baron and his war-hero guest were present at every festivity. The former was fond of talking about his quest for a fabulous treasure. Maddie tried in vain to interest CJ in a serial story of his proposed adventure. Surely expeditions in search of legendary treasures would interest readers more than the exact style of ascot the royal relation had worn this week

On Christmas Eve, Baron Bodmin threw a lavish dinner party. He had caused real fir trees to be flown in from somewhere, and they blazed with real candles beside every pillar in the vast dining room, dripping wax into their sand-filled tubs and onto the floor tiles. The tables were dressed with holly and ivy and fat, red candles. A sumptuous feast of roast turkey, pan gravy, and all the traditional side dishes was brought in by the steam-driven serving carts, each one attended by a human server to pile high the pre-warmed plates. This was followed by flaming puddings with the appropriate sauces. A heavy meal indeed in the summery climate

And now, a more festive image of Madame Saffron's parlour in festive apparel, as Miss Maddie, Madame Saffron, Oberon O'Reilly, and me wish you and yours a joyful, adventurous holiday season:

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

Maddie's Kindle edition is at #29 in Steampunk. Anything in the Top 100 is cause to celebrate, right?

Maddie's Marvelous Debut

While I was busy plotting and conniving to squeeze more remarkable clockwork critters into the next Maddie Hatter adventure, THIS happened:

That's right! Our delightful damsel and her high-flying pursuit of the Deadly Diamond hit the very top of the Fiction Charts in Calgary! 

Can an author BE more excited than I am today?

Maddie's in the house!

The publishing house, that is. Only six days in advance of the launch at Owls Nest Books in Calgary SW. Not that we were getting nervous or anything....

Anyway, here's the first view of the second edition. This one is lacking Robin's working drawings from the special-run conference edition (those are all gone to good homes weeks ago), but it has six lovely line drawings scattered through the text.

Soon to be available in-store at Owls Nest Books. They'll take phone or online orders, and if you can't get to the launch, ask them to hold an autographed copy for you.

More launch details coming very soon! Look for news of our wonderful musical guests!

Also available now for Kindle, Kobo, and paperback pre-order via Tyche Books, 
Chapters/Indigo,  
Barnes & Noble, 
Book Depository
and Amazon