My award for winning the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Short Story Award of Excellence. I think CWC was hoping to hand the awards out at this year’s in-person ceremony, which turned out to be online again. So they mailed out the awards at the same time as the 2022 awards. Ain’t she purty?
This summer, not only am I attending When Words Collide, I’m participating on two crime fiction panels:
Friday, August 12 at 5 p.m. Mountain time, I’ll be a panelist on Western Voices Hitting the Shelves.
Saturday, August 13 at 3 p.m. Mountain time, I’ll be chatting with other panelists about Running the Obstacle Course–all about the external and internal obstacles that keep us from writing.
Do join us. It’s free but you must register. Go to www.whenwordscollide.org/ for information on how to register, programming, merchants table, etc. It’s going to be a blast!
Here’s how the organizers describe WWC: “The festival is designed to bring readers and writers together in a celebration of the written word. Up to 10 tracks of programming, beginning at 1 PM on Friday and running through 5 PM Sunday, offer informational, educational, and social activities covering a wide spectrum of literature including Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Literary, Script-writing, Poetry, Comics, and Non-fiction.”
I’m very pleased that my story, “Road Trip,” is in this month’s Mystery Magazine. In “Road Trip,” Cass is driving like a madwoman from Whitehorse to Calgary to be with her daughter who is in labour. Along the way, she comes across a young woman running from her abusive boyfriend. “Road Trip” is based on a true story. Well, partly.
This month’s magazine features cover art by Robin Grenville Evans and stories by: Kelsey Hutton, Jackie Sherbow, George Guthridge, Melodie Desmond, Mark Thielman, Hunter Liguore, Edward Lodi, and John H. Dromey. I look forward to reading them all!
Last week, Erik D’Souza of Crime Writers of Canada interviewed me about my CWC Award of Excellence-nominated novella, Identity Withheld. Erik is a lovely host and has done (and is continuing to do) a series of these interviews with CWC members. Here’s my interview:
He’s posted the series (nine at last count) on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Crime.Writers.Canada/videos/945217846172179/. Check it out if you want to hear from Linwood Barclay, Delee Fromm, Patricia Barnsley, Elizabeth Elwood, Melissa Yi, Noah Hendley, Rosemary McCracken, or Sam Wiebe.
Well, the title says it all, really. I found out last week, via YouTube, that my novella, Identity Withheld, has been short-listed for a Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence. The winners will be announced on May 26 on YouTube.
Identity Withheld is set in Fredericton (because I love Fredericton) and features Cleo, a young woman called back to Fredericton when her parents’ car is forced into the river. Her parents’ past has finally caught up with them.
You can find a full list of the award nominees here. As you will see, I am in good company! And just in case you didn’t know, I won last year’s CWC Award of Excellence for my short story, “Cold Wave,” in Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology.
