This is the inaugural blog of the merry Mesdames of Mayhem! Since the Mesdames have named me, M. H. Callway, as the erstwhile founder of our autonomous collective, it is my honour and privilege to pen this our first entry.

And just in case, here is the definition of an autonomous collective via Monty Python:

We are a group of fourteen crime fiction authors. One of us is the winner of the prestigious Edgar, awarded by the Mystery Writers of America. Several of us are winners and finalists of the Arthur Ellis awards, Canada’s national prizes in the field of crime fiction.

Some of us are winners and finalists of the Bony Pete, sponsored by Bloody Words, Canada’s national conference for crime writing. And finalists for the famous Debut Dagger.

For details on our awards and publications, do check out our bios!

We writers are living through a revolution in book publishing with the advent of the e-book and digital distribution. Our greatest challenge is how to connect with you, our readers.

Bookstores are vanishing – even as hoped-for showrooms for e-books – how will readers discover new authors? How will readers learn that a treasured author has a new book out? Find out where to meet their favorite authors?

Stayed tuned to this site! The Mesdames will be most happy to share with you, dear reader, where and how to find our latest books. And book launches and other events where we can meet each other.

This fall, the Mesdames will be showcasing their talents in the upcoming short story anthology, Thirteen for 2013. We’ll be sharing with you our challenges in putting this magnum opus together.

An exciting event will take place on April 18th in several cities across Canada: the Arthur Ellis shortlist event. This is the date when we discover which books by Canadian crime writers are up for awards in 2013.

Many of the Mesdames have books and stories in the running. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for happy announcements on this site in ten days time!