Greetings Readers!

June is another super-busy month for the Mesdames with loads of reading events,  publication news. But first, the biggest news for 2018:

13 CLAWS WINS THE ARTHUR ELLIS!!!

Thursday, May 24th was   Carrick Publishing’s night!

For almost a decade, Carrick Publishing has been a huge supporter of Canadian crime writers and given first voice to promising new authors like Elle MacPherson, winner of the 2017 Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award.

A huge THANK YOU and mega hug to Donna and Alex Carrick, the publishers of the Mesdames three anthologies.

Big congrats and hugs go to Mme Catherine Astolfo for WINNING this year’s Arthur Ellis Best Short Story Award for her terrifying tale, “The Outlier”. Jack Batten, the Toronto Star crime fiction reviewer, praised it as scary enough to give Paul Bernardo pause!

And heart-felt congratulations also go to our Arthur Ellis finalists, Mmes Jane Burfield, M. H. Callway and Sylvia Warsh! 

Sylvia Warsh

M. H. Callway

Jane Burfield

To read Cathy’s story and the amazing work by more than a dozen of Canada’s leading crime writers, buy a copy of 13 Claws today. It’s available on Amazon, Smashwords, Apple and in print form from our favorite bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street.

MORE NEWS!

Cheryl Freedman

The Bony Blithe Minicon took place with great fun and success on Friday, May 25th. This year’s winner of the Bony Blithe prize is E. C. Bell for Dying on Second. Enjoy write-ups of the festival on E.C. Bell’s blog here and the Bony Blithe homepage here. This award, for mysteries that make you smile, was created and is run by Mmes Cheryl Freedman and Caro Soles.

Limestone Expo was held on May 26-27th in Kingston with several Mesdames and fellow Sisters in Crime participating on panels, such as “What makes a Great Whodunnit?” and “Film Tropes are Killing my Prose”.  A good time was had by M. H. Callway, Lisa De Nikolits, Marilyn Kay, Rosemary McCracken, Ed Piwowarczyk and Madona Skaff.  Great write-up of the event on Rosemary’s blog, Kingston on My Mind, here and loads of photos on the SinC website thanks to hard-working Marilyn!

Madona Skaff

Marilyn Kay

Lisa De Nikolits

Ed Piwowarczyk

WE GROW AGAIN!

We’re delighted that Catherine Astolfo has returned to the Mesdames from retirement. We look forward to more of her dark fiction.

And we welcome Monsieur, Kevin Thornton, whose stories and novels have been short-listed many times for the Arthur Ellis Award. Check out Kevin’s bio on the right side of this page!

New Publications and Congratulations!

Mme. Melodie Campbell’s new favourite short story. “A Ship Called Pandora”, appears in the June issue of Mystery Weekly.

Mystery Weekly is a Canadian publisher recognized by the Mystery Writers of America. All stories are eligible for consideration for the Edgar Award.

To learn more about this exciting new publication, to subscribe and to read some great new stories, check out their Mystery Weekly website.

Caro Soles

Mme Caro Soles’ new thriller, People Like Us, will be released this fall and here is the engaging cover!

How well do you know your friends? At a cottage reunion of old university pals, a telephone call threatens their tightly knit circle. Long-buried secrets being to crack their perfect lives wider and wider until one buckles under the pressure and slides headlong into murder.

EVENTS AND READINGS!

On Tuesday, June 5th, 2 pm, Mmes Catherine Dunphy, M.H. Callway, Lisa De Nikolits and Marilyn Kay will tell their audience why Canadian women are rocking the mystery world. The event takes place at the Beaches Public Library, Program Room, 2161 Queen St. East, Toronto.

On Saturday, June 9th, Mme Sylvia Warsh will be one of the authors of What’s Your Story, North York and Scarborough? This celebration of reading and writing in North York and Scarborough will be hosted by award-winning author Catherine Hernandez.

The afternoon event takes place at Victoria Village Library, 184 Sloane Avenue, Toronto.

Sylvia will be reading from her North York story at 1:15 pm. At 2:30 pm, Catherine Hernandez will hold a workshop Decolonizing Writing Practice, to help authors find truth in their own literary voice. And at 3 pm there will be a Publisher Speed Dating event with Quattro Books, Guernica Editions, Dundurn Press, Cormorant Books, ECW Press and Inanna Publications. For more information visit the open book website here.

Also , on Saturday, June 9th, 11 am to 3 pm, Mmes Rosemary McCracken and Caro Soles will join fellow CWC authors Anita Arvast, Anna Dowdall, Judy Penz Sheluk and Jennifer Soosar  at Chapters / Indigo, 3900 Highway 7, Unit 1, Woodbridge. The event is part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Crime Writers of Canada.

On Tuesday, June 12th, 2 pm,  Mme M. H. Callway will be giving her popular, How to Get Published, workshop at the Beaches Library, 2161 Queen Street East, Toronto. And on Tuesday, June 19th, 6 pm, she will be give the same workshop as a guest of Rosemary McCracken’s novel writing course at George Brown College.

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2 pm, Mme Caro Soles, will be giving a talk on the Pitfalls of Writing Historical Fiction, also at the Beaches Library, 2161 Queen Street East, Toronto.

On Thursday, June 21st, 7 pm,  Mme Melodie Campbell joins fellow comedy writers Janet Bolin, Elizabeth Duncan and Steve Shrott for a Die Laughing panel at the Northern District Library, 40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto. Moderated by Lynn Macpherson.

Also on Thursday, June 21st, 5:30 to 7 pm, Lisa De Nikolits joins writers, Sky Curtis and Mary Lou Dickinson for an authors’ event at Sleuth of Baker Street, 907 Millwood Rd, Toronto.

COMING UP ON DEAD TO WRITES

June 1: Interview with renowned host of Conversations LIVE Cyrus Webb and reading of “Watermelon Weekend”, Donna Carrick, nominated for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Best Short Story Award, featured in Thirteen by the Mesdames of Mayhem, Carrick Publishing, 2013.

June 3: Interview with author Lizbeth Meredith (Pieces of Me) and short story reading of “Corner Store”, Donna Carrick.

June 10: Interview with author Michael Jecks (the Knights Templar series) and reading of short story “Appearances”, Donna Carrick, North on the Yellowhead, Carrick Publishing.

June 17: Interview with author Jennifer Berg (the Elliot Bay mystery series) and reading of “Delights in Novelty”, Brad Ling, World Enough and Crime, Carrick Publishing.

June 24: Interview with Canadian Crime writer Dee Wilson and reading of “July is Hell”, Mme Melodie Campbell, Thirteen, Carrick Publishing.