Welcome back, Readers!

Hope you had a great summer holiday. Hard to believe it’s already September with this hot weather, but Fall is here and the Mesdames are back on the move with book news, readings and events. And we’re happy to report recognition for our authors, too!

September has one of the year’s most important writing events, Toronto’s annual Word on the Street. The Mesdames will be back hosting their own table and will be helping out at tables sponsored by Crime Writers of Canada and Sisters in Crime. Do pay us a visit! 

 

SHOUT-OUTS AND RECOGNITION!

Mme Melodie Campbell received a glowing review in the September/October 2018 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for her very funny thriller, The B Team: The Case of the Angry First Wife. Here’s what the reviewer had to say:

“the Canadian literary heir to Donald Westlake”

“The Toronto Sun calls her the Canadian “Queen of Comedy,” but I like to think of her as the Canadian literary heir to Donald Westlake. After five books featuring mafia goddaughter Gina Gallo, Campbell has launched this spin-off series about a bumbling team of vigilante heroes led by Gina’s cousin Del and seventy-something-year-old former cat burglar Great Aunt Kitty. The fast-paced humor is characterized by situations that are simultaneously madcap and bizarrely banal.”

 

Mme Lisa De Nikolits is thrilled that her existentialist thriller, No Fury Like That, is short- listed for The 2018 Very Best Fiction Award by the Miramichi Reader, Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers!

And her upcoming book, Rotten Peaches, received a rave review from Karen Dionne, the best-selling author of The Marsh King’s Daughter. Karen writes:

“Wow. Just wow. Lisa de Nikolits’ Rotten Peaches blew me away. A dark, compulsive, and addictive story in which the characters’ secrets and needs conflict with each other and fold back in on themselves in an ever-tightening noose, Rotten Peaches will keep readers gripped until the very last page. Highly recommended!”

Rotten Peaches launches at the Women’s Art Association of Canada, 23 Prince Arthur St, October 25th.

BOOK READINGS AND EVENTS!

The Women Killing It Festival in Picton, Ontario is coming up fast. This Labour Day weekend, August 31st to September 2nd, meet Mmes Cathy Astolfo and Caro Soles and many other fine Canadian crime women writers in beautiful Prince Edward County. Events include workshops, readings and a Victorian Tea.

Full details are on the Women Killing It festival’s website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, September 20, Mme Cathy Dunphy leads the panel of Mmes Melodie Campbell, Lisa De Nikolits, Marilyn Kay and Rosemary McCracken to discuss crime fiction and international affairs with the Mississauga University Women’s Club. This is a private event.

 

On Saturday, September 22nd, 4 pm, Mme Lisa de Nikolits will participate in a Panel discussion at Broken Pencil’s Canzine Toronto: Festival of Zines and Underground Culture with authors A.G. Pasquella, Brian Busby and more. The panel’s topic:  The Noir Small Press Resurgence: Anxiety, depravity, depression and, of course, hardboiled entertainment! Why noir is now a small press staple!

On September 28th and 29th, Lisa will be attending the Fog Lit Festival in St John, New Brunswick. She will be doing a group reading on Friday, Sept 28th, 7 pm and leading a workshop, The ABC’s to Better Writing, Saturday, Sept 29th at 9 am.

 

WORD ON THE STREET! Sunday, September 23rd

 

 

 

 

The Mesdames of Mayhem are back in 2018 hosting their own table at this annual event for book lovers. Mmes Jane Burfield, Lisa De Nikolits, Cathy Dunphy, Marilyn Kay, Rosemary McCracken, Lynne Murphy, Sylvia Warsh and M. Ed Piwowarczyk will be on hand to tell readers about the Mesdames, to sell our award-winning anthology, 13 Claws, and of course, books by our authors. Come visit us in the Writers Block at table WB 7 from 10 am to 5 pm.

And be sure to visit Mme Caro Soles at the Bloody Words Mini-con booth, WB 12.

 

PUBLICATION NEWS!

Coffin Hop Press’s noir anthology, The Dame Was Trouble launched in Calgary at the When Worlds Collide convention. All copies sold out!! The book is now available on Amazon.ca,  Mmes M. H. Callway and Melodie Campbell are thrilled to be in the line-up which includes: Gail Bowen, Kelly Armstrong, Elle McPherson and Jayne Bernard.

More good news from Mme Melodie Campbell. The seventh book in her hilarious Goddaughter series will be published by Orca Books in January 2019. We can’t wait to read Gina’s (mis)adventures in The Goddaughter Does Vegas.

 

SAVE THE DATE!

Our fourth anthology, In the Key of Thirteen, is underway. And we’re delighted to announce the second contest for new authors previously unpublished in crime fiction.

The contest will open in October with deadline for submission, March 1, 2019. Rules will follow in our October Mesdames on the Move. All emerging authors welcome. Good Luck!!

COMING UP ON DEAD TO WRITES

September 2: Interview with literary author B.R. Stateham, (A Taste of Old Revenge, There Are No Innocents). #ReadersOnTheRun short story: “Invasion” by Mme Donna Carrick, North on the Yellowhead,  Carrick Publishing

September 9: Interview with author Kate Raphael (Murder Under the Bridge). Short story reading of “Cover Girl”, flash fiction by Mme Melodie Campbell, from World Enough and Crime, Carrick Publishing, 2014

September 16: Interview Joan Hicks Boone (The Best Girl). Short story: “Axe husband”, by Mme Donna Carrick, North on the Yellowhead,  Carrick Publishing

September 23: Interview with author Tina Wolff (Exacting Justice). Short story: “Runaway” by Joan O’Callaghan, from World Enough and Crime, Carrick Publishing, 2014

September 30: Interview with true crime author Nate Hendley (The Boy on the Bicycle). Short story reading TBD.