Happy New Year, Dear Readers!
Zoom conferences and virtual book launches became a thing of the past as the Mesdames and Messieurs stormed back into the real world in 2023. This was our year of the conference and writers’ festivals.
And 2023 was our year of recognition, too. Many of us were honoured for our published writing both in Canada through the CWC Awards of Excellence and the Aurora Awards and in the USA via the Derringer, Macavity and Claymore Awards!
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
CONGRATS TO MELISSA!
Melissa Yi had another stellar year in 2023. Her short story, “My Two Legs”, published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2022, WON the prestigious Derringer Award for Best Short Story in the “short” category. And it was a finalist for the Macavity Award, sponsored by Mystery Readers International!
Her fantasy poem, “Rapunzel in the Desert”, published in On Spec, Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, Issue 122 WON Canada’s Aurora Award for Best Poem or Song. It was reprinted in the Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, Vol. 1.
And her YA novel, Edan Sze vs the Red Rock Serial Killer was a runner-up for the Killer Nashville Claymore Award for Best Juvenile YA.
CWC AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE!
Three of us, M. H. Callway, Blair Keetch and Sylvia Warsh received nominations for the CWC Awards of Excellence for Best Short Story: Mme Mad for her dark comedy, “Must Love Dogs – or You’re Gone”, published in the UK anthology, GONE (Red Dog Press); Blair Keetch for his chilling supernatural crossover tale, “To Catch a Kumiho”; and Sylvia Warsh for her equally scary story, “The Natural Order of Things” which appeared in EQMM, May/June 2022.
M. H. Callway‘s novella, Amdur’s Ghost, was a finalist for the CWC Award of Excellence for Best Novella. She is the second CWC member to be nominated in two categories in the same year. The first was acclaimed Canadian mystery writer, the late Peter Robinson!
Blair’s story, “To Catch a Kumiho” and Mme Mad’s novella, Amdur’s Ghost, both appeared in our latest anthology, In the Spirit of 13! (Carrick Publishing, 2022)
GUESTS OF HONOUR!
Melodie Campbell, our own Queen of Comedy, was a featured Canadian author at MOTIVE, the new annual crime fiction festival sponsored by the Toronto International Festival of Authors.
Melodie was interviewed by leading Canadian crime writer, Maureen Jennings, just before she officially launched her new historical crime series, The Merry Widow Murders (Cormorant Press). She was on the panel, Comic Crime Capers, and taught a master class on writing comedy mysteries!
Lisa De Nikolits was back as a featured Canadian crime writer for a second year at MOTIVE. She interviewed award-winning crime fiction authors, Dietrich Kalteis and Sam Wiebe, who both live and write in western Canada.
Lisa also curated, led and participated in several literary reading events. And she represented Canadian crime writers at Shetland Noir, the conference founded by Dame Ann Cleeves, author of the popular Shetland series.
ANOTHER GREAT FILM!
Cat Mills, our tireless documentarian, released another great film this year, Do You Hear What I Hear? Cat’s film examines the ongoing problem of noise pollution in our urban environment.
Do You Hear What I Hear? premiered at the 2023 Hot Docs Festival. View it on CBC Gem.
CONFERENCES AND WRITERS’ FESTIVALS
ONTARIO LIBRARY ASSOCIATION SUPERCONFERENCE
The OLA Super-conference returned to the real world in 2023. Lisa De Nikolits presented her latest novel, Everything You Dream is Real, to attendees on February 3, 2023.
LEFT COAST CRIME, TUCSON, ARIZONA
In 2022, Left Coast Crime, Albuquerque, became one of the first real-world crime writers’ conferences after COVID. More than 200 authors and fans celebrated LLC’s return at the time. Trouble in Tucson was another smashing success: it felt like COVID had never happened.
M. H. Callway was honored to be on the panel, Noir, Can it be too Dark? with distinguished authors, Wayne Johnson and Matt Phillips, moderated by the inimitable, David Boop.
WORD ON THE STREET
Toronto’s annual book festival, Word on the Street, returned on the May 27-28th weekend, to Queen’s Park.
Caro Soles once again shared a booth with The Mesdames of Mayhem and her friend, gothic horror author Nancy Kilpatrick. Booth duties were shared by M. H. Callway, Lisa De Nikolits, Blair Keetch, Lynne Murphy, Rosemary McCracken and Sylvia Warsh. Lynne sold a book to a very special fan!
MOTIVE: TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF AUTHORS
The Toronto International Festival of Authors once again celebrated leading international crime writers from June 2 to 4th. Melodie Campbell and Lisa de Nikolits were two of the featured Canadian authors!
Crime Writers of Canada hosted a booth for book sales and sponsored readings by several CWC members, including Blair Keetch, Lynne Murphy, Rosemary McCracken and Sylvia Warsh.
SHETLAND NOIR, JUNE 15-18TH
Lisa de Nikolits was honored to be part of Shetland Noir, the international crime writers conference founded by Dame Ann Cleeves, creator of the famous Shetland mysteries and the very popular Vera Stanhope police procedurals. Guest authors included internationally renowned authors Val McDermid, Richard Osman and Martin Edwards.
Lisa moderated the panel When You Don’t Know Who to Trust.
WHEN WORDS COLLIDE, CALGARY
The multi-genre conference, When Words Collide, returned to the real world from August 2 to 6, 2023. This was supposed to be the last conference, but happily, founder, Randy McBride, announced that WWC will now be run by the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society.
Mmes Mad and Madona Skaff participated on several panels including 50 Shades of Mystery, Short vs. Long Fiction, Plotting, Getting Published, Writing Groups and Keeping a Series Fresh. Madona also was part of the Blue Pencil Cafe to help emerging writers.
FAN EXPO, AUGUST 24 TO 27TH
Our Queen of the multiverse, Caro Soles, who writes crime, speculative fiction, literature and erotica, hosted a booth at Fan Expo with her friend, gothic author, Nancy Kilpatrick.
It’s rumored that more than 100,000 fans attended in 2023. Caro and Nancy braved the crushing crowds – and sold a ton of books!!
FAB BOOK LAUNCHES
SNAKE OIL LAUNCHES AT SLEUTH OF BAKER STREET!
Some of the best news in 2023 was Sleuth of Baker Street’s decision to continue, for the foreseeable future, as a used book store. Marion, JD and of course, Pixie and Prince, have found that the present arrangement works for them. Sleuth’s is the perfect store to find that rare edition you’ve always wanted and they’ll happily order new books for you, too.
Sleuth may also host book launches and other events upon request.
With huge thanks to Donna Carrick of Carrick Publishing, Mme Mad launched her second collection of short crime fiction, Snake Oil and Other Tales (Carrick Publishing) at Sleuth’s on Saturday, November 4th. The bookstore was packed and Mad sold out of copies!
THE MERRY WIDOW MURDERS LAUNCHES AT A DIFFERENT DRUMMER
Together with fellow author, Vicki Delany, Melodie held a launch and book reading event for The Merry Widow Murders on September 9th at Burlington bookstore, A Different Drummer. As promised, there was lots of cake!
MELISSA LAUNCHES HER NEW SERIES
Melissa Yi successfully crowdfunded the first book in her new Dr. Hope Sze series, based on the seven deadly sins
She launched The Shapes of Wrath via social media on February 6th.
WORKSHOPS AND READINGS
The Mesdames participated in numerous book reading events, podcasts and social media events in 2023. Full details in WoW What a Year, Part 2. Following are some highlights.
TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Toronto Public Library faced several challenges in 2023, not the least of which was getting hacked by black hats late in the year. They did not pay the ransom and are rebuilding their systems, aiming to have them up and running in early 2024.
TPL is also rebuilding its live workshops and the Mesdames and Messieurs were there to help by sharing their secrets of crime writing at Alderwood, Beaches, Gerrard Street and Parliament Street branches. Big thanks to Lisa De Nikolits, MH Callway, Blair Keetch, Lynne Murphy, Rosemary McCracken and Caro Soles.
TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY
Toronto Reference Library invited the Crime Writers of Canada to speak about Canadian crime fiction on December 12th. MH Callway and Rosemary McCracken joined authors Jass Aujla, T. Lawrence Davis and Kris Purdy to talk about Killing It with Style. Rosemary created the questions and moderated.
CRIME WRITING IN A COLD CLIMATE
Lynne Murphy was engaged by Senior Adult Services, Toronto Annex, to teach four weekly classes from June 2 to 23rd about Canadian crime fiction.
Assisted by M. H. Callway, Rosemary McCracken, Melodie Campbell and new Mme Lorna Poplak, Lynne presented the works of Canada’s best-known authors, like Peter Robinson and Louise Penny and explored the gamut of current crime fiction from police procedurals to cozies to historicals – and even true crime.
WRITERS WORKSHOP, ROUGE RIVER COMMUNITY CENTRE
On November 11th, Rosemary McCracken was a teacher at the one-day workshop, So You Want to Write a Book, sponsored by the Rouge River Community Centre, Markham.
In addition to participating in panels, Rosemary led a break-out session for emerging writers.
READING VENUES…
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK – BREWS AND CLUES
Des Ryan, retired police detective turned crime writer, founded, Brews and Clues, a monthly reading series for CWC members in September 2023. Blair Keetch read at the inaugural meeting at Stout Irish Pub in Toronto followed by M. H. Callway in December. The series will continue into 2024.
FAREWELL TO NOIR AT THE BAR
Rob Brunet and Hope Thompson announced that they are taking a break after many years of running the popular reading series. The last Toronto Noir at the Bar took place at The Duke of Kent on April 27th and M. H. Callway and Rosemary McCracken were honored to be among the readers. Hope continued Queer Noir at the Bar as part of Pride Month in June.
A huge thank you to Rob Brunet and Hope Thompson for their support of Canadian crime writers – and the Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem.
AND A BIG HUG AND THANK YOU TO:
Marilyn Kay and Roz Place for keeping our newsletter running!
Mesdames of Mayhem 