DEAR READERS,
April brings you new books and stories, a new Bony Blithe Mini-Con, a play based on The Italian Cure, and Noir at the Bar is back!
CONGRATULATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
Mme Catherine Astolofo’s new book, Auntie Beers, is coming this April, from Carrick Publishing. Auntie Beers is a collection of short stories of the old country, presented as memoirs. It is an amalgam of tales told to the author by her mother, as well as a mystery that she couldn’t resist.
Narrated in the voice of Great-Aunt Bairbre, who fled southern Ireland with her sister and brother-in-law and their family in search of a better life. Auntie Beers is rich, poignant, and tinged with the longing for a past embellished with love. History, or herstory, as revealed in these stories, is all the more gilded with the passage of time.
Mme Sylvia Warsh’s new novel, The Orphan, will be published May 15 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
When his mother drowns in the Potomac in 1844, 15-year-old Samuel loses the will to live and falls gravely ill. He is saved by an experimental drug that makes him so sensitive to his environment that he can communicate with animals. He sets out to prove his mother didn’t commit suicide, helped by encounters with numerous animals. The Orphan is set in pre-Civil War Washington against the backdrop of slavery. https://www.amazon.ca/Orphan-Sylvia-M-Warsh/dp/B0CW24VNQ9/
There will be a launch of The Orphan on Sunday May 5th, 2:00 pm at Sleuth of Baker Street Bookstore, 907 Millwood Road, Leaside. There will be cake!
Mme Melissa Yi is launching her first YA Kickstarter on April 23rd for The Red Rock Killer. This is the book that won the scholarship from the International Thriller Writers, judged by R.L. Stine. Any followers hugely appreciated! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melissayi/red-rock
And her story “The Crocodile of the Lachine Canal” appears in Thrill Ride Magazine’s Sisters-In Arms:
Mme Madona Skaff has an essay included in the anthology: Women Take the Conn– a collection of essays about the women of Star Trek, written by women authors. She writes about Number One, the female first officer from the original series’ pilot.
Women Take the Conn is available on Amazon.
MESDAMES ON THE MOVE
Great news! Rob Brunet is back home and Noir at the Bar Toronto is back. The launch date is Thursday, April 25th, 7 p. m., at the Duke of Kent, 2315 Yonge St., Toronto. The first new Noir will feature two Mesdames: Mme M. H. Callway is Rob’s guest co-host and Mme Sylvia Warsh will read from her new book, The Orphan.
Mme Sylvia Warsh will be talking about The Orphan at the Toronto Sisters in Crime meeting on April 18th.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Bony Blithe Mini-Con website is now live, so hie yourselves, criminous ladies and gents, over to http://www.bonyblithe.ca (note we are a .ca now) and register. You can download the fillable PDF registration form and send it back to info@bonyblithe.ca.
The mini-con is on Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the High Park Club, 100 Indian Road, Toronto. We’ll be on the second floor of the club.
The cost is $85 and you can pay by Paypal/Visa/MC (please add $3) or Interac e-transfer (send the e-transfer to info@bonyblithe.ca). If you registered in 2019/2020 and left your money with us, you are paid in full, but please fill out a registration form and click on the “Paid in 2019/2020” button.
There’ll be lunch plus morning and afternoon nibblies as well as coffee and tea. Cash bar. Bring a book bag with you because we’ll have lots of giveaway books from previous BB years.
AUTHORS: Unfortunately, we won’t have a book dealer at the con, so if you want to sell your books, please send us some ideas of how we can facilitate this. Also, if you are a published author and want to be on a panel (sorry, no guarantees with a panel assignment, but we’ll do our best to accommodate you), let us know what you’re comfortable discussing.
For more info, contact us at info@bonyblithe.ca.
Port Washington Library, Long Island New York performance of Mme Melodie Campbell’s The Italian Cure!
Rehearsals start now for performances in June by the Books for Dessert club ( a club for adults with disabilities on Long Island). In The Italian Cure, Charlie, the main character, has a sister who has Cerebral Palsy and is in a wheelchair. Charlie writes to her beloved little sister every night, during her tour of Italy. https://www.amazon.ca/Italian-Cure-Melodie-Campbell/dp/1459821122
Stay tuned for more details and pictures!!
CWC AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
The date for the announcement of the CWC Awards of Excellence shortlists is now firmed up. It’s Friday, April 26th.
COMING SOON
The cover reveal of our new anthology The 13th Letter will be in our May newsletter. Stand by for an intriguing image and even more intriguing tales of mayhem, mystery and murder when our book is published Fall, 2024.
THIS MONTH’S STORY
Our April story is “The Doll House” by Mme Cat Mills which first appeared in In the Spirit of 13 (Carrick Publishing). The story is Cat’s debut mystery. In the story, a young woman discovers the key to a childhood mystery through her haunted doll house.
Mesdames of Mayhem 