Dear Readers, We’ve got lots of fantastic reading coming your way this February. Books, anthologies and more ways to reach out to you, including Open Mics, a book launch at MOTIVE, an online workshop and Substack.
CONGRATULATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
Exciting news!
The 13th Letter is short-listed for the Derringer Award for Best Anthology! WOW! This is the first year anthologies have been a category.
Really cool, too: Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology which contains Mme Melodie Campbell’s story also made the cut. As did fellow Canadian, Judy Sheluk’s Larceny and Last Chances.
Mme Lisa Nikolits’s story “Time to Fly”, will be published in Devouring Tomorrow, an anthology of speculative short fiction imagining our world in a food-insecure future. In “Time to Fly”, Lisa imagines how centrifuge equipment can be used to induce the sensory experience of reliving the food of one’s youth after the larders of the world are depleted and nature can no longer support human life. Devouring Tomorrow is now available for pre-order here: https://bit.ly/3DLi5yv
Mme M.H. Callway is delighted that her noir thriller story, “The Lost Diner”, has been accepted for publication by Pulp Literature magazine, date TBA. Pulp Literature is a Canadian quarterly literary journal based in British Columbia that loves great storytelling in genre fiction.
Mme Melissa Yi has started 2025 with a blast. Her story, “Evil EX, Silly Whys and the Hole of DOOM” appears in Through the Portal, Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia. In her tale, Melissa imagines having the superpower of silliness. Amazon.ca : through the portal tales from a hopeful dystopia
Mme Rosalind Place is happy to announce that Dastardly Damsels, the anthology that includes her story “ Too Close to the Edge”, won Best Anthology in the Critters Annual Readers Poll 2024. The Readers’ Poll honors print and electronic publications published during 2024 in a wide variety of categories. https://critters.org/index.php
Mme Melissa Yi has started 2025 with a blast. Her story, “Evil EX, Silly Whys and the Hole of DOOM” appears in Through the Portal, Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia. In her tale, Melissa imagines having the superpower of silliness. Amazon.ca : through the portal tales from a hopeful dystopia
Her first poetry pub of 2025, “Deviance” is in Polar Borealis, editor, Richard Graeme Cameron. Download is free here: POLAR-BOREALIS-32-January-2025.pdf.
Melissa was also interviewed on Season 9, Episode 21 of Crime Café by NYT bestselling author, Debbi Mack. Here’s the audio link: Crime Cafe – Season Nine – Debbi Mack
Also check her out on Substack where she writes about Magic, mystery and moxy and where you will find The KamikaSze Newsletter.
Subscribe to her SubSubstack: https://melissayi.substack.com/subscribe
And if she isn’t already busy, Melissa has started a new hockey romance novella series set in her hometown.
MESDAMES ON THE MOVE
Mmes M. H. Callway will be on The Writers Union of Canada’s Open Mic on Tuesday, February 4, at 7 p.m. This Zoom event is open to members of the TWUC. Mme Sylvia Warsh will be on Open Mic in April.
Mme Lisa de Nikolits has moved her review site, “The Minerva Reader”, now titled “A Turn of Phrase”, to Substack. The site is free and you can subscribe or follow her by clicking the down menu from the three dots. All support would be greatly appreciated. Here is the link:
lisadenikolits.substack.com/subscribe
Join Lorna Poplak on Saturday, February 15 at 2 p.m. for this free online presentation, where she will discuss the history of capital punishment in Canada. She will speak to the stories of two inmates of the Huron Historic Gaol: the public execution of Nicholas Melady and the egregious case of teenager Steven Truscott.
It’s Flashback February in the County—Prince Edward County
In this virtual presentation at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, Lorna Poplak will be discussing the grim history of the death penalty in Canada. A comparison of 2 murders in Prince Edward County, the first in the late 1800s and the second 20 years later, will highlight the inconsistent application of the death sentence.
Tickets are available at a suggested price of $10 through the Visit the County website at https://tinyurl.com/4r746zcz
Mme Melodie Campbell will be a featured author at MOTIVE Crime and Mystery festival this year, following publication of her 18th book, The Silent Film Star Murders. MOTIVE (sponsored by the Toronto International Festival of Authors) will take place June 27-29, on the campus of the University of Toronto. More details to come.
Mme Jayne Barnard is co-leading an online session for the Northern Ontario Writers Workshop on February 13 at 7 p.m.
“Shaping Sherlock and Making Moriarty” is an online workshop for the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop and the Sudbury Writer’s Guild
Taking (some) of the mystery out writing mysteries, Jayne Barnard, award winning author of the Falls Mystery novels, and Darrow Woods, finalist for a Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for his debut mystery The Book of Answers, will be your guides to exploring key aspects of the mystery genre. and trying your hands at creating compelling heroes and killer villains.
Registration information to follow.
DON’T MISS
Monthly crime fiction readings are happening at Brews and Clues on Thursday, February 13, at 6: 30 pm at Stout Irish Pub, 221 Carleton Street. Hosted by Des Ryan.
The Capital Crime Writers annual short story contest for the 2025 Audrey Jessup Award is open to writers living in the Ottawa region and all members of the CCW. Deadline is April 1st. Submission rules information is here: www.capitalcrimewriters.com
BONY BLITHE IS BACK!
Time to say to hell with winter and think ahead to the spring…and specifically to Friday, May 9 and the 2025 Bony Blithe Mini-con. And you can register right now by visiting the Bony Blithe Website www.bonyblithe.ca and following the directions there for filling in the registration form and then paying.
New this year is Dem Bones, Bony Blithe’s monthly newsletter featuring mini-con info, crime- and writing-related articles, info about our authors, games, and other fun stuff.
The 2025 Bony Blithe Mini-con will give you a day of delight and edification…to say nothing of lunch, nibblies, books to buy, signings, schmoozing, and more.
The mini-con will again be at the High Park Club, 100 Indian Road, Toronto. This year, due to popular demand, we’re back on the fully accessible first floor of the club.
We’re currently talking with a book dealer about coming, so authors will no longer have to sell their books themselves and can participate fully in the fun. More about that to come.
The mini-con will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The cost is $85 per person, and lunch and morning and afternoon snacks are included. You can pay with Paypal/Visa/Mastercard ($85 + $3 service charge) or with an e-transfer (sent to info@bonyblithe.ca).
So register now for a mysteriously grand time with our bony, bonny girl. See you on May 9 at the con.
Authors, register early so we can include news about your new books, upcoming events, awards, etc. in Dem Bones. Send your news to info@bonyblithe.ca with “Dem Bones” in the email subject line.
For more info about anything con-related, contact us at info@bonyblithe.ca.
FEBRUARY STORY
We are back to doing free short stories every month! This month’s story is by M. Kevin Thornton. “Under the Lamplight” is from our 4th anthology, In the Key of 13. Lamplight is from our 4th anthology, In the Key of 13 (Carrick Publishing).
Mesdames of Mayhem 