Thirteen is the Mesdames lucky number. We invite you to the Zoom launch of our latest anthology, In the Spirit of 13, on Sunday, November 13th at 2 pm EST.
Come and meet 18 of the authors in person!
IMPORTANT: Please pre-register to attend by emailing carrickpublishing@rogers.com
We’re excited to be back for our first real world event since the start of COVID. Especially since our new anthology, In the Spirit of 13, celebrates the 10th anniversary of The Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem!
Do join us! The event is free BUT masks must be worn. It’s Halloween so do get creative!
And already a great review from Jack Batten in the Toronto Star. Jack says:
“There’s more than enough to light up and surprise readers for many nights of pleasure, some of it in easygoing whimsy.”
Read his full review here: https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/reviews/2022/10/21/round-up-four-new-crime-fiction-to-keep-you-entertained-on-long-winter-nights.html
This month the Mesdames and Monsieurs have much to be thankful for, including you, dear readers. We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary with our anthology book launch at our fave bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street, and so much more!
In the Spirit of 13, is set to release on October 30, 2022! Join us at our favourite bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto, on October 30 at 2 p.m. ET!
The Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem’s fifth anthology, In the Spirit of 13, celebrates our 10th anniversary! Ghosts and demons and booze, oh my!
For this special book, we’ve let our imaginations run wild. Does “spirit” mean a ghost – or a debunked ghost? A demon or the evil harbored in twisted hearts? Or a delusion brought on by alcohol or madness – or merely alcohol itself? Dive in and read our 23 stories to find out!
To counter the world’s dark and turbulent, times our authors have slanted their stories to the lighter side, but darkness does creep into a few of them.
We invite you to laugh, shed a tear and be thoroughly and deliciously frightened.
The ebook, In the Spirit of 13, will be available for download and purchase on Amazon, Smashwords, etc. on October 15th.
Art Taylor has a three-part series of essays featuring stories in In the Spirit of 13 on his The First Two Pages blog.
Mme Lisa’s de Nikolits’s essay about her story, “In a Land of Fear and Denial” was published on September 27th.
Mme Rosemary McCracken‘s essay about her story “The Fur Coat Conundrum” was published on October 4th.
And watch for Mme M.H. Callway‘s essay on her story “Amdur’s Ghost” on October 11th.
Old woman or little girl, woman in a dirigible or woman on her death bed, woman in history or the girl next door—we know them because their experiences are ours. Well, maybe not all their experiences…
This second anthology from members of the Canada West Chapter of Sisters in Crime finds women and girls at perilous points in their lives. From real estate agents to house cleaners, school girls to exterminators, you will find a delicious array of women, some with outrage in their hearts—and some with murder—but all of them committing or solving crimes in new and imaginative ways.
The sixteen short stories in Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Age range from light-hearted to heart-breaking, and from romantic to treacherous. All of them deal with courageous women of a certain age.
The e-book can be pre-ordered now at a discounted price. https://books2read.com/u/4DPKaP
SinC West’s second anthology, Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Age, will be published on October 15th. Mme Jayne Barnard is both an editor and a contributor.
Mme Lisa de Nikolitis‘ new novel, Everything You Dream is Real will be published by Inanna on Monday, October 17th.
Eleven years after a world war destroyed the consumer-driven, plastic-based existence of 2055, a new order of players jostles for power. Streaky electricity, ravaging drought, a scarcity of food, and deadly Monarch butterflies make for an increasingly desperate situation.
Two of Lisa‘s novels are now audiobooks on Audible: The Rage Room and The Nearly Girl.
You can watch Lisa’s interview with the narrator/reader of The Rage Room on Innana Publications’ YouTube channel.
A Conversation with Lisa de Nikolits and Scott Pietrangelo.
Mme Melissa Yi has been very busy!
Surgery, ghosts, and murder, oh my! Dr. Hope Sze faces the sin of wrath.
Melissa’s medical thriller and debut of her Hope’s Seven Deadly Sins series, The Shapes of Wrath features Dr. Hope Sze vs. the world’s deadliest surgeon at a haunted hospital.
Check it out at Kickstarter, Sept 20-Oct 18th only! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melissayi/the-shapes-of-wrath/description
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine’s September/October issue has Melissa’s story “My Two-Legs.”
Sharp Point Press has bought the Chinese language rights to her Dr. Hope Sze crime novel Scorpion Scheme.
And, Melissa was profiled in the New York Times in August for their “6 Ways You’re Coping With a Roller-Coaster Market” finance article.
Mme Cat Mills’ new documentaries, The Billboard Squad and Me, Mahmoud and the Mint Plant are blazing along the festival circuit including Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Lunenberg Documentary Festival and most recently, St. Johns International Women’s Film Festival.
She is pleased to announce that not only are both films programmed in the upcoming Planet in Focus Film Festival but she has been asked to host this year’s Master Class on October 21st at the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina.
More information: https://planetinfocus.org/
If you haven’t seen these two outstanding short docs, you can see them here or on YouTube.
The Zoom launch for the Mesdames new anthology, In the Spirit of 13, will be on Sunday, November 13th at 2 pm. The event is free but you must pre-register at carrickpublishing@rogers.com
Sisters in Crime Toronto are celebrating SinC’s 35th anniversary with a hybrid event on Thursday, September 20th, 7 pm. Members only and pre-registration is required. For more details, visit the website here.
Maple Leaf Mystery Virtual Mini-Conference takes place on December 3rd, 9 am. Registration is now open.
We hope you had a great summer holiday. September begins with a bang for the Mesdames: our last two author interviews leading up to our 10th Anniversary anthology, Jayne Barnard has a new short story and author readings by Lisa de Nikolits and Lynne Murphy.
In this interview, Donna Carrick talks to Melissa Yi, emergency physician, playwritght and award winning author of the Hope Sze medical thriller series. Look for Melissa’s latest critically acclaimed thriller, White Lightning.
Melissa also has a number of short stories to her credit, including “The Mob Bar Mob”, which will appear in In the Spirit of 13, coming Fall, 2022.
The final video of the In the Spirit of 13 interviews features Jane Petersen Burfield, author of numerous short stories, including “Requiem” from In the Key of 13, which was a finalist for the prestigious CWC Best Short Story Award.
Jane shares her writing journey with Donna Carrick and news about her new story, “Whispers” which will appear in In the Spirit of 13, coming Fall, 2022.
Check out the entire series of short interviews with the authors who make up our collective, the Mesdames of Mayhem, and our “Coming Soon!” anthology, In the Spirit of 13.
You can always find the YouTube episodes at Donna Carrick’s Dead to Writes site, under the Season 5 tab.
Lynne Murphy and Lisa de Nikolitis will be reading at Noir at the Bar Toronto on Thursday, September 29th at 7 p.m. Noir is back at the Duke of Kent pub, upstairs at 2315 Yonge St.
Jayne Barnard’s story “Crow’s Hoard” will appear in the anthology Nothing Without Us Too, to be released on September 15th. and is available for pre-order in ebook, paperback, and/or audiobook formats from Renaissance, Chapters-Indigo, Another Story Bookshop, and other online booksellers.
Nothing Without Us Too follows the theme of Nothing Without Us (a 2020 Prix Aurora Award finalist), featuring more stories by authors who are disabled, d/Deaf, Blind or visually impaired, neurodivergent, Spoonie, and/or who manage mental illness. The lived experiences of their protagonists are found across many demographics—such as race, culture, financial status, religion, gender, age, and/or sexual orientation. We want to present these stories because diversity is reality, and it belongs in literary and genre fiction.
The Mesdames and Messieurs are delighted to announce our 10th Anniversary anthology, In the Spirit of 13: A spirited crime anthology, is now available for pre-order as a Kindle Edition and an e-Pub edition via Smashwords. The ebook goes live for download on Amazon on October 15th. Stay tuned for our book launch dates in the Real World and on Zoom.
The Mesdames and Messieurs are delighted to announce our 10th Anniversary anthology, In the Spirit of 13: A spirited crime anthology, (Carrick Publishing, 2022) is now available for pre-order as a Kindle Edition and an e-Pub edition via Smashwords.
This week Donna Carrick‘s Dead to Writes Podcast features Marilyn Kay, author of short stories, including “Rise Up”, which will appear in In the Spirit of 13, coming Fall, 2022.
This week we feature Donna Carrick, author of “The First Excellence”, “Gold And Fishes”, “The Noon God” as well as numerous short stories, including “Beloved Ink”, which will appear in In the Spirit of 13, coming Fall, 2022. Donna is also, along with her husband, Alex, co-owner and publisher at Carrick Publishing, as well as the host of Dead to Writes, the Podcast.
Attendance is FREE but you must register through Eventbrite. The Mesdames and Messieurs are on several panels!
Our own Melodie Campbell has written her share of fantasy, funny crime capers and twisted stories. Today she shares a fairytale come true about her own life. Come listen to her CBC Radio 1 interview on 99.1 about her own happy ending with her new husband, Mike O’Connell. The interview with CBC’s Gil Deacon airs today, Friday, August 5, 2022, on Here and Now Toronto at 5:50 p.m.
This week we feature Rosalind Place, author of many short stories, including “A Faint Disturbance of Hope”, which will appear in In the Spirit of 13, coming Fall, 2022. In this interview, Donna Carrick explores with Rosalind how writing a novel has helped her hone her short stories into poetic gems.
Mesdames of Mayhem 