BOUCHERCON 2017: HOME AT LAST!

Bouchercon, the world mystery convention that took place this year in Toronto, is now in the books. I'm home after a five-hour ride on the train on Sunday, a milk run that stopped at almost every town in eastern Ontario along the way including Belleville, Kingston, Brockville, and Smiths Falls. When the train finally reached my destination a few minutes before midnight, I swear that my entire body was a vessel of pain. Oh well, that's what I get for travelling economy.

This was my first time at a Bouchercon, and I thought it was a terrific experience. Thanks go out to Helen Nelson and Janet Costello, co-chairs, who organized a great convention.

Thanks as well to the remarkable Alison Bruce, executive director of the Crime Writers of Canada, who worked incredibly hard to make this a successful event for the CWC and its individual author members such as myself. I just don't know where she gets the energy. Also, my thanks to Cathy Ace, CWC chair, for putting us in the spotlight so effectively.

If you've been following my blog during the convention, you'll know what I mean when I say that it was a great opportunity for me to sit down with fellow crime fiction authors and chew the fat. (If you haven't been following, shame on you. Go back and read them and don't be such an uncaring churl!)

I should definitely mention CWC colleagues from Ottawa, including Barbara Fradkin, Brenda Chapman, Linda Wiken/Erica Chase, Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott (ah-choo), Mike Martin, and Robin (R.J.) Harlick. It was a pleasure to see you all again and catch up on stuff. And don't worry, Mary Jane, I didn't catch your cold.

Best of all, it was an incredible opportunity to meet readers and fans of crime fiction in its various forms. To the folks from Wisconsin, Nevada, California, and Scotland, among other places, it was a pleasure to listen to you talk about your lives and passion for the mystery genre, and I appreciate your interest in hearing about my work. I wish you all safe travels home.

Finally, to my fellow Canadians who attended and supported this country's authors from Louise Penny all the way down to Michael J. McCann -- we do it best, don't we?

BOUCHERCON 2017, DAY THREE!

Day Three at Bouchercon 2017 was a very busy day for me. It started early, as I volunteered at the Crime Writers of Canada table at 8:30 a.m. to spend an hour enticing people to sign up for our newsletter and/or become a member.

The CWC was sponsoring coffee and treats in the refreshment area today, and at 10:30 a.m. I was one of several CWC authors sitting at a table chatting with fans attracted by the lovely pastries. I had a fascinating conversation with a retired couple from Mountain View, California. He was a retired NASA aerospace engineer who worked with their wind tunnel technology. When he was done telling me about his career, I told him frankly that what I do pales in comparison to what he's done. Mind-blowing stuff.

At 1:30 I was back at the CWC table signing up more readers, and at 2:30 I caught a bit of a very interesting panel discussion including Louise Penny, Mark Pryor, Heather Young and Laura McHugh on their "hidden pasts." Very entertaining.

On the way out of the hotel for a mid-afternoon break I saw Colin Cotterill and his wife sitting in the lobby, and he very graciously signed my copy of The Rat Catchers' Olympics. (Read my New York Journal of Books review here.) 

He told me he is a dog-lover and currently has seven, all street dogs he's rescued (he lives in Chumphon, Thailand). He told me he has started up a program to help stray "temple dogs," called WatDog2. They spay females, provide veterinary services, and so on. He has set up a PayPal link with the vet he uses, and they could use a little help. Colin explains the whole thing and provides the PayPal link in his website diary - you really should read this.

At 5:30 pm I was back at the CWC table for another hour-long stint. I should mention the table was managed by Alison Bruce, who's absolutely tireless. It exhausts me just thinking about how much stuff she does for the CWC.

Tonight there's live music down in the ballroom, and I think I'll slide down and give it a listen.

Tomorrow's getaway day, so I'll give you a wrap-up of the convention on Monday.

Catch you on the flip side.

ARRIVING AT BOUCHERCON!

At last, the day has arrived! This morning I drove up to the train station in Ottawa and set off for a weekend of crime fiction fun at Bouchercon 2017.

The ride to Toronto was four hours long, but I always find travelling by train to be relatively stress free. I ended up sitting next to a mystery fan who was also going to the convention. Small world!

I'm not really grumpy, just bushed.

Once I arrived at the Front Street train station in Toronto, I lugged my 90 lbs or so of luggage outside and up a few blocks to the hotel. It's been a while since I've been in this city, and it was nice to be back.

Now, as you can see from this experimental selfie taken in the station, I knew where the taxis were. So why the hang didn't I take one??? It's a mystery....

After checking in at the hotel, I registered for the convention and received my goodie bag, name tag, etc.  Good to go. Then I headed downstairs to the book dealer room to deliver my copies of SORROW LAKE and BURN COUNTRY to Sleuth of Baker Street, the local bookstore who will hopefully sell them all so I don't have to lug them home again! And darned if they didn't have copies of BLOOD PASSAGE and MARCIE'S MURDER already there from their store. Kinda nice.

While I was in the book dealer room I had my first intro and conversation with a fellow author not met before. Who do you think it was? Louise Penny. VERY nice person (my wife predicted it! yes you did, Lynn).

Oh yeah, one last thing. Here's the view from my hotel room.

Wow. Nice view.

BOUCHERCON 2017 IS COMING!

This coming week I'll be attending Bouchercon 2017 at the Sheraton Centre hotel on Queen St. in Toronto. This is the annual world mystery convention that brings together crime fiction authors, readers, publishers and booksellers for four days.

Attendees this year include Colin Cotterill, Rick Mofina, Louise Penny, Linwood Barclay and Joseph Finder, among many others.

This is the first time I'll be attending Bouchercon, so I'm very excited to see what it's all about. And I'll be pretty busy.

On Thursday, Oct. 12, the first official morning of the convention, I'll be delivering a 20-on-20 session in the VIP Room from 11:40 am to noon. I'll use my 20 minutes to talk about my work and to read a short (!) excerpt from SORROW LAKE. Will anyone show up? We'll find out!!!

I'll also be at the Crime Writers of Canada table set up outside the Book Room on Friday morning at 10:30 and Saturday morning at 8:30 (yawn!).  Then I'll move to the CWC table in the refreshment area at 10:30 am on Saturday and again at 1:30 pm.

If you're attending the convention, please stop by and say hello. If you're not attending, watch this space because I'll be posting updates every evening once I arrive in Toronto on Wednesday.

Here's hoping it'll be a great event!

The Plaid Raccoon Press Turns Four!

Today, May 11, marks the fourth anniversary of the Plaid Raccoon Press!

Four years ago today the province of Ontario, in its infinite wisdom, issued a business license to this saucy little Canadian procyonid and turned him loose on the world to publish crime fiction and supernatural fiction. Goodness knows, my living room hasn't looked the same since.

As with all anniversaries, it's a time to glance back down the winding gravel road we've been mooching along in search of entertaining stories, modest revenue, and a chance to tweak the bill of the annoying Random Penguin and his ilk whenever possible. Hard to believe we've published four novels in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series, a supernatural thriller (The Ghost Man), and Sorrow Lake, the first March and Walker Crime Novel, as well as Lynn L. Clark's debut work, The Home Child in such a short time span. Seven publications in four years! Not bad for a little ring-tailed scamp who'd rather be off raiding someone's corn crib or catching trout in the stream out back.

Of course, being an independent author has its down side. Can't get mainstream media outlets to review my novels. The largest bookstore chain in the country won't stock them on their shelves or list the paperbacks in their database. Not eligible for government grants because I don't fit their definition of a professional author.

It is what it is, right?

On the up side, my fourth Donaghue and Stainer novel, The Rainy Day Killer, was longlisted for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel in Canada, placing ahead of submissions by Margaret Atwood, Linwood Barclay, Louise Penny et al.

I get fan mail from people who've read one of my books and were sufficiently pleased by it to write me an e-mail to let me know.

I meet people at art festivals and craft shows who bought one of my books the last time I was there and have come back for another.

So never mind the disdainful newspaper editors, the elusive agents, and all the other professionals in the industry who consider independent authors such as myself to be a pox upon their house. For each one of you, I have ten who've actually read one of my novels and go out of their way to tell me they can't wait for the next one.

THAT's what it's all about, folks. 

So today we're blowing out the candles on our anniversary fishcake and making a wish for the future.

Hard to believe the Raccoon is already four. He keeps crossing the road on his way to that cornfield on the other side, and he's still fast enough to get out of the way of the trucks before they blast him into next week. Seven books in four years, and two more to come before he turns five!

And as I always say -- there's nothing else I'd rather be doing!

P.S. Don't miss this opportunity to check out our newly revamped website. The Raccoon is very proud of it, and he suggests you peek into the new webstore before you leave!!!  

Sorrow Lake - What's all this about a Canadian setting?

As spring approaches, work is underway to prepare my next novel for publication. Sorrow Lake, the first March and Walker Crime Novel, is set in eastern Ontario and features homicide investigators of the Ontario Provincial Police. The advance reading copy for review will be available next month in e-book format through NetGalley and in paperback through my imprint, The Plaid Raccoon Press.

I'm very excited to talk about this new series, which is a bit of a departure from the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series familiar to readers through Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder, The Fregoli Delusion, and The Rainy Day Killer (yes, a fifth novel in the series will eventually join them!). First and foremost, crime fiction fans will be interested to note that this Canadian crime fiction author is now using a Canadian setting for his mysteries!

Canada can proudly boast a strong lineup of home-grown crime fiction authors including Barbara Fradkin, Robert Rotenberg, Giles Blunt, and Louise Penny.  While Penny was quoted in the past as saying that “it was excruciatingly difficult to find an agent or a publisher in Canada or elsewhere interested in a procedural with a Canadian setting,”  her success with the Inspector Gamache series set in Quebec's  Eastern Townships and the popularity of Blunt's John Cardinal series set in a thinly-disguised North Bay (population 64,000) are proof that Canadian settings need not be a deterrent to success in the crime fiction market.

The OPP provides policing services to more than 300 communities in Ontario, including rural Leeds County, where Sorrow Lake is set. Homicide investigators in the force's East Region--where Detective Inspector Ellie March, one of two lead characters in the series, is assigned--investigate major crimes in a land area of  35,000 sq. km. with a population of over 900,000 people.  Stories in the series will be set not only in Leeds but in other parts of the region as well.

It's very interesting to compare the scope of this setting to, say, Iceland. Scandinavian crime fiction, still immensely popular in Canada and the US, includes bestselling, award-winning Icelandic novelists such as Yrsa Sigurdardóttir and Arnaldur Indridason. In fact, I have copies of their novels on the bookshelf in my bathroom.  How do we explain the amazing success of Icelandic crime fiction, set in a country with a population of only 323,000 people (a third of eastern Ontario)? A question for another day, but further proof that crime fiction with underpopulated settings can be surprisingly successful.

I'm very anxious for you to have a chance to experience March and Walker in action as they investigate the brutal execution-style murder of a local used-car wholesaler in Sorrow Lake. As procedurals go, this one is well-researched, carefully told, and features intriguing, engaging characters you'll want to follow through each of their upcoming adventures.

Stay tuned for more!

Crime Fiction Grab Bag No. 7

It's time for another crime fiction grab bag here at The Overnight Bestseller, as we celebrate the news and views from the past few weeks in our favorite literary genre.

Why not begin at the top, with a feature by Kevin Nance of the Chicago Tribune on Michael Connelly and The Black Box, another Harry Bosch offering. While we're on the subject, here's a review of The Black Box by Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post, and a very amusing opinion piece on Harry Bosch by Julia Keller, cultural critic for the Chicago Tribune.

If you love pulp fiction, as I do, you won't want to miss this article for CNN by Christian DuChateau explaining how editor and publisher Charles Ardai tracked down and published The Cocktail Waitress, an unpublished novel by James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity) written at the end of his life.

Margaret Cannon's recent crime fiction roundup in the Toronto Globe and Mail includes reviews of Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery, Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin, and The Jewels of Paradise by Donna Leon.

Finally, Jack Batten of the Toronto Star offers another set of mini-reviews in his latest Whodunit column, including his takes on Port Vila Blues by Gary Disher, Cut to the Bone by Joan Boswell, Deadly Politics by Maggie Sefton, and Dare Me by Megan Abbott.

Speaking of Whodunit, you may not have caught Jack Batten's mini-review of Marcie's Murder this summer. If so, well, here it is again!

Enjoy.

Crime Fiction Grab Bag No. 5: Bouchercon and More

This week's crime fiction grab bag begins with the 2012 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the annual event for crime fiction authors and fans that took place this year in Cleveland, Ohio.

Highlights of the event included Louise Penny receiving her third Anthony Award for Best Novel for A Trick of the Light. Meanwhile, Mystery Readers International awarded their Macavity Award for Best Novel to Sara Gran for Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, the first book in her new "Claire DeWitt" series. As well, Canadian crime fiction authors hosted a Meet the Canucks dessert event, as reported by Linda Wiken.

In other news, Margaret Cannon of the Toronto Globe and Mail provides an encouraging review of Linwood Barclay's new novel, Trust Your Eyes, along with a look at Karin Fossum, Marek Krajewski, and Ian Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Adam Woog of the Seattle Times praises The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, Dan Fesperman's The Double Game, and The Hot Country, "Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler's foray into crime fiction."

Finally, Jack Batten of the Toronto Star provides another series of mini-reviews on Peter Robinson's Watching the Dark, Bones are Forever by Kathy Reichs, Barclay's Trust Your Eyes, and Hamilton's The Red Pole of Macau.

Enjoy!

Crime Fiction Grab Bag

Here at The Overnight Bestseller we're very conscious of our duty as a representative of the crime fiction community, and to that end we present a grab bag of notes and links to items of interest to readers.

Author Colin Dexter will receive the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award on 19 July at this year's Harrogate crime-writing festival. Dexter, who retired from teaching to begin writing mysteries, is the creator of the very popular character Inspector Morse. Read more here, courtesy of the Guardian.

Listen to an excellent interview of Louise Penny, author of A Trick of the Light, conducted not long ago by Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio. I've listened to this interview twice so far with great interest ....

Read Globe and Mail reviewer Margaret Cannon's recent roundup of summer crime fiction reading, in which she looks at six books of interest, including offerings by Canadians John Lawrence Reynolds and Jeffrey Round.

What's new coming off the presses this summer from Scandinavian crime fiction authors? Shots Magazine gives us a preview of new books by Karin Fossum, Jo Nesbo and Arne Dahl.

And don't forget to check out Jack Batten's latest reviews in his Toronto Star blog Whodunit, in which he looks at books by Anne Perry, Morley Torgov, and -- good heavens!-- Michael J. McCann!