Friday, September 27, 2013

CRIME ON MY MIND

Nothing like a new cover!


Today I'm taking some time for a little self-indulgence. Some space, too.

I've discovered that the next best thing to receiving a box of author comp copies of your new book is that first peek at the cover of your latest offering. Yesterday was such a day. And it's so good to have those types of days when you're slogging towards a deadline.

I've been so fortunate in having an artistic team assigned by Berkley Prime Crime to create each cover. They get it. They have a true sense of the books and this shows every time. All they need from me is a brief description of the plot and my own suggestions for a cover. They don't always follow my suggestions entirely -- sometimes the sales department has its say as to what will work. But with each cover, I've never been disappointed and I can usually find at least a grain of my original idea in the finished product. Most time, more like the entire kernel.

That's the wonder of this business. Sometimes an author hits it right with a publishing team that is open to input, even welcomes it, and is charmingly easy to work with. In those cases, it makes it easier to accept suggested changes made by the editorial team.
And, if the author is really lucky, the publisher gets behind his or her promotional attempts, lending support in many different forms.

Writing is not for sissies, someone once said. How true; it's hard work. But the payoffs are amazing (and I don't mean the royalties kind).

So, please allow me to present the cover of book #4 in the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries, by Erika Chase, that will appear next fall.



Friday, September 20, 2013

MYSTERY REVIEW

THE BODY ON THE T
by Mike Martin
Baico Publishing


Reviewed by Carole Dalgleish


This is the second book in a good “down home” series set in Newfoundland, with characters you'd enjoy spending time with in real life. You'd also learn to cook – the descriptions of the Newfoundland cuisine had my mouth watering throughout the story.

RCMP Sergeant Winston Windflower is a Cree from Northern Alberta, who has lived in Grand Bank, Newfoundland for three years. He doesn't want to leave. He has a girlfriend, Sheila Hillier, and has gained the respect and acceptance of the locals – most of them anyway.

However, the local bad guys threaten to turn his newly-settled world upside down and shatter it. Discovery of a floating body in the sea nearby is the beginning of an ugly, wide-angled case connected to a previous one. (Recommendation: Read the first book in the series, The Walker on the Cape.)

The story takes the readers into Windflower’s and Sheila's deepening relationship as well as through an RCMP investigation that takes in aspects of Newfoundland history. This includes present day conditions after the collapse of the centuries-old cod fishing industry.

Windflower's ways of dealing with life blends his Aboriginal heritage well with the fast-changing Newfoundland culture as a crisis hits him an Sheila.

A good read. Enjoy!

Friday, September 13, 2013

INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY BIDULKA


1. Who has influenced you the most in your writing career?

Before I wrote my first word as a fiction author there were certainly many writers who inspired me to try my hand at it; Gail Bowen, Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker, Patricia Cornwell, David Eddings and Michael Nava to name just a few. In the list are writers who write in varied genres, from mystery to thriller to fantasy to romance. I wanted to be all of them but of course ended up being none of them. Which is a good thing. A writer has to find their own voice. No matter how much you think you are a certain kind of writer, until you’ve put pen to paper you really don’t know what voice will emerge. Now I realize that the way these writers influenced me was not so much by the specifics of their words but how they made me feel when I read them – inspired, entertained, happy, sad, on edge, comfortable. I want to make readers feel something and have a special ‘experience’ when they spent time with my books. Knowing it’s possible is how I was most influenced by these great writers. And continue to be.

2. What are you working on now?

For a decade I wrote a mystery series featuring a Canadian detective named Russell Quant. In the spring of 2013 I released my first book in what I hoped might become a new series. In a new genre. New protagonist. New style. Risky. Scary. Exciting. The first book, When The Saints Go Marching In features Canadian Disaster Recovery agent Adam Saint. And, happily, I am now working on the second Adam Saint book.

3. In what ways is your main protagonist like you? If at all?

That’s an interesting question for me right now. I’ve always held that an author always leaves a part of themself in almost every character they create, even if just a wee tint. With Russell Quant that is certainly the case. Although we have many differences, I can safely say we are more alike than different. With my new protagonist Adam Saint, the opposite is true. This is a wonderful challenge for me after spending a decade with Quant. I am constantly having to bring myself to a shuddering halt as I write scenes having Saint react in a very Quant (Bidulka?) manner. Quant knows when to stop for a good meal and bottle of wine. Saint goes until he’s bloody and bruised and long out of ammunition of any sort. With Quant you see the character’s inside life very clearly. Saint is—sometimes frustratingly so—much harder to read. His shell is thick and harder to penetrate. This resistance to show who he is, what he feels about things, about people, ends up being part of the voyage that we’ll see develop in these books. And I as a writer right alongside.

4. Are you character driven or plot driven?

As a mystery/suspense writer plot is undeniably important. It’s the layer of steel girders upon which I rest everything else. Like any big building, without the girders of plot, story falls apart. The book falls apart. Characters fall flat on their faces. That being said, the true driver of my books—and me as a writer—are my characters. Thinking about, creating, molding, giving birth to and guiding through (fictional) life is what I love to do. I know many of my readers would agree. When they discuss with me whatever recent book they’ve read, they always refer to characters rather than plot.

5. Are you a 'pantser' or a plotter?

As I’d not heard the term ‘pantser’ until this interview, I am confident in saying I’m totally Team Plotter! In my early years as a writer I would create three outlines for every book. One was the ‘whodunit’ outline, one was the ‘character arc’ plotline, and the third shmushed (Is that a word? Hope so!) the first two together. Today my version of outlining is a little more streamlined. I still have a general outline that tells the story from beginning to end, which I later apportion into bite-size chapters. (A process that never ends up with the book having the same number of chapters as I’d thought I’d have). I also create an ever-evolving biography for each of a book’s main characters. These include everything from eye colour, family background, favourite foods, and names of pets.

I’ve evolved into a process where I am comforted by a certain adherence to a storyline/plot that I know works and has a definite beginning, middle and end, but freed from the shackles of a pre-defined inflexible structure. Which is why I never end up with the same number of chapters I planned for (see above). I know the direction I’m going but not all the side roads and back alleys I’ll end up taking to my final destination. Part of the fun of fiction is spontaneity and the freedom to create and use your imagination. I suppose this is a bit of a reflection of how I live life. I’m a planner. The cost, at times, can be spontaneity. But boy do I get a lot done. And along the way I always make time for creativity and a little bit of uncertainty.

6. What do you hope readers will most take away from your writing?

There are books that I read that whenever I’ve put them aside because of sleep, work, life I find myself thinking about them. When it’s time to return to them I get a deliciously satisfied, warm, happy, cozy feeling. This is what I want readers to take from reading a Quant or Saint book. I want them to have an experience, a moment, a communion with the characters. I want them to be taken away on a journey where they might laugh or cry or learn something or simply be entertained. I like nothing better than when a reader writes to tell me about how they enjoyed a hot summer afternoon on their deck with a cold pitcher of lemonade or curled up on a couch in front of a fire, dog at feet, rum toddy in hand and spent a few hours in the company of Russell Quant or Adam Saint.

7. Where do you see yourself as a writer in 10 years?

Ooooo, good one. Let me think about this.
Well, I do like change. Yet I love being immersed in the lives of familiar characters. I think it might be perfect to have…isn’t that funny…I was about to describe a scenario not too dissimilar from what I have now. Two series. One established, one new and untried. Maybe have a book out each year in alternating series. Whenever one of the series has reached the end of a nice lifespan, try out another. Maybe inch into a new genre or try to reach a new type of readership. A mix of comfort and nervous newness at the same time. Then again, I like to travel and entertain and sit in the sun, so maybe I’ll just do a lot more of that in ten years!

8. What is one thing your readers would be most surprised to know about you?

Between Facebook and websites and Twitter and YouTube and Flickr, how could there be anything? I think newer readers might be surprised to know that I have three university degrees and spent a decade as a corporate auditor. Others might be surprised to know that I left that well-paying career to write full time without an agent, potential story line, or even one publishing credit to my name. All I had was the desire (and support of a fantastic spouse) to use an undetermined chunk of my lifetime to pursue passion.

9. What do you like to read for pleasure?


Mysteries. Thrillers. The occasional fantasy novel. Travel magazines. When no one is looking: Entertainment Weekly.

10. Give us a summary of your latest book in a Tweet (140 characters or less)

Man of action Adam Saint: tough-as-nails, luxury-loving, Canadian Disaster Recovery Agent whose job it is to take care of you on the worst day of your life.


When the Saints Go Marching In is the first book in the highly anticipated new series by author Anthony Bidulka. The fast paced suspense novel features a new kind of hero, Disaster Recovery Agent Adam Saint.
Bidulka is best known for the long-running award-winning mystery series featuring Russell Quant, a world-travelling, wine-swilling, wise-cracking, gay, Canadian PI.
The Quant series is a multi-award nominee including for the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award, ReLit Award, Lambda Literary Award and Saskatchewan Book Award. Flight of Aquavit was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery.
Mystery Scene Magazine proclaimed: “Quant makes for a riveting hero…the kind of friend you want to have—unless you’re a killer.”
Anthony has toured extensively and spoken at conferences and literary events throughout Canada and the United States and is a great believer in community involvement. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada and loves to travel the world and throw a good party.
Please visit Anthony at www.anthonybidulka.com, Facebook, Twitter (@abidulka), and YouTube.

Friday, September 6, 2013

MYSTERY REVIEW

A COLD WHITE SUN
By Vicki Delany
Poisoned Pen Press


This is the sixth outing for Const. Molly Smith of the Trafalgar Police Service in B.C. In many ways, Molly’s still learning her job while in others, she’s yearning for much more. Policing suits her well and she’s morphed over the series from an awkward newbie to an officer who is more restrained, questioning more, and therefore, a better cop.

A lot of this is thanks to Sgt. John Winters who sees her potential and unofficially mentors her on the job. This case is no different. Winters is faced with a baffling murder, that of high-school teacher Cathy Lindsay, wife and mother of two, whose body is found with a bullet in the back, on a trail one morning during March break.

As is the procedure in most murder cases, the marriage is analyzed and the husband scrutinized. What surfaces is not a very happy scene. An adulterous husband; one child bordering on delinquency. And then there’s Cathy’s own flirtatious behaviour at work. A teacher who’s facing down his own personal demons. There are red flags everywhere on this case.

Winters is also drawn into a complex situation at his wife’s art gallery involving an employee who seems to have lost touch with reality. And Molly is in danger of being swept off her skis by a charming stranger she meets on the slopes. Even a small town like Trafalgar is not immune to the evils of the outside world with a large development project threatening to take over nearby property, much to the chagrin of Molly’s mom.

It the day-to-day stuff of community life that makes this murder seem even more obscene and for the police in this picturesque town in ski country, the ultimate challenge.

Vicki Delany is a prolific crime writer with two series (Const. Smith, and the Klondike series), mysteries for reluctant readers, and numerous stand-alones to her credit. And, she’s now embarking on yet another series, this one a cosy series set in the U.S.

It takes great writing skill to be able to produce top notch stories in so many different styles. Just as Molly has blossomed in her career as a cop, Delany has grown into a writer to be taken seriously, with mysterious tales to tell and an impressive way with words. She definitely should be on your bookshelves.