MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

And a good time was had by all!

I'll bet you're not surprised! Scene of the Crime 2012 is now passed and we're back to laundry and reality today. But what a great event it was!

I'd say each one of us in the Ladies' Killing Circle was just thrilled by the tributes, the care and feeding provided by the SOTC board and its amazing volunteers, the friendship of our fellow authors attending, and of course, the beautiful award.

Each year, a kaleidoscope is crafted by Wolfe Island stained glass artist Linda Sutherland and she's adept at creating an award that relates to the author. In our case, since our logo is six pen nibs, we each received a pen with nib and attached kaleidoscope. The carrying case was also made by Sutherland and has the award title, our own name and the LKC logo. Just beautiful, don't you think?

We truly do feel honoured.

It was also so great to meet the many attendees who love mysteries so much! And what fun to see colleagues in the audience. It also was a rare opportunity to spend time catching up with old friends and new ones, since all authors were in the same bed and breakfast, Dreamcatcher's. Yummy breakfasts and lovely rooms!

The other authors at the event -- those who had to do all the work with readings and panels -- were Thomas Rendell Curran (who can be seen these days swanning around Ottawa in 'Stride 1', his new car/toy with the license plate bearing his Newfoundland detective's name); Y.S. Lee, now known to us as Ying (who writes a killer Young Adult series set in Victorian England and a great read for adults, too); D.J. McIntosh or Dorothy as we like to call her (her first antiquities thriller, The Witch of Babylon, skyrocketed to acclaim); and, John Moss (author of the stylish Toronto police procedural series that was set on the Easter Islands last time out).

Did I mention we had fun?

So, thank you to everyone involved with Scene of the Crime -- Violette Malan and Vicki Delany in particular who, as president of the board and board member respectively, spear-headed such a fabulous event.

Now back to the laundry.....

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012
www.erikachase.com

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

August 11, 2012 is a very special day for the Ladies’ Killing Circle. This is the day when the six of us will be presented with the Grant Allen Award at the annual Scene of the Crime Mystery Festival on Wolfe Island. It’s an idyllic setting, the largest island of the legendary thousand islands in the St. Lawrence River, which forms much of the eastern half of the Canada/ US border. Like all islands, it has its own culture - rebellious, proud and individualistic. Along with the fishermen, farmers and homesteaders, pirates and smugglers shaped its history, and thousands of barrels of smuggled sugar, guns and whiskey lie on the river bottom just off its shores.

But before there were smugglers and bootleggers, there was Grant Allen, who was born and bred on the island over a century and a half ago. He has been called Canada’s first crime writer and was certainly one of the most prolific authors of the Victorian era. He published an astonishing array of books of science and philosophy, as well as 40 novels, but it is his crime fiction, and his friendship with Conan Doyle, that makes him central to today’s festival. Every year since the festival’s inception, the Grant Allen Award has been given to a writer who has made a pioneering contribution to Canadian crime writing.

Over the years the festival has honoured such pioneers as Eric Wright, Howard Engel, Gail Bowen and Peter Robinson, and this year the festival has chosen the unique collective of women who formed the Ladies’ Killing Circle. LKC perceived a glaring need – publishing opportunities for Canadian female short story writers – and set about filling it. Under our auspices, seven anthologies were edited and published, giving voice to numerous Canadian women writers who went on to their own fame and glory. Among them, the six ladies themselves. Four of us went on to publish multiple novels (twenty-plus and counting), while one went on to children’s and young adult novels and the other continued her award-winning career in short story writing and editing.

Keep an eye on this space, and on the Ladies’ Killing Circle Fan Page, for more details on the success and accomplishments of all those women who got their start, literally, in one of the LKC anthologies. Many names will be familiar. And if you want to learn more about this delightful, old-fashioned mystery festival, with its free ferry rides and its traditional church supper, check out www.sceneofthecrime.ca. Register early to ensure a spot!




Barbara Fradkin is a child psychologist with a fascination for how we turn bad. In addition to her darkly haunting short stories in the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, she writes the gritty, Ottawa-based Inspector Green novels which havewon back to back Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Novel from Crime Writers of Canada. The eighth in the series, Beautiful Lie the Dead, explores love in all its complications. And, her Rapid Read from Orca, The Fall Guy, was launched last year.

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

WRITERS AND THEIR MANY PETS.

Last week on Mystery Maven Canada, Joan Boswell blogged that the Ladies' Killing Circle would receive the Grant Allen Award at the Scene of the Crime Festival on Wolfe Island on August 11. She also mentioned she was collecting news from our forty-seven contributors from our seven anthologies to put on our website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ladies-Killing-Circle/131098883642855. One of the questions she asks these authors is whether they have pets.

What is it about writers and their cats and dogs? My writing group, the aforementioned Ladies' Killing Circle, has an excess of riches in the pet department. Among the six of us we own eight dogs and two cats. We used to have even more and still miss Vicki Cameron's Giga, a splendid German shepherd who could leap tall buildings, or at least ten feet off a dock to retrieve a thrown stick or ball. A more recent loss was Barbara's cat, Henna, a dignified lady of uncertain age.

My life is run by an Australian Shepherd. Joan can often be seen being walked by three flat coat retrievers and Linda Wiken has two opinionated Siamese cats. Not many people boss Mary Jane Maffini about but you should see her two mini dachshunds barking out orders. Barbara Fradkin's Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers are the talk of her neighbourhood. Eva is a certified show dog honing her skills as a retriever of very dead ducks.

My Facebook friends are mostly writers and they post glorious photos of their four-legged friends. I can keep up with Tony Bidulka's poodles, Patricia Flewelling's hilarious Dixie, Robin Harlick's Sterling, Susan Gates' Winnie and Caro Soles "hounds", all without leaving the comfort of my office. I happen to know that Peggy Blair's cocker spaniel and her cat share a wing chair while Peggy is writing another Inspector Ramirez novel. Both Melodie Campbell's and Lou Allen's dogs dominate their Facebook pages.

I have lots of other friends, Facebook and otherwise, but they don't have nearly the number of animals living with them as my writing friends do. These non-writers are able to travel to exotic places and buy lovely clothes while my pet-owning friends and I bankrupt ourselves on veterinarian bills and boarding kennel fees.

So, I ask again, what is it about writers and their pets?

I have a theory about this. I believe our pets act as a buffer against those inner demons that criticize everything we write. While the voice in our head is telling us we can't write for beans, our pets are telling us everything we write is extraordinary. They are without doubt the kindest critics ever and as long as they are fed on time, get plenty of exercise and are allowed to curl up close by while we're writing, they think we're amazing.


Sue Pike has published a couple of dozen stories and won several awards including an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Crime Story. Her latest, Where the Snow Lay Dinted appeared in the January issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Sue and her husband and an opinionated Australian Shepherd named Cooper spend the winter months in Ottawa and the rest of the time at a mysterious cottage on the Rideau Lakes.

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Scene of the Crime




August 11, 2012 marks the day the six women who make up the Ladies’ Killing Circle will receive the Grant Allan award at Scene of the Crime on Wolfe Island, Ontario. We were chosen because of our contribution to Canadian mystery writing as we are responsible for the publication of 7 anthologies of short stories by Canadian women.



Because the books would not have existed if Canadian women had not submitted their stories it seemed only fair to acknowledge their contributions. With that in mind I have undertaken to locate and contact the 47 other writers and have them update their bios telling us what they’ve written, what awards they’ve won, if they still write, if they have received accolades in other fields and, finally, and just for fun, to talk about their pets.

Sadly, since the first book appeared in1995 two of our writers have died and we’ve lost track of some others. I’m searching for them and if any readers know the whereabouts and contact information for the following women please let me know.

Sandy Conrad, Rose Deshaw, Day’s Lee, H. Mel Malton, Michelle Marcotte, Marguerite McDonald, Jenifer McVaugh, Eliza Moorhouse, Lea Tassie, Jane Tun

Initially, I thought I’d take each writer’s comments, edit them and make them uniform but I’ve dismissed this idea. Each voice comes through loud and clear and I think it will be much more interesting for readers to present their remarks as they wrote them.

I hope many have registered for Scene of the Crime. It’s a unique festival in a very special place. To learn more check out the website but, having been there twice before, I can verify that it’s fun.

I’m not sure when the author updates will be posted but we’ll let our readers know here on the blog and on our individual websites and Facebook pages.

A member of the Ladies Killing Circle, Joan Boswell co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit to Die, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and, Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. The latest in the series, Cut to the Bone, will be published by Dundurn in November. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.