CRIME ON MY MIND

I was right!

Forgive me while I gloat. But, I was right in my Monday blog when I said bookstores would survive. How did I know? (a question asked on Facebook) Mostly because I have faith in the power of the book and those who are dedicated to placing them in the hands of readers.

But also, partly because while I was in Victoria, B.C. a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by two large independents in the area to sign books -- Munro's and Bolin's. Both are thriving! They're large, filled with books, and in the case of Bolin's, a wide variety of complimentary items -- and best of all, filled with shoppers. I was told last night that sales figures for the area are among the highest in the country.

What makes it work there? I don't have an answer except, I'm sure it's a combination of those ingredients I mentioned. Along with readers who want traditional books.

The good news closer to home is the last minute reprieve for Books on Beechwood in Ottawa's New Edinburgh community. It was announced this week that someone (some three actually) have purchased the store and it will not be closing, as planned, in January. Yay!!! What great news for the readers and writers in Ottawa.

The next announcement was that After Stonewall, the gay and lesbian bookstore in Ottawa, also scheduled to close, has also been bought and will re-open in the new year with a new vision, which will include an art gallery.

This is a wonderful high to start the holiday season with and it re-inforces my belief that paper books are here to stay! Let's all do what we can to support them and make it a truly wonderful and positive year of the book!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

READ AND BURIED
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
A KILLER READ, also available at your favourite bookstores and online.

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Bloody Victoria: The Woman Who Did

On the Queen’s birthday celebration in May 1896, an overloaded trolley car collapsed a bridge, killing over fifty people in British Columbia’s capital. Victoria has a rich history beginning with the HBC, the Royal Navy, and a few gold rushes. Hundreds of heritage buildings have been preserved in this Inner Harbour mecca. At midnight, standing on a wood-bricked street under a glowing lamp post, you can travel back in time or even begin a historical mystery.

Maps are step one. Many streets have changed. In 1896 Victoria was razing its old “Birdcages” and building the storybook Parliament that awes tourists today. The iconic Empress Hotel locale was James Bay, a polluted wen with soap-factory effluvium rainbowing the water. Across the harbour was the Songhees Reserve, not million-dollar condos. Sealing ships still plied their shrinking trade. The Navy Pacific Fleet was making the transition from sail as the bluejackets came to town to raise hell.

Horse-drawn traffic kept to the left. Gaslight had arrived, but electricity was new. Retrofitted plumbing went boxed up the outside of older houses. There were callboxes for the police and a few hundred wealthier families on the switchboard. Fancy-lady parlours thrived, but poor girls still delivered ten-penny knee tremblers in the alleys.

The police department had moved to the renovated City Hall, but a new prison stood out on Tolmie. As for money, there were common fifty-cent pieces as well as twenty-five-cent shinplaster bills and a few American silver Morgan dollars or gold eagles. I got Tess of the D’Urbervilles right, but missed the fact that the Hound of the Baskervilles had not yet arrived in print. Cocktails included the Blue Blazer and soda fountains sold Tin Roof sundaes but not David Harums (post-1900). The Woman Who Did title came from Kingston’s Grant Allen’s bestseller of 1895. Just what she “did” might surprise you.

A reprint of an 1897 Sears catalogue served for clothes, medicine, furniture, timepieces, spectacles, and canned goods. St. Ann’s Academy had the nuns I needed but not the lovely grounds today nor the additions. The dingy, filthy morgue, tucked into a market downtown and deplored by the coroners, has been gone for a century. The Daily Colonist, formerly the British Colonist and today’s Times Colonist was on line. I read about the accident and its aftermath, the corpses laid like cordwood on Captain Grant’s lawn and the inquest that night as the jury traipsed from the morgue to an overcrowded funeral parlour. At the page bottom was a tiny ad for repairing watches soaked in sea water.

I consulted old phonebooks for businesses in Chinatown. Coloured firemaps recorded even opium factories, legal at the time. I can still walk Fan Tan Alley. But not at night.

Fig newtons had arrived, a great snack “When Strolling Through the Park One Day.” Motion pictures in NYC were in the conversation as were the first autos. Sobranie cigarettes and Burberry overcoats? And the Queen’s daughter, Empress of Germany, was called Vicky. The telegraph hummed, and steamers were passing sailing ships, but how much did it cost to go to Seattle? Bicycles aka “wheels” had just arrived, carrying postmen delivering mail. Slang was a puzzling mixture of British, Canadian, and American words. New York novellas by Stephen Crane and a period detective story in the Daily Colonist led me to “out of sight.” People were “chewing the fat,” “going steady,” putting on “glad rags,” and talking about “plutes” and “rats.” Crawling babies were “ankle biters.”

Writing the first book in a historical series is like giving birth to an elephant. Everything’s easy and familiar once Jumbo has arrived. Can’t wait to start the next one!

Lou Allin's latest book is Contingency Plan from Orca, a Rapid Reads novella. Coming in April is the third entry from Dundurn in her Canada's Caribbean series, Twilight is not Good for Maidens, featuring RCMP Corporal Holly Martin. A serial rapist stalks the beach parks of southern Vancouver Island.

Visit Lou at her blog at http://redroom.com/member/lou-allin/blog

or website at www.louallin.com

She welcomes mail at louallin@shaw.ca

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Conference fever!

Have you booked your registration for Bloody Words 2012 yet?

If not, just a couple of weeks left to do it. So you'd better get cracking. Because you'll need a hotel and air travel, too. Of course, you knew that. I'm really aware how quickly this conference time is approaching because I'm trying to sort out the rest of my stay in Beautiful B.C.

I have relatives and friends to visit both before and after the conference. Some will involve B&B stays, others there's the whole transportation thing to sort out. Of course, I'd like to get the best rates possible. But have you tried checking out all the listings? It's a dedicated morning's work. Oh, for the services of a personal assistant!

I've compared the web travel sites (Expedia, ITravel, Travelocity, etc.) and their prices appear the same as those I've found on my own. I guess my real problem is just deciding what part of town to plunk myself in.

The conference bit will be a snap. I'm on two panels and neither require preparation, just hopefully a brain in full operating mode on the Friday evening and first thing Sat. morning. That's the challenge.

I've downloaded the tentative programme schedule from the BW website
http://bloodywords2011.com and made my selections of what to attend. It's always a challenge when two panels that equally pique my interest are booked in the same time slot. I could always go the rude route -- sit near a door & divide my time between both.

Along with the panels, other programming involves interviews with the Guest of Honours, two special workshops on Sunday morning, a mass autograph session, a special entertainment feature with two 1940's radio plays on Friday night, followed by a walk through the haunted streets of Victoria. Chillingly fun! And of course, the banquet on Saturday night.

It's a good thing I have an agent and don't have to try to slot in an agent appointment. Ditto the Manuscript evaluation. Both are excellent opportunities offered at Bloody Words and I know they book up fast.

So much to do at a conference, so little time...especially when there's all that schmoozing -- a must, considering all the conference friends you see only once a year. And what a great opportunity to make new friends.

If you have time in your busy schedule, be sure to do some of your own sightseeing in Victoria -- it's a fabulously beautiful city. And, we're all thinking positive about the weather...aren't we!

Only 3 more weeks until Bloody Words! Once I nail down this final B&B for my extended stay, I'm all set. Hope you are, too!

Will we meet in Victoria?


Linda Wiken
writing as Erika Chase
A Killer Read, coming April, 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Canada’s Caribbean: Come Prepared!

Culture shock is guaranteed when you set foot on magical Vancouver Island. Whether you soar over the emerald jewels in the sparkling blue water or mingle with the mists as your ferry threads its way to paradise, you have left behind the familiar frosty country. Some say it’s the climate. Others claim that retirees are to blame. Still more fault the hippie infusion from the US in the Seventies and all those VW vans and llama farms.

First, take a deep breath. Welcome to island time. What’s the big hurry? Go too far in any direction, and you will fall into the ocean. If you’re from the Big Smoke and miss traffic jams, drive to the McKenzie and Island Highway interchange at 8:00 am or 4:30 pm. Slow down, wave to the Serious Coffee drinkers, and wait up to an eternity of ten minutes before traffic picks up.

Leave all snow paraphernalia behind. In Victoria, you need it
once every few years. Even then, the snow melts within a day or two. If you pine for twenty feet of the white stuff, go up island to Mt. Washington and rent a ski chalet.

Should you be here in the winter, you will need raingear and an umbrella only if you are a fuddy duddy. Our young people trudge in the rain in shorts and hoodies. In January. Mothers push their strollers covered in plastic, and scooters have awnings. Geezers thump along with their carved walking sticks, splashing in puddles. Some rain falls horizontally. SWOW for “solid wall of water.” The rest of the time, it’s RATH, or “rain, at times heavy.” This poem illustrates:

If it’s sunny in Victoria, it’s cloudy in Vancouver.
If it’s cloudy in Victoria, it’s raining in Vancouver.
If it’s raining in Victoria, it’s pouring in Vancouver.
If it’s pouring in Victoria, God help Vancouver.

Leave all bug dope behind. Flies do not thrive in salty air. Now and then some wise guy says, “I saw A mosquito.” The correct reply is “Really? Where?”
You will notice many vehicles carrying surfboards or wave boards. Winter is even better. More storms. Wetsuits are toasty. This is not Malibu. Para-kiting is also very popular and makes colourful pictures. Seals and otters may come out to bask and watch.

Bring your own foxes and skunks. They didn’t make the trip. In addition to brown bears, elk, cougars, and displaced rabbits exiled from the University of Victoria to Texas, the rainforest has one of the most marvellous creatures on earth: the amazing banana slug. They come in three basic varieties: black, leopard, and khaki, though the black version is a garden slug. Slugs are detrivores and ooze around cleaning debris at the bottom of the rainforest. They adore rotting vegetation, horse manure, and other dead slugs. With only one lung, they hump around without complaint. They are also hermaphrodites with the world’s most bizarre mating ritual. I cannot describe it here for fear of censors and even censures. Huge equipment, slime and cannibalism are involved.

Victoria is called the City of Flowers. Ever April we do an elaborate count and snicker at the rest of the country, still plowing snow. Banana trees, though an herb, are common. Rhodos and daffodils start our spring, and roses aren’t far behind. Fields of heather and lavender stretch into the distance. Growing lemons is our last challenge. There are rumours about a few in sheltered spots in Sidney.

Should you decide to stay, you will not be alarmed at house prices if you come from Toronto. For the rest, assume that your 2000 sq ft lakefront home on one acre in Sudbury will buy you a nice garage with an upstairs suite. In yee-hah Sooke, not the big city. BC is short for “bring cash.”

Tides are important to us. A high 10.0 rolls in heaps of seaweed, which has its own aroma, although it is also made into cosmetics, soil enhancer, and even eaten in gourmet restaurants. Low tides, 1.0, are good for strolling beaches. Do not pick the mussels. Red tides happen. Gumboot chitons have been eaten in desperation, but they are not recommended.

You’re in fishing country, too. Salmon, halibut, and crabs are yours for the taking. The prize-winning hali this year weighed 162 pounds. And it has eyes only on one side of its face, unlike politicians..

Look over at snow-capped Washington State from the southern parts of the island. Yanks are pretty much the same folk as we are, but they like parading their navy across the strait and shooting off munitions in gunnery practice. Our west-coast sub is very old. We bought it second hand from the Brits. Not that we’re competitive, but it helps to close our eyes and think of the loonie, now at $1.05 US.

The ferries are our life blood even though we complain about the rising costs. But the chow is great, and you can get a facial and manicure while you sail. Besides, an island’s not an island if it has a bridge. At one time, 95% of our food was grown here. Now it’s 5%. We could be in big trouble with our transport lines cut, during a tsunami, for example. Tsunami warning signs used to dot the coast from Victoria to Port Renfew. Then most were removed due to complaints from nervous business people who thought they would deter tourists. To me, they added an exotic flavour, and with their image of a little person running up a hill, it was clear what to do.


So many features, so little time. Whales, sheep, border collies, wineries, meaderies, Chinatown, fine dining, museums, shopping, Rogers chocolates, and even ghosts! These attractions you can discover for yourself. It’s easy to get here, but be warned. It’s hard to leave.



Born in Toronto, Lou Allin grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a PhD in English Renaissance Literature. In 1977, she returned to Canada, finding herself in Sudbury at Cambrian College, where she was a professor of English. Her Belle Palmer series is set there.
Now retired, Lou lives with Friday the mini-poodle and Shogun and Zia the border collie in Sooke BC, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She is BCYukon Vice President of the Crime Writers of Canada. In addition to her new series set near Victoria in Fossil Bay, Lou has two standalones and an Orca Rapid Read, That Dog Won’t Hunt.