TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Change is good!

I think it's time for a change!

The country's had a birthday; so have I; so has Mystery Maven Canada. Another year starts afresh and change is good. I've often found change hard to deal with, especially when it involves something I totally enjoy. But it's part of living and growing as a person, as a writer, as a blog.

I'm bringing about the change in my writing by fleshing out a new series, while moving forward with another in the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries. I also want to write another short story, something I haven't done in a while. I figure all these efforts will help keep my writing fresh and my brain evolving.

So, it's time to look at this blog. Mystery Maven Canada started two years ago -- yes, it was early July, 2010. It was an idea I had since deciding to close Prime Crime Books...a way of keeping in touch with customers and keeping them informed about upcoming books. It morphed into a vehicle for other mystery writers to reach the public and a way to share news and thoughts about the changing world of publishing.

But I feel it's becoming more of a diary, which, I'm told, is what most blogs are. I hadn't meant it to be so focused on my thoughts...and they're running thin these days. But most writers are busy, well, writing. Deadlines loom, life intrudes, blogs become a chore. I've really appreciated the willingness of the authors I've contacted to write guest blogs. Their input has added a lot of value to this blog. But as I said, writers are busy people.

The Ladies' Killing Circle have gamely kept Thursdays a day of lively and reflective reading...but, they all have deadlines, too.

We miss Mary Jane Maffini's input but she's had to focus elsewhere for several months now, although she's easing back into writing these days.

And the publishing world...well, what is there to say about it? If you're an afficianado of paper books, it's a sad prognosis. If e-books are your forte, the news is better but still, it's an unruly field and it, too will have to evolve.

I've been flogging the lack of media attention to mystery writing in Canada. One caveat is the CBC which has come through with flying colours, devoting an entire month on their Canada Writes website to Canadian mystery writing and also, continuing to highlight our wonderful authors on various programmes.

What more is there to say?

I mean, really...what more is there to say? I'd like to hear from you. That's what the comment feature is for. I'm thinking of changing the weekly format and this is the time to tell me, what do you want to read on this blog? Who do you want to hear from? What news?

I will say that reviews will continue and probably, become more prominent. What I'd like to say is that I'll also have more immediate author news posted -- more in the way of events, launches, upcoming releases, TV deals...all that juicy stuff. But I need to hear from the authors themselves in order to do that.


So, what's it to be? How should Mystery Maven Canada change? Do you care?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

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

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Santa, baby...

I've been nice this year! Well, most of the time, I think. So, here's my Christmas wish list and I'm hoping it's doable.

First of all, I need to fuel my creative abilities so lots of espresso beans, please. Or a (massive) gift certificate at my favourite local spot, Francesco's in the Glebe. I promise to keep alert and captive at my computer screen.

Terrific reviews and big sales when A Killer Read hits the shelves in April would be outstanding. Okay, these might be a little out of your control, but I'd be ever so grateful if you could swing it.

Snow! What's Christmas day if it isn't white? There's a rumour, fueled by long range weather forecasts, that the lawns might be green in these parts. Say it isn't so!

Some great new computer program for a dummy like me that allows me to do amazing things with my photos. Easy-to-read directions are a necessity.

The services of a handyman next summer. I'm talking landscaping abilities, of course!

And, here's the biggy, Santa...you know those dynamite reviews? How about spreading them throughout the Canadian crime writing community! Let's make sure we become household names here at home -- like Atwood and Ondaatje, for instance -- and then we'll think about tackling the world next year. Easy, right?

I'll be sure to leave you lots of cookies (I promise not to do the baking of them) & some milk-based liquid to fortify you on your journey Christmas Eve. Thanks, Santa!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime
www.erikachase.com

CRIME ON MY MIND

Looking ahead!

Can you believe it? 6 days until winter. 9 days to Christmas. 16 days and we're into a new year. But that also means longer days, shorter nights and spring is on the way. Okay, maybe that's rushing it a small bit.

But there's another reason to be looking forward to the new year. There's a pile of new books coming from Canadian mystery and crime writers! Part of that pile is stacked on my TBR shelf, along with those published this year that I'm struggling to get through (I DON'T mean they're badly written, just that life keeps heaping other stuff on my plate). Among them, and I forgot to mention this title last time I listed my PR's (pending reviews) and that's The Ophelia Trap by Kate Burns. It's now on the bookshelves, including mine, and I'm looking forward to the read.

Just arrived from the publishers' reps, more books published in 2011: The Girl in the Wall by Alison Preston. I've always enjoyed her writing -- she did a signing at Prime Crime one year -- and this one looks to be another page-turner. And, a first novel which was the winner of the First Book Competition from The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University, Nondescript Rambunctious by Jackie Bateman. Plus, Bloodline, a haunted crime story by Stan Rogal.

Coming up for publication this winter and spring: Red Means Run by Brad Smith (read his author interview here on Jan. 4th); The Beggar's Opera by Peggy Blair, her first and it was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Assoc. Debut Dagger Award in 2010; A Green Place for Dying, the fifth Meg Harris mystery by local author R.J. Harlick; and, Last Dance by West Coast writer David Russell. It's the second in his Winston Patrick series.

So, you see I have a lot of good reading ahead of me. And, I know there'll be new books from Gail Bowen, Pamela Ballow, C.B. Forrest, Janet Bolin, Vicki Delany and Erika Chase. Others will be added as we get into the new year selling seasons.

Let's all get out there and support our terrific Canadian crime and mystery writers. You'll be doing yourself a favour, too!

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

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Tell me it isn't so!

I fear it is so, though. And even worse, 'still'. I'm referring to Jeffrey Simpson's column in the Globe & Mail on Saturday, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/jeffrey-simpson/so-much-more-than-a-nose-on-our-currency/article2266173/. If you don't have time to read it, the short version is that Canadian writers 'get no respect'.

In Simpson's column he's focusing on Richard Gwynn's historical works about John A. Macdonald in particular. If these were published in the U.S., and about American statesmen, they would be best sellers. Not so, here in Canada. The less we know about our history, the better it seems. So, publish away. The sales will be to those history buffs who probably already know most of the story.

Ottawa crime writer C.B. Forrest wrote one of 177 comments posted to that column. He pointed out that this malady is one suffered by most Canadian authors, except for those household names, Atwood and Ondaatje ...you know the list, I'm sure. And then there's the lowly crime writer. If you're Robinson or Bowen, your name commands instant recognition with the mystery lover reader. But what about with mainstream readers?

That could be because Canadian crime novels seldom appear on the books pages of our newspapers and magazines. What an amazing feat then that Elizabeth Duncan's latest

mystery, A Killer's Christmas in Wales, hit the Postmedia newspapers across the country on Saturday. Well done, Elizabeth. There MAY be hope for us all. But don't hold your breath. Forrest went on to point out that the Globe's 'top 11 crime books of 2011, listed only one Canadian.


Margaret Canon, Don Graves and a few others are still able to give prominence to Canadian crime and mystery books in their columns. Remember the days when there were double that number?

I keep coming back to this every few blogs or so...the message needs to get out there and it's up to the readers and writers to make sure that happens. I urge you to use your blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitters accounts to herald the fact that we have some excellent Canadian mystery and crime writers. Go ahead -- name names! Point the finger! Be a snitch.

And after you've read all those wonderful Canadian books you'll (hopefully) receive for Christmas, go on-line and post reviews. We can make this happen. And maybe next year at this time, I won't be blogging about this topic again!

Any suggestions as to what we can do?

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

CRIME ON MY MIND

Cool Canadian crime writers!

Despite all the gloom and doom (and that is a reality, unfortunately) the mystery in a printed format is still alive and well. Yay!

After one & a half years out of the bookselling business, I feel out of the loop in many ways. I would always look forward to those quarterly catalogue sessions with the sales reps when they'd parade the upcoming mysteries, complete with covers and blurbs, in front of my eager eyes. I miss that part of the business.

What I rely on these days are the wonderful digests like Cool Canadian Crime from Crime Writers of Canada. Authors are also good about sending out alerts to new books. And publishers -- bless them -- send out advance reading copies, bound manuscripts and sometimes, a final copy of new books from Canadian authors for me to review.

How great is that!

I now am the proud owner of a TBR review pile. It's harder than I thought, I admit, to combine reading with writing. I'm continuously jotting down notes for my own manuscript, then pick up a book to read and review, only to find I'm drifting back to my own. Maybe I shouldn't admit this. But I do so only to explain why it may take me awhile to actually write a review.

So, to keep authors and publishers happy, at least to some small extent, I offer the titles in my TBR pile. Some are already out there on the bookselves, others are forthcoming, but all are by Canadian mystery writers. If they're not yet out, why not try something from the author's backlist to whet the appetite, unless of course, it's a first-time author.

I truly look forward to reading each and every one of these books. And I will. Just bear with me. So, here they are, in alpha order:

A Green Place for Dying by R.J. Harlick
Lake on the Mountain by Jeffrey Round
Last Dance by David Russell
Red Means Run by Brad Smith
Death Plays Poker by Robin Spano

Cool Canadian Crime writers -- right?! We have a lot of them and I'm certain anyone following this blog is a supporter. It's downright criminal if we don't spread the word!


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April 3, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime

LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

Bumps on the e-book road

We've just encountered our first hiccup in the Little Treasures e-publishing experience. If you follow this blog you'll know that we, The Ladies' Killing Circle, published our first e-book in July. Little Treasures is a collection of seven stories from our first mystery anthology.

Up to now the e-publishing process has been a dream - seamless and much more fun than any of us expected. We had the extreme good fortune to have Donna Carrick, of Carrick Publishing handle the hard bits. She knows all there is to know about getting books onto Kindle and other e-books, such as Kobo, Sony and Nook.

Donna is speedy but meticulous and insisted that we be as well. Each of us went through the entire text with a fine-tooth comb, reading each story again and again. The final publication reflects this attention to detail. I've read several other books on my Kindle that could have benefitted from Donna's ministrations.

So where's the hiccup? Our very first Kindle review was published yesterday by a woman from New Jersey. The book was unreadable, she said, words were jumbled up, parts of sentences missing. The text was white print on a black background. Well, no wonder she had trouble reading it! This was clearly a transmission problem or at least a problem with her Kindle. It would be nonsense to think that Amazon would publish a document in white text on black background. Their stock in trade is that all their books look exactly alike and they all look as much like paper books as possible.

The problem is that a single bad review sits on the Kindle site like an anvil. It drags all other reviews down with it and scotches any hopes we might have had for a consistent five-star rating. This reviewer admits that she didn't read any of the stories (as they were understandably unreadable in their pixilated form) but choosing to give the book a bad review because of a transmission problem, gives us a problem and more importantly it gives our excellent publisher a problem. This kind of review makes all of us look bad.

As long as there have been books and literary critics, authors have griped about bad reviews. But at least, in the pre-ebook days there were editors to ensure that what was being reviewed was the writing and not just a poor print run. Today, with peer reviews, we don't have that safeguard. Anything goes.



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.

CRIME ON MY MIND

With a Little Help from my Friends!

Does that tune run through your mind when you read the words? It should be the theme song of every writer.

I'll get by with a little....
I'll overcome my writer's block with a little ....
My rants and fears will be eased with a little....
My sales will skyrocket with a little help from my friends!

The crime writing community of friends is a very congenial one. No backstabbing allowed here! Well-established writers are more than happy to share the wisdom gained over years of publishing. Crime writers revel in each others' success from that first published novel to yet another award. And authors are more than happy to give a nod to, a mention on Facebook, a cover blurb, and tell all their friends about a fellow writer's new book. I wonder if the world of mainstream writing functions the same?

Because as we all know, it's word of mouth that really counts these days. We're very fortunate in Canada to have some terrific reviewers who will take the time to review new authors -- Margaret Canon, Don Graves and Jim Napier come to mind. And there are certainly others.

But it's the Facebook mention between friends that explodes into the universe as it's 'shared'. It's the Twitter mentions that provide the same outreach. It's the book club reading list. And the personal recommendations of friend to friend, reader to reader that make the real difference in whether a book, a series, an author's career will survive.

The crime writing and reading community is terrific. So proud to be a part of it. We all should be proud.

So, what book will you recommend today?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming in April, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime

CRIME ON MY MIND

Choosing a book...

What are you reading right now? And how did you choose it? If it's part of a series you're hooked on, that doesn't count. In particular, if it's the first time you've read that author...why that book?

'You can't tell a book by it's cover'. How many times have you heard that old gem? Well, often you can. Especially these days when many publishers try to convey the most amount of information about the book in as few details as possible. Too much on the cover and the reader's eye may move along the shelves. But, just the right combination of colours, the picture or drawing, and of course, the title will draw the reader to reach out and choose that book. For an initial read of the jacket, at least.

So then it's up to the cover blurb which, if the reader's hooked, leads to the reading of the first paragraph. Pass that final test, and a sale is made. Of course, there are variations to this pattern. But often it's the cover that makes the first impression.

So, before this 'first sight' stage, what brings the reader to your spot on the bookshelf? Reviews in the newspaper and magazines, on-line blogs and websites such as Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter...any place there might be a mention of the title and author.

This all works. But I believe the best marketing tool is word of mouth. A friend recommends a book, you'll probably read it, if you know your tastes are similar. The librarian at your local branch suggests a title; your local bookseller is excited about a book; someone in your book club mentions what they've just bought. It all makes an impression.

Even seeing a book on someone's table makes an impression. And if you see that title enough times, even without the persuasiveness of a voice, then connect that title to that book you're eyeing in the bookstore...a sale is made. Seven times is what it takes, the marketing experts tell us. That could be a combination of recommendation, review, Twitter, park bench...you get the picture.

What does this mean to authors? Perhaps nothing more than to get your mentions in (or out)whenever possible. Which is what we do, with signings, workshops, at conferences, speaking to book clubs, Facebook sites, review copies, bookmarks and so much more.

Think about that book you're reading. What made you choose it?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime

MAYHEM ON MONDAY

What is it about book people? And what can they do for you?

There’s something about book people. They are irresistible. Whenever I see a person reading a book or just carrying a book, I feel an instant form of kinship. It’s as if we’re members of a club or secret society with books as our common bond and secret handshake. It doesn’t matter what kind of book, only that it is a book. Newspapers and magazines are good too, but only a book carries that special weight.

I have a magical belief that this book reader must be a good person as well as an interesting person. Of course, as I tilt my head to read the spine of the book my new best friend is clutching, he or she invariably catches me. They don’t necessarily feel that instant connection. I offer as Exhibit A the expression on the face of the businessman who was actually reading the same book that I was on a recent flight from Toronto to Ottawa. As we emerged into the airport, I pointed that out to him. I hope he wasn’t badly injured in his rush to put a little distance between us. But hey, you can’t have everything.

Last week, Barbara Fradkin posted about book launches. I understood completely. That same week, I was clutching signed copies of Beautiful Lie the Dead, Barbara Fradkin’s latest Inspector Green and In Winter’s Grip, Brenda Chapman’s terrific first adult myster at their joint launch. Glancing around the Library and Archives Canada, I felt a warm sense of kinship with others who were holding the same books and celebrating the same authors. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for people reading these terrific crime novels in my travels.

Some of the best book people can’t confine themselves to one-on-one discussions or even launches. They love books and they love authors. They write; they read; they write about reading. They enjoy the connection and the community and being part of spreading the good word. If they are also organized, they can expand this into a blog with invited authors or a website of book reviews. What better way to connect with others in the reading club than by sharing discoveries and opinions? It’s better yet if mystery is their focus. One site that I really enjoy is Jim Napier’s http://deadlydiversions.com/. Jim is not only the mystery book reviewer (The Suspended Sentence) for The Sherbrooke Record, Quebec’s largest English language paper outside Montreal, but also serves up this useful online mix of current book reviews, genre discussions, resources and information for readers and crime writers. Deadly Diversions is an excellent and welcoming club house for us to drop into! It’s also well worth bookmarking and adding to your weblinks, if you have such critters.

I hope you will pop over to Jim’s site and check it out. Tell your friends. While you’re at it, what’s your favorite sources of information about mysteries, reviews and opinions? Outside of Mystery Maven Canada, of course!


Mary Jane Maffini rides herd on three, soon to be three and a half, mystery series. You can check them out at www.maryjanemaffini.com