Having a Home Library by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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A few years ago I converted one of the rooms in my house to a home library. It's something I've always wanted. The table in the center of the room gets good use when I'm doing research for a novel I want to write. It's helpful to spread out books, maps, documents and notebooks. Having shelves of history books is also handy as I often have a book or two (or more) on the subject I'm researching.

Recently, while looking around my library, I realized that I have a multitude of books I've yet to read. There is no question that I acquire books much faster than I can read them. I'm fine with that. I probably couldn't stop if I wanted to. And while I do enjoy gazing at my shelves full of books, I don't buy them for looks. I buy them because I actually want to read them. Many of the books on my shelves have been in my possession for years and have yet to be read - a disservice to both their authors and to myself. So, I've decided to do something about it.

It is not a lack of interest that prevents me from reading them. It's a lack of time. I still work a full-time job, teach online courses for the University of Dayton anywhere from once to three times a year, run a household on my own, and, of course, research and write novels and still attempt to have a life outside of work and home. 

I also spend as much time reading as possible. I am never not in the middle of a book, usually several books. For example, at the time of my writing this, I am reading one book and listening to another audiobook on my Kindle. I bring a book to work with me so I can read on my lunch break. There is another book I keep in my bedroom to read before going to sleep. Add to those any books I'm reading for research and any other books I'm reading for unexpected circumstances (like the one I'm currently reading on clicker training cats in an attempt to keep one of my cats from strolling across my kitchen counters and stovetop.) Books are my life. Well, books, cats, and writing to be exact. They top the list of things that bring me joy. 

Also on that list is learning. I love to learn about almost anything. If I could be a professional student, I would. While I enjoy various methods of learning, reading is undoubtedly my favorite. This is reflected in the variety of books I own on many subjects. What a shame to have them and never find the time to read them.

I decided to do something about that. I am now mindfully carving out time to snuggle into the rocking chair in my library and start reading my way through my book collection. Since history is my greatest love, I've begun with the bookcase that holds my books on American history. I am more than halfway through Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. This bookcase will take me through the Salem Witchcraft Trials, the American Revolution and into the American Civil War. 

Other bookcases include biographies, early-mid 20th century history, books on art, music, and photography, theology and eco-theology, women's history, European and Non-Western history, folklore, material culture, poetry, classics of literature, crafts, gardening, and, of course, plenty of novels.

  

One of the best things about the time I spend reading in my library is that I am almost always accompanied by one or both of my cats. 

So, books and cats, my two favorites. What more could I ask?

 

    Zach in the window                              Josette on my lap

Trying Again for Jolabokaflod by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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I have been fascinated with the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod ever since I found out about it. Jolabokaflod roughly translates to "Christmas book flood|." Beginning during World War II, people in Iceland have been purchasing books from a catalog sent to every household in Mid-November. They give these books to friends and family. Gifts are opened on December 24th. According to tradition, the recipients start reading the books right away. A cozy Christmas Eve is spent with hot chocolate, a sweet treat or two, and a brand new book. It sounds like heaven to me.

Last year, I decided I would try my own version of Jolabokaflod by getting everything ready early and then spending the entire evening reading. Unfortunately, I did not plan well enough. I host Christmas dinner for a few family members at my house so a lot of Christmas Eve is spent cooking what I can ahead of time, cleaning, and playing Santa for my cat. (Yes, she's very, very spoiled.) I miscalculated how much time I would need and never got my long evening of reading.

I do try to learn from my mistakes, so this year I intend to do everything I can do ahead of time on December 23rd so that on Christmas Eve I can curl up in my favorite comfy chair next to the Christmas tree and indulge in my favorite pastime - reading. A couple of cookies, a mug of hot chocolate, and my cat lounging nearby will make my Jolabokaflod complete.

I will have to take time out to fill Autumn Amelia's stocking with catnip toys and place her special treats under the tree.  I don't mind, though, in fact I like doing that for her. She loves Christmas. Besides, she's my muse and the inspiration for one of the main characters in my Cat Tails series books, so she's earned it. After all, how could anyone deny Christmas joy to this face?

                           

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Reading by Season by Eileen O'Finlan

                                                                                                                                                                   

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Over the years, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. At certain times of the year, usually at the change of seasons, I get the overwhelming urge to read specific types of books. Often, just as we are sliding into summer, I get the hankering for historical fiction set during either the American Revolution or the American Civil War. I've no idea why the warmer weather induces such a fancy. After all, those are hardly what most people would call beach reads, but there we are. 

I've never been into the typical "beach read" anyway. The last time I read a book on the beach (many, many years ago), it was The Shining by Stephen King. I was so into it that I completely lost track of time - a common occurrence when I'm reading a good book - and didn't realize that four hours had gone by. I'd been laying on my stomach, propped up on my elbows. I got a massive sunburn and wore the outline of it on my back from my low, scoop-back, one-piece bathing suit for the next two years! Yes, Stephen King books can be dangerous!

Now that we are heading into fall, the temperatures here in New England are beginning to dip, the days are getting shorter, and autumn is definitely on its way, my book cravings are turning to the supernatural. I'm beginning to amass a "to be read" pile of such books, having just finished two of the genre's classics - Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.

I'm sure I'm not alone in turning to these types of books at this time of year. It makes sense. (Certainly more than yearning for Revolution and Civil War books just because it's summer.) Come the holidays and the long, cold winter, I'll probably start looking for something more cozy. But from now through Halloween, bring on the vampires, ghosts, and haunted houses. 

While it took a year to write The Folklorist, (after at least six months of research), I really got into it the most during the fall. It was exciting to craft a novel that could have been on my own autumn TBR list at the same time I was craving that type of book. I think it helped me write the kind of book I most wanted to read at that moment.

Included in this fall's reading will be books from BWL's Paranormal Canadiana Collection. If Nancy M. Bell's Night at the Legislature is any indication, they are sure to induce plenty of spine tingles!

Of course, I might throw a book or two by Stephen King into the mix. At least at this time of year, I won't be risking a sunburn.

The beginning of my fall TBR

To Story Is Human

 

my latest storytelling adventure

                   My page at BWL Publishing

My friend Juliene likes to say "we're hot-wired for story." I agree. It's one of the things that make us human. We find evidence for this in the very earliest cave paintings...daring tales and the handprints of those telling the story.

We choose our stories for many reasons...to inform and educate, to delight, to feel less alone.

We witness stories too...an argument at the grocery store, a look between lovers. Sometimes we choose to step into the stories going on around us and become part of them.

We think about stories, and allow them to change our perspectives, increase our understanding of an event, a person, a long-held belief.

We may even engage in the creative act of storytelling ourselves...in a heartfelt letter to a friend, a journal entry, a story to a child at bedtime.

And we support each other in our storytelling by sharing a treasured poem, novel, a performance.

My friend Juilene and I have been supporting each other over our 30 years of hot-wired for story friendship.. I hope you have a friend like mine.

Eileen & Juilene

                  As always, happy reading, friends!

 

---

Biking Inspired My Mystery Novel

 

 

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In April 2020, my husband Will and I got e-bikes for an activity to do during Calgary's shutdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. We'd enjoyed regular biking all our lives, but I'd grown tired of struggling up streets in my foothills home city and walking my bike up the steeper roads. 

The previous year I'd tried out an e-bike at a mountain festival and was awed by its instant power and the ease of pedaling up the base of a ski hill. Will and I considered upgrading to e-bikes then but didn't get around to it. Now, with a summer of limited options looming ahead, we checked out bikes at several local stores and settled on a small store close to our home.  

On our second visit I asked the owner/manager why his store was open when most retail outlets were closed for the pandemic.    

"Bikes are considered essential," he said, with a tone of pride or surprise. "We're transportation."

 

I used that line in my new novel, Spring Into Danger. 

That spring 2020 I was busy finishing the third book in my Paula Savard Mystery Series and starting to mull ideas for the fourth. Since Paula is an insurance adjuster, her next case would come from her insurance work. Ten Days in Summer (book # 2) involved a building fire with a suspicious death. Book # 3, Winter's Rage, developed from a hit-and-run collision that killed a woman. A theft case seemed the likely next adventure for Paula. How about a break and enter at a bicycle store? 

Our bike purchases led to several follow-up trips to the store. My front basket kept popping its screws and was eventually recalled for safety reasons. My spring-loaded seat came off whenever I grabbed it to lift the bike. Okay, I probably shouldn't be lifting the bike that way, but it's a habit. 

The store owner gave me a regular seat and ordered a replacement spring-loaded one. Each time we phoned or went to the store to enquire about the order's progress, he'd tell us about delays in the supply chain due to COVID protocols at the Vancouver port and the demand for bicycles causing backlogs in orders. Everyone was out walking or biking that shutdown summer. We witnessed the shrinking bicycle stock in the store. The owner told us people now had to wait months for e-bikes. 

In hindsight I wonder if I enjoyed those store visits as an oasis of normalcy in the midst of the pandemic shutdown. Grocery stores -- about my only other in-person shopping -- often had lineups. This bike store didn't. At the grocery store checkout, customers waited on floor markings spaced safely apart. Grocery shoppers crabbed about others blocking the aisles since we weren't allowed to pass anyone. Nothing like that at the bike store. By summer most grocery store workers and customers wore masks. I saw no masks in our bike store; the bottle of hand sanitizer on the checkout counter went unused. Grocery shortages annoyed me. We already had our bikes and were only missing my spring-loaded seat. It never did arrive. After two years of waiting, we and the store owner gave up. I find my regular seat comfortable.

My story mulling continued. If I set my next novel during the COVID-19 shutdown, an open store, with casual protocols, would give my sleuth Paula a chance to do much of her work on the claim in-person. Having characters meet face-to-face is generally better than phone calls for drama in story scenes, since more can be shown through body language. For the same reason, in-person would be better than having Paula meet story characters on online platforms, which would become her new work method when COVID-19 hit. The book could still feature plenty of Skype and Zoom calls to give a flavour of the times.  

I started writing the novel in fall 2021. So much had changed since the pandemic start that I felt a strange nostalgia for those first months, when COVID was new and frightening and most of us had no clue what lay ahead. I wanted to process that early experience and decided to set the story in April 2020, when the shutdown was in full force. The novel starts with Paula taking on a new claim -- a break and enter at a bicycle store that raises questions. Through her investigations, Paula navigates COVID-19 restrictions, which impact the characters and plot in so many ways that the whole story would change if I removed the pandemic.   

                      

Now we're into a post-COVID world -- sort of. Will and I are still biking, although we've done less each year as other activities reopen. Our biking got off a late start this spring thanks to holidays in the UK and Ottawa. In addition, Will's e-bike developed serious mechanical problems, which required more visits to our favourite bicycle store.      

    

Biking with friends in Banff - the hills are easy on e-bikes 

Creating a Novel Series Cover Brand

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BWL's Art Director didn't set out to create a cover brand for my Paula Savard Mystery Series. The first cover that Michelle Lee designed for me was for book # 2 of my series, Ten Days in Summer, published in 2017. The process began with me filling out a BWL Cover Art Form (CAF). I provided details about the story, its setting in Calgary, and the two main characters and suggested images related to these. At that time, BWL required that most novel covers include at least one image of a person. 

I plugged keywords into the photo image website, searching for ones that suited my protagonist and the story antagonist, a wannabe cowboy. None were exactly right, especially for Paula, my insurance adjuster sleuth. "Female detective" turned up images of young women peering through magnifying glasses. Paula is fifty-two and doesn't use that prop. Keywords "female insurance adjuster" showed women examining cars. The story involves a building fire insurance claim. I tried "businesswomen" and got images of women sitting in meetings, while Paula spends her time out on the case. 

I selected the best images for Paula that I could find along with images for my antagonist, which included a silhouetted cowboy.  I also suggested images of the Calgary skyline, fires, and a boarded-up house for the burned building. I don't think Michelle used any of the exact images I sent, but she meshed my ideas into a cover that was better than one I could have designed (see cover image above). The fire suggests the heat of summer in the title. 

Two years later, BWL republished A Deadly Fall, book # 1 in the series. During that short time period, book cover fashion moved away from portraying people and toward crisp and intriguing images that evoke a sense of the story. Now BWL's CAF stated that most covers would not include a person. I sent people image suggestions anyway, but I found it easier not to have to focus on finding an image that fit the characters in my head. On my CAF, I suggested images for the Calgary skyline and fall -- fall leaves on water, a path in fall, trees with colourful fall leaves, and falling leaves. Again, I doubt Michelle chose my actual suggestions, but they were her starting point to create this golden cover.   

When the third series book, Winter's Rage, was ready for a cover two years later, we were on our way to a series cover brand. My CAF included a few people image suggestions -- a woman texting, a man in a snowstorm, but I focused on images of the Calgary skyline in winter and winter driving, since this story was about a hit-and-run collision.  For the first time I considered colour. While red, orange, and yellow suited the fall and summer seasons of the first two books, I saw winter as white, blue, and black (night). Michelle came up with a cover that continued the brand with snowflakes and a frozen Calgary. Winter's book cover was blue, with yellow lettering that linked it to the colour of the two earlier books in the series.   

 By book # 4 of my Paula Savard Mystery Series, the series brand was established: Calgary skyline, colours to suit the story season, and additional images related to the season or story. Since bicycles feature prominently in Spring Into Danger, I included bicycle images among my CAF suggestions and chose Calgary skyline images that had a place for a bike or cyclist in the foreground. Here's the cover design for Spring Into Danger, which is scheduled for release in September. 

 I like how the cyclist pops into view. Whenever I look at this cover, I don't notice him until he emerges from the shadows. The book's blue cover with yellow lettering matches Winter's Rage and the covers for the four books have come full circle by including a silhouette on the first and last design. I look forward to seeing Spring Into Danger sitting on a bookshelf.   

Shelf Life by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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One way to know if you are a genuine bibliophile (aka bookworm) is by how much you love your bookshelves. This is more important than how many bookshelves you have. That could simply be determined by the amount of space available in your home. Therefore, it may not accurately project the depth of your love for books. It is more about how you feel when you look at the shelves you have. I have been known to spend time gazing lovingly at my shelves of books, taking them in as the things of wonder that they are. A warm, cozy feeling wells up in me as I contemplate my book collections. It's no surprise that I nearly swoon upon entering a library or bookstore. But the bookshelves I can view in the comfort of my own home are the best simply because they are mine. 

I have always dreamt of having a library in my house. Given the number of books I own, I suppose I do have one, but I mean one specific room dedicated to books. As yet, that is not a reality for me. Nonetheless, I take great pleasure in turning my entire house into a library. With the exception of the hallway, there is not a single room in my house that does not contain books. There are even a few shelves on the walls in the kitchen holding stacks of cookbooks. 

Despite the four bookcases in my living room...

     

                            (An antique from my grandmother's home holds non-fiction history books)

(A bargain at a second-hand store holds non-fiction and poetry)

                                                         (An online purchase hold fiction) 

(A rotating bookcase handmade for me by a very dear friend holds biographies)

... the shelves in the front entryway...

      This set of shelves holds a mix of fiction and non-fiction history books)

... the bookcase in my den...

(This one holds the books in use for research on the topic of whatever historical novel I'm writing at any give time.)

... the bookcase on the sunporch, and the five bookcases in my half-finished basement, I still have trouble finding places for all the books I collect so I've had to get creative.

The eight shelves lining either side of the fireplace once held a tea set, framed photos, and an assortment of knick-knacks. Four of those shelves have given up their accoutrement to make way for books.

(Mostly fiction on the shelves; Art & Photography books on one side of the mantel and Irish history on the other)

                                 

I have recently been thinking that I may have to find another spot for the tea set even if it means packing it away. There are too many books waiting for a good home. Many are currently piled in artful stacks around the house.

You may rightly ask if I've read all these books. Alas, I collect them much faster than I can read them. I also donate large amounts of books to the local library once I have finished reading them unless they are likely to assist me in research for a future writing project. This allows others to love them, too, and frees up space for more books. But no matter how full my bookshelves are, I find there's always room for more and even one small space on a shelf calls out to me for a book. This and the swelling of my heart that occurs when I take them all in, tells me that I am, without a doubt, a true bibliophile and proud of it!

                                                   

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For the Love of Reading by Eileen O'Finlan

 

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Every loyal member of Goodreads knows they are encouraged to set a reading challenge for themselves at the beginning of each year. The challenge is to set a goal for the number of books to be read by the end of the year. Members can keep track by adding each new book they begin to their homepage and marking it completed when finished. The website keeps count of the total as well as tracking how many books the reader is ahead of or behind schedule.

I am a voracious reader, but before I started using Goodreads regularly I had no idea how many books I read in a year other than "a lot." January 1, 2021 was the first time I set a goal. Having no clue about the amount of books I could complete by December 31st I chose a random number - 60. I figured it was possible for me to read that many books in a year and I was curious to see how many I actually do read.

I noticed that many GR members had set goals of 100 or more, but though I'm an avid reader, I am not a fast reader and figured I wouldn't be able to finish that many. I enjoy reading far too much to speed through a book. I prefer to savor them. I was pleasantly surprised then, when I surpassed my goal of 60 books long before the end of the year. My final total was 83.

This year I've set my sights higher. My goal is 90. As of right now, I've completed four books and am two books behind schedule. No worries, though. I was many more books behind schedule at the start of last year and look where I wound up! Reaching 90 books just means I read a few more this year than last year. I refuse to speed up my reading just to reach this goal, though. Reading is one of the greatest pleasures in my life. It is not meant to be rushed. At least not for me.

I do tend to be competitive with myself, however so I know I'm going to want to hit that 90 book goal. Fortunately, there are no restrictions on what I read so if I fall too far behind by the end of the year - hello children's picture books! But I'm hoping I won't need to do that.

Where do you get your ideas?

 

                                                                                                                                                                          Please click this link for author, book and purchase information

"Where do you get your ideas?" This might be the number one question readers ask authors.

My quick answer is that ideas pop into my head all the time and they come from everywhere. My personal experience, conversations with other people, places I've lived in and visited, the news, books I've read, TV, movies, perhaps a painting or line of music. 

This winter, I'm editing a novel-in-progress, book # 3 of my Paula Savard mystery series, while mulling ideas for book # 4. With a series, many of the basic ideas are already there. I start with my sleuth, Paula, a fifty-five year old insurance adjuster, and her cast of supporting characters, who impact her personal life and, in some cases, her sleuthing. Paula and most of her family, colleagues and friends live in my home city, Calgary Alberta. I could send Paula to another location for all or part of the next book, but I see her as grounded in Calgary. Unlike me, Paula isn't drawn to travel, although book # 3 presents her with a future travel opportunity. For now, I think her adventures in book # 4 will continue in Calgary. 

 

    An often deserted pathway behind Calgary's Saddledome arena inspired my idea for the murder in the first Paula Savard novel, A Deadly Fall. 

My current novel-in-progress, Winter's Rage, ends in January 2020, with Paula at a crossroads in her life. Book # 4 will begin with her dealing with that situation. I've decided it will take place in spring, since Paula's first three mysteries happened in fall, summer and winter. But which spring will this be? January 2020 was right before COVID-19 changed the world. Will we next meet Paula in spring 2020, as she grapples with the start of the pandemic both personally and at work? Or will it be spring 2021, when the the pandemic is (we hope) nearing its end? I could jump over the virus and set the novel in spring 2022. This would make the time frame more contemporary to my publication date, although I find it hard to envision the post COVID-19 world. What things will return to the old normal and what will be the long term changes? The year I choose for this fourth novel will affect my ideas for it. Thoughts to mull during the winter.

 

Calgary's annual Stampede parade prompted ideas for a major character and an inciting incident in my second novel, Ten Days in Summer. 

  

While Paula got into solving mysteries as an amateur sleuth, I decided her subsequent ventures would come from her insurance adjusting work. Ten Days in Summer starts with a suspicious death resulting from a building fire. Paula naturally becomes involved in the course of investigating the property fire insurance claim. In Winter's Rage, she adjusts a hit and run collision and gradually suspects the fatality was no accident. 

This quiet, suburban Calgary street plays a large role in Winter's Rage.

For book # 4, I'm thinking that burglary could make a good cover up for murder. Last spring, my husband and I bought e-bikes at a local bicycle shop. I was intrigued by the store's booming business. With most of their usual activities shut down for the pandemic, Calgarians sought outdoor activities and many of us updated our old bicycles. That store and the two guys operating it are giving me ideas for the crime that will launch Paula's next mystery.            

I also want to include a ghost in book # 4, because ghosts both interest and frighten me. At the end of Ten Days in Summer, Paula's office moved to Inglewood, Calgary's oldest neighbourhood. Many ghosts lurk in Inglewood, a location for Calgary's haunted walking tours. The ghost rumoured to haunt her historic office building will challenge rational Paula, who doesn't believe in other worldly happenings. 

A ghost walking tour of Inglewood inspired my choice of  this "haunted" building for Paula's office.

All of these bits and pieces, swirling in my mind, will converge into the start of a story, when I eventually sit down and write the novel. As the story moves along, it will pluck more ideas from my usual sources. That's the plan, anyway, and it's how I get my ideas.    

  

E-biking last spring triggered ideas for my next novel 

 

Do Short Stories Sell?

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Some years ago, I participated in a reading event at a local bookstore. The theme was short stories. During the question and answer period, an audience member asked the bookstore owner if people bought short story collections. He answered, "No, not even when the author wins a major award." His example was the recent winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's glitziest literary award for fiction. A Giller win typically results in a huge boost in book sales, but his customers weren't interested in buying the winner's short story collection. 

                                     Giller Prize glitz 

Short stories used to be popular. In the 1950s and 60s, writers could make a living by publishing them in magazines. When I started writing around 1990, big mainstream magazines like Redbook and Seventeen included a short story per issue. Neither magazine now publishes in print. A friend who writes short stories says that today online magazines provide many opportunities for short stories, but they often don't attract readers.

My writing has mainly focused on novels, but I got into short stories in my first creative writing class. Short works suit a class or workshop structure better than novels do. I suspect the proliferation of classes is one reason the short story genre has survived. A student can write a story in a week, the class critiques the whole work in an evening, and then the student revises and submits the story to journals that exist to publish the work of emerging writers.  

I've enjoyed writing short stories for reasons other than the relative speed from start to completion. They've been a chance to experiment with styles, characters and locations I couldn't sustain in a novel. I've written short stories with magic realism, a sociopathic narrator, and settings I've visited but don't know intimately. Other stories have led to novels. My series mystery sleuth, Paula Savard, had her origins in my short story, Adjusting the Ashes, about an adjuster dealing with a wacky insurance claim. 

The best explanation I've heard for the decline in short story readership is that television killed it. People in the mood for a short fictional experience have the option to relax with an evening drama or comedy. I'm guilty of choosing these over reading. I wonder if short story writing has responded to the drop in readership by shifting away from popular fiction toward a poetic style that appeals to fellow writers, but tends to be less satisfying to general readers.  

A short story exception that proves the rule is Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam. Sales of this book took off after it won the 2006 Giller Prize. A literary pundit noted that the collection of linked stories about medical students got the Giller bump because the writing is accessible, the characters relatable and the stories are strong on plot. Another exception is E. Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, a long short story that had enough going on for it to be adapted into a hit movie, although I don't know how many people read this excellent short story.  

My home province of Alberta, Canada, played the role of Wyoming in the movie, Brokeback Mountain

Enterprising authors say the practical value of short stories today is to use them to draw readers to your novels. You can produce and sell a short story e-book online for 99 cents or offer it for free. If readers enjoy the story, hopefully, it will lead them to buy your novels. I'd like to try this one day with a couple of my longer works. Perhaps foolishly, I would also like to gather the stories I've written and published over the years into a short story collection, even if nobody reads the book.     

Canadian-American actor Eric McCormack hosted the online Giller Prize show on                  November 6, 2020. The Will and Grace star explained that he grew his moustache for a movie.    

Souvankham Thammavongsa was surprised in her apartment when she won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her short story collection, How To Pronounce Knife 

WWC Online Writers Festival - Free This Weekend

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Every August for the past nine years, I've attended Calgary's When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers. I've loved the festival's energy, learned about the writing craft and book promotion, and acquired new readers and writing connections. When this year's in-person event was cancelled due to COVID-19, the organizers decided to go online. The festival happens this weekend. It's free and open to everyone.

I wasn't sure I'd get involved with the online version of WWC until I saw the first draft of the 3-day program. The organizers invited past presenters to fill vacant spaces on the proposed panels. Several topics grabbed my interest and I was given spots on these two panels:

Ten Things I Wish I’d Known  

When you started writing, what assumptions blocked your progress, lead you down dead ends, or limited your opportunities and experiences? Panelists share their initial faulty thoughts that slowed their journey into the writing world. 

After almost 30 years of writing, I wish I knew a few more things and hope to learn them from my fellow panelists. I'm familiar with all three from past WWC festivals and they've achieved success in their widely-varied directions. Our panel will take place on Zoom, Friday, August 14, 3:00 pm. All you need to do to attend is go to the WWC website and click on the event link in the program PDF. No registration or payment required. 

Me (right hand side) on a panel at last year's WWC

My second Zoom appearance will be on Saturday, 1:00 pm, Access Denied: A panel for writers on how to handle rejections and critiques, and communicate with editors/agents/publishers,

The agent on this panel will have a lot to share. I've become an expert on this subject during the past 30 years -- but I'm still standing!

When I'm not on a panel, I'll be cruising the WWC program for other panels, presentations and activities to attend. There will be up to five choices every hour from 1:00 pm Friday, August 14th, to 5:00 pm Sunday, August 16th. A number have already caught my eye:

Meet the Mesdames of Mayhem: Fresh from their award-nominated CBC Gem documentary, meet the writers with a century of combined killing time and learn how they freshen up their crime sprees for the 21st century (Sat, 2:00 pm).

Medical Errors and Tropes: A bullet in the shoulder that doesn't hit anything important? Knock-outs without actual damage? Induced comas? What is realistic and what is not? A discussion of common medical mistakes and questions in fiction (Sat, 3:00 pm).

Plus a couple of panels on editing, which I'm in the midst of doing now for my novel-in-progress. In addition, I've requested a one-on-one Zoom meeting about developing my social media strategy.  

Two fellow BWL authors will also be involved this year.  

Nancy M Bell: Blue Pencil Café
                         Pitch Sessions
                         Editors: When Can They Help and How? (Sat 12:00:00 pm)
                         The Dos and Don’ts of Successful Pitching, (Sun 3:00:00 pm)

David Poulsen: Crime Thru Time (Sat 4:00:00 pm)
                          From the Mean Streets to the Deadly Wilderness (Sun 1:00:00 pm) 

At last year's WWC festival, David and I participated in a fun panel with two other Calgary area crime writers.  For a (virtual) taste of what you'll get this weekend, you can listen to the podcast of High Crimes in Your Own Backyard.   

Partying at a previous When Words Collide festival. This year, WWC is hosting a Virtual Pool Party