Friday, September 12, 2025
Home Sweet Homicide - but please don't try this in your own home

Friday, January 12, 2024
Of Mice and Rabbie Burns
Last May my husband Will and I saw the John Steinbeck play, Of Mice and Men, at the Leeds Playhouse in England. This theatre experience was different from our viewing of Hamilton the previous week in London. Tickets in Leeds were about a quarter of the London price. That Tuesday the Leeds theatre was a quarter full and we were probably the only non-Brits present. In London we packed the theatre with a large number of tourists.
Of Mice and Men is set in the United States during the Great Depression. It tells the story of two migrant workers who dream of owning their own farm. Being Steinbeck, their dream turns to tragedy at the end. Before seeing the play, I wasn't familiar with the story, but afterward references to the novel kept popping up. This began later in our holiday, when we visited Alloway, Scotland, the birthplace of Robert Burns, who is widely regarded as Scotland's National Poet.
Burns birthplace cottage, Alloway, ScotlandViewed as a poet of the working class, Burns wrote in a light Scots dialect. He's affectionally called Rabbie by his Scottish fans. Of course, Will and I had sung his song/poem Auld Lang Syne on numerous New Year's Eves, but on this visit we learned that another Burns' poem, To a Mouse, was the inspiration for Of Mice and Men. Burns wrote the poem after he accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest with his plough and realized that, with its nest gone, the mouse wouldn't survive the winter. These lines inspired Steinbeck:
Others criticize Burns for accepting a job as bookkeeper for a Jamaica slave plantation. In the end, he didn't go to Jamaica for personal reasons.

Thursday, October 12, 2023
Hosting a Book Launch Party
Last month I held my first in-person book launch in 4 1/2 years. Fifty people gathered in The Treehouse at cSpace, which is located in Calgary's former King Edward Junior High School. I had toured the renovated building when cSpace opened in 2017 as an arts and community hub and fell in love with the Treehouse meeting room. Its top floor setting, three walls of windows, and outside deck offer panoramic views of the city. On September 21st the weather was perfect for an evening event.
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View from the Treehouse deck |
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cSpace: The Treehouse is the top floor of the extension on the left-hand side |
For friends not on Facebook, I created an invitation, which I emailed to each person. I started out wondering if anyone would come. But eventually enough people said "yes" that I realized I'd get a good crowd. Then new worries set in. Would they enjoy themselves and be glad they came?
- On what date did WHO (World Health Organization) declare COVID-19 a pandemic? Month, day, year required.
- Shortly after this declaration, what celebrity couple announced in Australia they'd tested positive for COVID-19?

Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Brontë Land

Monday, June 12, 2023
Creating a Novel Series Cover Brand
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.

Friday, May 12, 2023
When Word Collide Grand Finale

Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Inside Police Headquarters
For author and book information, please click this link.
My current novel-in-progress got into police work more than I'd planned when I made two homicide detectives viewpoint narrators. I wrote scenes of them in their workplace from information I recalled from a years ago visit to Calgary Police Service Headquarters - Westwinds, but mostly from my imagination. During revisions of the novel, I made a list of questions I'd ask someone familiar with the place, if I ever had the chance.
Then a writer-friend mentioned that Calgary homicide detective Dave Sweet had generously answered her questions about her crime novel. I'd enjoyed Dave's presentations on homicide cases at local crime writing events and read his memoir, Skeletons in My Closet. My friend gave me his email address and I wrote to him and asked if he'd mind answering my questions. He replied right away, saying he'd be happy to help.
I emailed my list to Dave. Again he quickly replied. My first question was my greatest worry: are the homicide and robbery units located in Westwinds? If they weren't, I'd either have to do a major novel revision or ignore this fact. To my relief, Dave answered yes, both were in the Investigative Services Building on the west side of Westwinds campus. I didn't remember this second building from my visit.
Evidently, from my questions, Dave got the hint that I was interested in the workplace environment because he offered me a tour of Westwinds, if I was interested. Yes, I was really interested, and the earlier the better. David said the next day would work for him, unless he got a call out before then. I knew once he was hot on a case, I'd lose the opportunity. We arranged to meet the following afternoon at the entrance to the Investigative Services Building.
From the atrium, we went to the homicide unit offices. In my novel, I'd given my Detective Mike Vincelli an office with a door. Instead, Calgary detectives work in cubicles. Dave didn't take us in, to protect his colleagues' privacy, but he pointed out a glass enclosed room in the far corner, where the unit's four cold case detectives work. Their windows face west and would have a view of the city skyline and mountain backdrop. My novel had my cold case Detective Novak working in a windowless storage room, which reflected his depressed mood. Now I thought this glass fishbowl office might offer intriguing possibilities.

Sunday, March 12, 2023
A Bit of Blarney for St. Patrick's Day
Please click this link for book and author information
I decided I couldn't come this far without trying. Here I go - awkwardly. In addition to virus concerns, in order to touch the stone with your lips you have to lean your head way back through the gap along the castle edge. A man holds your body and bars prevent falls to the ground. At worst, you'd bang your head. But arching backward over a high drop-off is a creepy feeling of letting go. Did I really need any more gab to write my novels? Hundreds of lips had touched the stone already that day. I blew the blarney stone a kiss and was content with getting close.

Sunday, February 12, 2023
Whisk(e)y -- with an 'e' or not?
Please click this link to learn about the author and her books
When I heard that BWL Publishing planned to publish a series of Canadian historical mystery novels, I was eager to get involved. In 2021, I wrote a mystery short story set in my home city, Calgary, Alberta, during the second and deadliest wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic. I showed the story to a writer-in-residence, who suggested I turn it into a novel. This intrigued me, but I polished the short story and submitted it to the Crime Writers of Canada 40th anniversary anthology. My story, A Deadly Flu, was accepted and published last spring in Cold Canadian Crime.
But BWL's plan prompted me to consider how I could expand my 4,500 word story into a 75,000 word novel. I mulled ideas and decided I'd add three new characters to the story: two suspects and female protagonist, Catherine. I'd still keep my original detective protagonist as a secondary narrator. He and Catherine would both have personal story arcs, including a romantic subplot. WWI would also feature more prominently in the novel, as the story built to the November 11th Armistice.
Confident these additions would give the story sufficient fodder for a novel, I asked BWL if I could write one of the books. The concept for the BWL Canadian Historical Mystery Series is that twelve different authors or author-pairs would write novels set in our ten Canadian provinces and two of our territories. Authors would have free rein over what to write, as long as the novel features a crime, takes place during a real historical time period, and is 70,000-80,000 words to keep the book sizes uniform. BWL assigned me the story set in my home province of Alberta.
The series will be published over a period of almost two years. Since I won't have time to start writing my novel before this summer, I asked for the last publication date, December 2024. The first Canadian Historical Mystery comes out this month. Rum Bullets and Cod Fish by H. Paul Doucette, set in Nova Scotia, sounds like roaring fun. "The year is 1924 and Prohibition is spawning a new breed of criminal." An undercover investigator tracks the ringleaders illegally transporting liquor to the US mob.
Since BWL is promoting the whole series right away, they asked each author to provide a title, story blurb, and suggestions for cover images. Luckily, I have a framework for my novel -- my short story and my ideas for expansion. From this, I came up with a blurb. I also needed a new title. My short story title, A Deadly Flu, was a wink at my first novel, A Deadly Fall. For a novel I'd want something to distinguish the two books. Words like dead, murder, kill, secrets, and their variations are popular for mystery titles. I also find concrete nouns in titles conjure strong images. The weapon in my story is whisky laced with a lethal drug. I settled on a title, A Killer Whisky.
During this process, I discovered a potential problem with the word 'whisky.' Ireland and the USA spell whiskey with an 'e,' unlike Canada and the rest of the world. My research suggests this might have been due to Ireland's desire to distinguish its whiskey from Scottish whisky. Did Canada adopt the Scottish spelling because many of our early explorers and fur trade merchants came from Scotland, while whiskey became popular in the US with waves of Irish immigration? That's my best guess.
I debated changing my title to one that wouldn't confuse American readers, or using US spelling, or making the poisoned drink a non-spelling-controversial liquor, like rum. But whisky is so concrete that I can almost smell it when I hear the word. It's also infamous in western Canadian history. Our fur trade is often called the whisky trade, which caused alcoholism problems for indigenous people. In the end, I decided to stay with whisky and Canadian spelling. Early in the novel, I'll have a character point out the difference between the countries, so US readers won't think I can't spell.
For images, I suggested a bottle or glass of whisky, as well as a piano. I plan to start the novel with my protagonist playing the instrument and music will feature through the story. Michelle Lee, BWL's cover designer, worked with my suggestions and created a stunning cover. I love the golden whisky colour against the black background. I can hear the clashing chord as the glass hits the piano keys. The glass of whisky stops the music, like murder.

Saturday, January 14, 2023
Literary vs Popular Fiction: How big is the difference really? By BC Deeks, Paranormal Mystery Fiction Author
Visit B.C. Deeks' BWL Author Page for Book and Purchase Information
http://bookswelove.net/deeks-bc/
The differences were never clear cut and are becoming less
so with the emerging publishing landscape.
At first blush, one could say that popular fiction is written
more to please the audience while literary fiction aims to reflect on the human
condition. Genre fiction, it is argued, is more formulaic, but this is a
response to its need to meet reader expectations. A ‘romance’ story must have a
‘happily ever after’ or it simply is not a romance. Yet within that expectation
is an endless variety of paths with an even greater number of deviations. Our
readers love to be surprised and delighted before they reach the anticipated
ending. And didn’t Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice end with a Happily Ever After?
Within the ongoing debate between popular versus literary
fiction, most people argue four key points: theme/ scope, plot driven versus
character driven, time/reputation, standard of writing. I would argue there’s
also a fifth factor: money! Modern Literary Fiction holds only 16% of the
market, whereas the top five most profitable
categories on Amazon.com are:
- Romance/Erotica ($1.44 billion).
- Crime/Mystery ($728.2 million).
- Religious/Inspirational ($720 million).
- Science Fiction/Fantasy ($590.2 million).
- Horror ($79.6 million).
I think we can all agree that popular fiction leans towards
more adventurous or sensational subject matter and they traditionally fall into
convenient categories such as crime fiction, romance, science fiction, fantasy.
In the new digital publishing age, those well-defined and predictable lines are
breaking down and the blending of genres is commonplace. I write paranormal
mysteries with romantic elements. Paranormal romance is one of the most popular
subgenres. A renowned Canadian astronaut wrote an outstanding
science fiction murder mystery!
What about the question of literary books having a deep
theme that popular fiction lacks? In my current series, Beyond the Magic, three
supernatural siblings lost their mother in childbirth and have a father who is
too ambitious and career driven to focus on raising them. Together they must face
life altering threats to their world and unravel an ancient prophecy. I would
argue that is an overarching theme of the power of family ties that bind.
Perhaps in literary fiction the emphasis on the theme is more overt than in
popular fiction, but that depends on the author.
Some people say that literary fiction is more character
driven while genre fiction is focused on plot, yet I, like most of the authors
I know, spend considerable upfront time creating character profiles with
associated emotional arcs that I carefully weave through my plot outline. Some
author friends say it is a character who appeared to them first, anxious to
tell their story.
Historically speaking, there are works of popular fiction
that, solely through the passage time, have become elevated by those in
authority to the status of literary classics, such as the works of Lucy Maude
Montgomery or Daphne DuMaurier. And, alternatively, literary works have
gained popular or commercial attention decades after publication, like Margaret Attwood’s, A Handmaid’s
Tale.
The final and often snide criticism about popular fiction
refers to its standard of writing. While my back instantly goes up at such
comments, my objective self will admit there is a sliver of truth in this one
factor. Not about standard from a quality perspective, but in level of writing.
This again points back to the audience. Popular fiction authors want to reach
as many readers as we can, so we write to the reading level of the majority of
the population. We choose the best possible words to communicate the emotion,
setting, and action required to move our story forward, draw our reader into
our imaginary world and let them leave it feeling entertained. Most typically,
literary fiction is profoundly philosophical about human nature and the meaning
of life. Its audience does not expect it to conform to any scope and genre conventions,
or language accessibility.
As the publishing world evolves, the boundaries between
literary and popular fiction will continue to blur, although I don’t believe
the two will ever completely merge. That fundamental difference in audience
expectation will remain wedged between them for a long time to come.
My books may not be a good fit for the Giller Prize, but I
am proud to write heartwarming stories of mystery and magic that readers from
their teens to their nineties can enjoy. My neighbor recently sat beside her
aging mother’s sick bed and swept her away by reading my latest book, Witch
Unbound, to her. I hear she thoroughly enjoyed it! I am honored that I
could do that for her as a writer.

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