How the Calgary Stampede Inspired My Murder Mystery Novel

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How the Calgary Stampede Inspired my Murder Mystery Novel

My first published writing was a travel article about the Calgary Stampede in The Montreal Gazette newspaper (May 1, 1993). At the time, I was living in Montreal and had no clue I’d be moving to Calgary three years later. 

Saddledome, fairgrounds site and Calgary skyline

In the summer of 1992, my husband and I had made a trip west with our two young sons. Our holiday goals were to see the Rocky Mountains and visit a cousin who lived in Calgary. As I was looking through travel information, I noticed we’d arrive in Calgary the last day of the Stampede. Why not buy tickets to the rodeo? I didn’t expect the festival to be much more than that and didn’t allow any time for other Stampede activities.

When we got to the fairgrounds, I was surprised by the extent of the offerings. A hilarious hypnosis show, many other shows, midway rides, a marketplace. I even liked the food. And we didn’t touch on all the rest—the downtown parade on opening day, free pancake breakfasts, everyone dressed in western wear, stores decked out with bales of hay, the party atmosphere in the city.

Calgary Stampede parade

I figured if I was ignorant of the Stampede’s scope, it’s likely my fellow Montrealers were too. In the fall, I signed up for my first creative writing course, Magazine Writing. Our final assignment was to write a non-fiction piece and a query letter targeted at a specific magazine or newspaper. I was an avid reader of The Gazette travel section and wrote an article about our visit to the Stampede. The teacher liked the piece, so I sent the query to The Gazette travel editor.

Little did I know how slowly the publishing industry generally operates. I also didn’t know that rejection was par for the course. When several months passed with no reply, I was despondent. Then I got the call. The editor was enthused about my idea. He especially liked the family angle.

“Most people I hear from are yuppies,” he said.

Who knew something ordinary like having kids would be a selling point?

I couldn’t stop smiling for days. My writing career was launched. A couple of weeks later, my feature titled “Canada’s Wild West: The Calgary Stampede” appeared on the front page of The Gazette travel section.

While I went on to write three more travel articles for this editor, I discovered how hard it was to break into other publishing. I queried magazines with travel ideas and got no interest. So I returned to my first love, fiction, and wrote novels and short stories. As the years went on, I learned that publishing acceptances are rare. 

Finally, a small press accepted my murder mystery novel set in Calgary, my current hometown. It struck me this book could become a series. Since its title was Deadly Fall, I decided the next books in the series would take place in Calgary's other three seasons. I settled on summer for book two. For me, summer in Calgary means the Stampede. My new novel Ten Days in Summer, set against a backdrop of the Calgary Stampede, feels like a return to my writing roots and the article that made me a published writer.

My husband Will and me at the Stampede parade

I still enjoy the Stampede as much as I did on that first visit. During my 20 years in Calgary, I’ve come to know it more. I rarely miss the fairgrounds and the parade, usually catch a pancake breakfast and have acquired some western wear. Stampede is like Calgary’s Mardi Gras, or two weeks of western-themed Hallowe’en that takes over the whole city. I hope my novel Ten Days in Summer captures some of this atmosphere.  

I wanted the cover of my new novel to include a Stampede image. BWL designer Michelle Lee came up with this striking silhouette of a cowboy against a background of the Calgary skyline and the fire that sets off the novel action. 

If you're in Calgary this Tuesday, please join me at my book launch for Ten Days in Summer: Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Owl's Nest Bookstore, Britannia Shopping Plaza on Elbow Drive at 49th Avenue, 815 49th Avenue SW, Calgary. Free. Refreshments. Everyone welcome. RSVPs are appreciated but not required. contact@owlsnestbooks or (403) 287-9557.   

     

     

Is The Font Information Publishers Use (and let the reader know) Necessary? by Karla Stover

Right now, I have four library books on my night stand: two published by Simon and Schuster, one by Putnam, and one by Random House. Random House included the information that the book was set in Dante, "a typeface designed by Giovanni Mardersteig (1892 - 1977) for his own printing business, the Officina Bodoni." I find the punctuation in this font hard to find, let alone read.

I read up on Mr. Mardersteig and then popped over to Random House, thinking I'd give them a call. Their website doesn't have a phone number, so I sent an email. In the meantime, I read that Random House was started by two men, one of whom was Bennett Cerf. When I was little, my folks watched What's My Line, and he was part of the panel. How nice to inadvertently run into an old friend.

I, of course, Googled around and found only three comments on including font information in books. Apparently, font facts aren't an issue with many readers--more's the pity, but here's what those three had to say:

1. Why not? It takes up only a few words out of the entire page of book info anyway. Besides, type nerds like me like knowing the font used, and the publishers probably got tired of telling people in their emails that the font used was.

2. There's a certain amount of guesswork on my part, but I suppose it has to do with copyright. Fonts can be copyrighted. Someone has to create them after all. Publishers hold the concept of copyright in very high regard, so it stands to reason that they would want to give the font creator due credit.

3. It brings peace and serenity to our minds in a world full of . . . Comic Sans.

I like knowing things such as fonts used and, getting back What's My Line, panelist Dorothy Kilgallen died a mysterious death while researching the Warren Committee's findings on the killing of President Kennedy. I read her biography. And I carefully researched my two murder mysteries. In A Line to Murder, the protagonist visits a former hippy commune. I visited an active commune. She goes to a psychic fair, so I did, too. She works with senior women in a retirement home and I do volunteer work at a soldier's home.

Murder: When One Isn't Enough takes place mostly on Hood Canal. My family has had summer homes there since the late 1950s. I know the area and the history. I've been to many Tahuya Days festivals and own a copy of Madame of the House, the book around which the story takes place.

Random House just responded to my email, asking which book I was referring to. If I get an answer, I'll post it. In the meantime, back to my historical fiction (but well-researched) novel.

Update from Jude Pittman

I keep intending to get my Blog ready and posted, but there's always something getting in the way.  It seems for some reason my role as publisher for Books We Love is always getting in the way of my passion for writing mysteries.  Once again today finds me unprepared and playing catch up.

What's going on with Amazon?  Anyone have any ideas.  Seems like they've deserted the book world in favor of deploying drones, and of course who could miss Bezos' shining head and beaming smile as he basked in the attention of Hollywood.  Star struck I guess, no more time for those measly ebooks after he's already managed to force the price down so low that authors can barely afford to keep their software current.  Oh well, onward and upward.  Looks for our Books We Love books everywhere, no longer KDP exclusive you'll find us on Kobo, Apple, Smashwords, Overdrive, anywhere you find ebooks you'll find Books We Love.  So enough about the publisher side of things.

As you might have noticed Jamie and I struggled quite a bit with branding our new series that we're writing together.  Readers have been telling us that the story is so seamless they can't tell two authors are writing.  Probably as a result of Jamie and I struggling together with all the mysteries of publishing for the past 8 or 9 years.  In any event, we started with Kelly McWinter, who those of you that know my Deadly series will recognize as the lead character in all three of those books.  Both of us felt that Kelly would be easy to work with so we started out with the title "New Directions" for our new series, "McWinter Confidential" but after a couple of months we both realized that the title just didn't fit the book and we decided we needed to make a change.

That's s where the advantage of being a publisher came in, since we had to do the work ourselves we could change the title and re-release the book.  I won't mention what Michelle said about "once again" changing one of my covers.  She gets a bit touchy mid-week after dealing with hordes of teen students, but we did get the new cover, and of course we put a note in the description to warn readers who had already purchased New Directions that the new book was the same one only now called "To Kill A Songbird".  We tried it first  with a pseudonym (Jayme Lynn Robb) but decided it was too complicated to have yet another name, so we went back to using our own names.  It's not for sale right now, that's because we're waiting for Michelle to speak to us again and change the cover...LOL). 

Anyway, that's where we are with the new series.  Both of us love the "To Kill A Songbird" title and the theme for the series, now we're busy thinking about book 2, which is going to continue with "To Kill A Ghost", McWinter Confidentia, Book 2,

Now if I could just get myself focused and motivated on my Sisters of Prophecy series, I'd get the next book in that one written finished.  Book 1, Katherine, is available in all markets, so if you're interested in a book that's a mix of mystery and romance with a paranormal twist you might enjoy "Katherine" the first book in the Sisters of Prophecy series.  If you do and you like it, maybe you can give me some thoughts on what you'd like to see in Irene, which is half finished and just waiting for me to get back to visiting those characters

Any authors out there reading this.  What does it take to get you motivated to start writing again after you've let a manuscript sit for several months?  Any tips.

If you'd like to read Katherine, now is a perfect time.  It's on Sale at Smashwords for their Readers Week, and it's only $1.50 to purchase.  From now on you'll be seeing my links to Smashwords where you can purchase the book in any format you like, and I'm just a bit ticked off at Amazon so not too interested in promoting their links anymore.  However, if you prefer, it is available there, for $2.99, until they discover that it's on sale at Smashwords and they'll lower the price too. 

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/702520

That's my ramblings for today.  Happy reading everyone.  Jude