1 THE PURLOINED NEWSLETTER September 2009 www.capitalcrimewriters.com Volume 22, Issue 1 – September 2009 Inside this issue: Message from the President 2 CCW MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT Ken Gibson From the Editor 3 September 9, 2009 at 7 p.m. Katherine Hobbs From the Membership Sec‘y Special Guest: Darlene Cole Cpl. Yves Gravelle—RCMP Photos from Bloody Words 2009 & the Arthur Ellis Awards 4 Senior Investigator - War Crimes Alex Brett at Words & Pages Book Club 5 The 2009/2010 season starts on September 9, with a visit from SOTC Short Story Winners one of the senior investigators at the War Crimes unit of the RCMP. Cpl. Yves Gravelle has been working in the unit for more June Book Launch: Mary Jane 6 than two years and assigned mostly to African investigations. He Maffini & Vicki Delany has worked extensively on Rwandan genocide suspects. Meeting Reports: April, May 7 See you at the meeting, and June, the Audrey Jessup Tom Curran, Winners Program Committee The final bits & pieces— 12 Upcoming CCW Events Capital Crime Writers is an organization of writers and editors working in the mystery field, as well as readers who love the genre. We meet on the second Wednesday of each month to discuss writing and crime. Meetings are sus- pended in July and August for the summer. Membership fees are: $30 per year, $15 corresponding. Meetings are held in Room 156 at the Library and Ar- chives Canada, 395 Wel- lington Street beginning at 7:00 p.m. In June new CCW member CB Forrest read from his novel The Weight of Stones, published by Rendez- vous Press. 2 THE PURLOINED NEWSLETTER September 2009 www.capitalcrimewriters.com CCW Executive Message from the President - Ken Gibson The 2008/09 CCW President—Ken Gibson season came to an Chair@capitalcrimewriters end with our last event, June 24 at the VP– Michael Murphy vp@capitalcrimewriters Foolish Chicken on Holland Avenue. A Past President – good time was had by Brenda Chapman all, especially the win- pastchair ners of the Audrey @capitalcrimewriters Jessup Short Story Treasurer – contest. As a special Rachel Pitcher prize, Melanie Fogel, Treasurer@ editor of the now de- capitalcrimewriters parted Storyteller Magazine, gave the Programs – winners past issues of Thomas Curran, Alex Brett Storyteller, including & Wynn Quon programsworkshops@ two issues with sto- capitalcrimewriters ries by Audrey Jes- Ken Gibson at Bloody Words 09 in sup. Ottawa with CCW’s Madona Skaff Membership Secretary: Darlene Cole The fact that Bloody membership@ Words 2009 was held in Ot- Wynn Quon. I'm certain they will bring capitalcrimewriters tawa this year was a bit of us an excellent program next year. icing on the cake. BW09 was Newsletter Editor/ Public Relations - a tremendous success; at- Speaking of the CCW Executive, the Katherine Hobbs tended by about 230 regis- 2009/2010 team will be Brenda Chap- 613-263-0069 trants, including 40 of our man, Past President; Michael Murphy, newsletter@ members. It was impossible Vice-President; Katherine Hobbs, Com- capitalcrimewriters not to notice that the Bloody munications; Rachel Pitcher, Finance; pr@capitalcrimewriters Gang who organized the Darlene Cole, Membership/Secretary; event looked an awful lot like and myself as President. Tom Curran Webmaster – the CCW executive, with (Programs) and Michael Murphy will be Guy Mercier Katherine Hobbs at the helm. webmaster@ the new guys on the block. capitalcrimewriters With a little luck and lot of hard work, Bloody Words may During this season we will celebrate return to Ottawa in 2013. CCW's 20th anniversary. Plans are in the works for a one-day conference on www.capitalcrimewriters.com According to the member sur- November 14 that will showcase CCW's vey, most of you felt it was published authors. The Ottawa Public an excellent year. Much of Library has agreed to co-sponsor the the credit for this belongs to event, which will be free of charge and our Program Committee of open to the public. Planning is in the Bev Panasky, Deborah Gya- early stages but stay tuned for further pong and Tom Curran. Bev news. and Deborah have done their ―You can never get a duty after a number of years Hope you had a great summer and will cup of tea large enough on the Committee and will be back looking for murder and mayhem or a book long enough stepping down. We owe them starting with the first meeting Septem- to suit me.‖ a debt of gratitude. Tom will ber 9. C S Lewis be taking the lead on the Pro- gram Committee and will be Ken Gibson joined by Alex Brett and 3 THE PURLOINED NEWSLETTER September 2009 www.capitalcrimewriters.com From the Editor - From the Membership Secretary— Katherine Hobbs Darlene Cole This past spring was super busy with the final planning for Bloody Words and, oops, I missed a few editions of The Purloined. Darlene Cole with Peter Robinson at Scene of the Crime Katherine Hobbs with Denise Mina at Mystery Con, Wolfe Island August 2009 Bloody Words 09 in Ottawa So this issue holds the reports which will Hello Capital Crime Writer Member, catch up the meetings in April, May and I hope you have enjoyed the benefits of your CCW June as well as the multitude of events membership during 2008/2009. This is a reminder to held over the summer — readings, renew your membership for 2009/2010 (annual member- launches, the Arthur Ellis Awards, Bloody ship is from September 2009 to June 2010). Words and the Scene of the Crime mys- tery conference in Wolfe Island. There The membership has three classes as outlined in our Capi- are many more events with CCW authors tal Crime Writers By-Laws: coming up in the fall. You‘ll find all the listings on page 12. Full members pay the full annual dues of the Association and are entitled to all of the privileges of Association, in- The CCW website is undergoing a facelift cluding the newsletter, member website and the opportu- and will be revealed shortly. Thanks Guy nity to attend meetings. Mercier! Don‘t forget to submit your Cost - $30.00 profile if you want more exposure on the site. Just send a note to Guy. And as al- Corresponding members pay fifty percent (50%) of the ways your articles, announcements or sto- normal annual dues of the Association and are entitled the ries are always welcome in The Purloined. newsletter and access to the member website. Please send them to: newslet- Cost - $15.00 [email protected]. See you in September! Honorary members do not pay dues but are entitled to Katherine the newsletter, access to the member website and have the opportunity to attend meetings. Honorary members may include members of the press or other persons whose membership, in the opinion of the Executive, benefits the Association. Honorary members may not vote or hold office in the Association. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries regarding your membership or to update your postal address or e-mail details. I look forward to hearing from you. Darlene Cole, Membership, CCW Pizza dinner prior to the Annual General Meeting, May 2009 4 THE PURLOINED NEWSLETTER September 2009 www.capitalcrimewriters.com Bloody Words 2009—Ottawa BW MC Mary Jane Maffini with Author David Cole from Syracuse Ney York. In the background is the tall Deputy Mayor of Ottawa, Doug Thomp- son, who opened the event. From l-r: Moderator Sue Pike with panellists CB Forrest, Brenda Chapman, JD Carpenter and GOH Barbara Fradkin at BW09 Authors Rich Blechta and Vicky Cameron at the Arthur Ellis Awards held at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on June 4. Author RJ Harlick at BW09 Check out more photos on the Facebook fan page for the ―Bloody Words 2009 Mystery Con- ference.‖ Simply type that string in the search string on Facebook & while there why not sign Linda Wiken at BW09 up as a FAN! At the Bloody Words Registration desk 5 THE PURLOINED NEWSLETTER September 2009 www.capitalcrimewriters.com Alex Brett at Words & Pages Book Club By Miranda Dyck Every summer, the women of rious real life stories she has Scene of the Crime the Words & Pages Book Club heard over the years from sci- read a mystery novel from an entists and their families and Mystery Conference Ottawa author and invite the she expanded on intriguing no- author to attend their tions from her book. It was a hot and steamy day, but monthly meeting. overall a fine one to spend in church. We discussed science fraud, the Well, two churches actually. Such This year we had the pleasure Cold War era, the Fruit Ma- beautiful venues they were, and the of reading Cold Dark Matter by chine, and many more inter- meals (the pie!) fantastic. Alex Brett. Ms. Brett, the CCW esting topics. member, graciously ac- Between entertaining and informa- tive sessions with CCW members Barbara Fradkin, Vicki Delany, and Therese Greenwood interviewing Pe- ter Robinson there was even a bit of time to visit the Wolfe Museum. Winners of the SOTC Short Story contest included three CCW members: Ist Prize: Marianne Miller, ―The As- sizes‖ 2nd Prize: Lucinda Dopson, ―Apple Wood‖ 3rd Prize: Jane Watson, ―The Trout‖ cepted the invitation to join us one sunny evening in July to We found Alex's passion for sci- Honourable Mentions: talk about her book. ence contagious and had not only an enjoyable, but a very Ken McBeath, ―Gas Chamber‖ We were fascinated to learn not educational evening. only about the process of writ- Bill Newman, ―Not to be Trifled We loved reading Cold Dark ing and about how Alex came With‖ Matter and cannot wait to writing novels, but also to learn about the mysterious na- for her ture of science.