Capital Crime Wave rolled into the Ottawa Public Library last night. Ottawa journalist Kate Jaimet did an amazing job interviewing four authors - Tom Henighan, R.J. Harlick, Brian McKillop and . . . me. We each read for a few minutes from our work and then Kate chatted with each of us in turn about writing. What struck me as we were doing our schtick, was how varied our work is and our different life experiences that have all led into the writing field. Tom is a retired English prof from Carleton who specializes in mythology. I know this because he lives down the street from me, and one year I graded papers for his mythology class. Small world. R.J. or Robin is another Capital Crime Writer whose series is set in West Quebec - both of us are published by Napoleon/RendezVous so we're almost related :-) Brian is a historian and head of the history department at Carleton - his 800 page book is a bio of Pierre Burton and sounds fascinating.
The Arthur Ellis awards shortlists were announced last night (the real reason for the event) and kudos to fellow Ottawa authors Robin, Chris Forrest and Rick Mofina for their nominations. These are national awards with lots of competition for those few spots on the shortlist.
Writing has gone slowly this week. I need to buckle down. Some weeks, it just goes that way. If someone out there wants to pay me to stay home and write, I'm listening. Shakespeare had a patron and what's good enough for the bard is good enough for me. I could be a kept author.
A nice note in the mail today from Ottawa Councillor Jan Harder - the Awesome Author judges are being awarded the OPL Order of Friendship for "outstanding volunteer work". There will be a little ceremony in June.
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