Wednesday September 15 at 7:30 pm – It’s Crime Night at Artword Artbar, 15 Colbourne St. Hamilton. This month’s Arts Hamilton Literary Artshare features readings by Crime Writers of Canada authors in the Hamilton and Niagara area: Cathy Astolfo “Victim”, Jean Rae Baxter “A Twist of Malice”, Melodie Campbell “The Goddaughter”, Michael McPherson “Railroaded”, Lynda Simmons “Getting Rid of Rosy”, Alison Bruce “Carmedy and Garrett”. http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/ For bios of the authors, …
Catherine Astolfo:
Catherine Astolfo retired after 34 years in education in order to pursue her true passion: writing. Her short stories and poems have been published in a number of Canadian presses. She won the 2010 Bony Pete best short story award. Her novel series, the Emily Taylor Mysteries, has received wide acclaim, including a Brampton Arts Award. The series is published by Moe Publications, a branch of Sisbro & Co. Inc. Canada and U.S., a film production company. Her books have been optioned by Sisbro. Catherine is the President of Crime Writers of Canada and a member of Sisters in Crime.
Jean Rae Baxter: When Jean turned to writing after a career in education, she planned to write for young adults. But an affinity for noir soon emerged. Her dark stories have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, winning numerous awards. In her debut collection, A Twist of Malice, Jean explored the dark side of seemingly everyday lives. She followed it with a young-adult historical novel, The Way Lies North, which was nominated for the Ontario Library Association€™s Red Maple Award and for British Columbia€™s Stellar Award. For her next novel, Looking for Cardenio, a literary murder mystery set in a Canadian university town, she turned to the dark side once again. Her next historical novel, Broken Trail, will be released early next year, and she has just completed a new collection of murderous short stories. Jean co-chairs the Arts Hamilton Literary Advisory Committee and helps organize Hamilton€™s LiT LiVe Reading series.
Alison Bruce: Alison Bruce has a degree in history and philosophy, which has nothing to do with any regular job she`s held since. A liberal arts education did prepare her to be a writer, however. She penned her first novel during lectures while pretending to take notes. As a freelance writer and editor, Bruce has interviewed entrepreneurs, civil servants, local politicians and Guelph`s Chief of Police. The latter led directly to the creation of the near-future world of Carmedy and Garrett. The crime was inspired by her mother who told her, €œdivorce never, murder maybe.€
Melodie Campbell: Melodie has a commerce degree from Queen€™s University but it didn€™t take well. She has been a banker, a marketing director, a comedy writer, a college instructor and a model. Melodie has over 30 short stories published in commercial magazines, and has won 3 awards for fiction. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock€™s Mystery Magazine, Star Magazine, ComputorEdge and many more. She also has a parallel career as a humorist with over 100 publications. Melodie has taught fiction writing and humour writing at Sheridan College, and is currently leading a series of workshops with Lynda Simmons at the Burlington library this fall. She is the Executive Administrator of Crime Writers of Canada, and a member of Sisters in Crime. Today, she will be reading from The Goddaughter, a mob caper novel set in Hamilton. Visit her website at www.melodiecampbell.com
Mike McPherson: Working summers painting high steel bridges not only paid Michael’s way through a Bachelor of Science in Physics at the University of Toronto, it also provided the inspiration for a series of short stories that have appeared in Storyteller Magazine. Ten years as a camera assistant in the surreal world of film and television has already led to a few new short stories. During that frenetic time, Michael worked on TV series such as Due South, La Femme Nikita and Mutant X, and feature films including The Skulls and Dracula 2000, as well as many, many movies of the week. Michael is now a producer with Pectopah Productions Inc, a web production company he co-owns with his partner in life and business, Susan Docker.
Lynda Simmons: Lynda Simmons is a writer by day, college instructor by night and a late sleeper on weekends. She started out writing horror novels in the mid-nineties, but took a detour into romance where the market was stronger €“ not such a stretch when you consider that one woman€™s stalker can be another woman€™s white knight. After six romantic comedies for Harlequin and Kensington, Lynda moved on and now writes fiction for Berkley (Penguin USA). Her latest novel, Island Girl, set on Toronto Island, is due out in December. For reviews of Lynda€™s writing and more information, visit her website at www.lyndasimmons.com
