Ludvica Boota (Progaming Director) and Erik D'Souza (Social Media Coordinator) discuss Crime Writers Canada's 2024 Awards of Excellence. They congradulate some of the nominees and talk about the voting process.
Amy Tector has spent more than 20 years plumbing the secrets squirrelled away at Canada’s national archives, Library and Archives.
Her debut novel, THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS was a finalist for the Indie Book Award Best - First Novel. Her second, THE FOULEST THINGS, was the first in a loose trilogy centered on murders and mayhem in the archives. It was a finalist in the Crime Writers of Canada awards. HONOR THE DEAD, out April 2024l, is the third.
Amy has a PhD in English literature and lives in Ottawa, Canada with a daughter named Violet, a husband named Andrew and a dog named Daffodil. She is an enthusiastic, but incompetent, cross-country skier.
Previous interview with Amy: https://youtu.be/r3E15Se9-Nw
Julie Hiner is an author of heavy metal horror. She spent endless hours during her childhood lost in the pages of books and listening to the metal gods.
Julie lives in Calgary, nestled near the Rocky Mountains. A hardcore 80s rocker at heart, Julie’s writing is infused with music of all eras. Her dark crime novels are a fusion of 80s metal, 70s acid rock and dark story telling. Obsessed with the dark mind of the serial killer, Julie’s characters are based on bits and pieces of some of the most terrifying monsters to roam the earth. She was nominated for CWC award for Best Novella for her story Dead End track which took place in the 70’s.
Her new book, Trash Track takes place in 1999 and although this is still A detective Mahoney series, the protagonist is now Stella Mahoney.
She is Alberta’s regional rep for Crime Writers of Canada.
Learn more at: killersanddemons.com/
Find our previous video at: youtube.com/watch?v=L8sig2KX5zA
donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024.
A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Another short story in this series was published in Black Cat Weekly and shortlisted in the 2024 Derringer Awards. Other short stories have been published recently in After Dinner Conversation, The Antigonish Review, and Queen’s Quarterly (forthcoming).
donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business.
As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.
donalee has published numerous poems, short stories and essays in journals and other publications across Canada and beyond. She lives in Halifax happily surrounded by family, friends, pets, and words of all shapes, sizes, and syllables.
Previous interviews with donalee Moulton:
A Conversation with donalee Moulton 1 - Cold Canadian Crime: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIOiGkZfuggFaMjhRHF1Z_SzZMBxs0-n9
A Conversation with donalee Moulton 2 – Awards of Excellence 2022:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIOiGkZfuggHziCddyjoPRRYgS0bIqHLD
donalee’s website: https://donaleemoulton.com/
Yvonne Maximchuk is still exploring the Broughton Archipelago in her sixteen-foot speedboat SeaRose from her off-grid home on Gilford Island, still learning the secret world of islands and inlets from which she draws her inspiration. She is a life-long working artist in acrylic, watercolour, drawing media and clay, and author of a memoir; Drawn to Sea – From Paintbrush to Chainsaw, Carving out a Life on BC’s Rugged Raincoast (Caitlin Press 2013) about her life in the Broughton Archipelago wilderness. She is co-author of Full Moon Flood Tide, Bill Proctor’s Raincoast (Harbour Publishing 2003) nominated for the Bill Duthie’s Booksellers Choice award in the BC and Yukon Book Awards. A follow-up, Tide Rips and Back Eddies, Bill Proctor’s Tales of Blackfish Sound was published (Harbour Publishing) in 2015.
Yvonne’s colouring book, Colour the British Columba Coast; was a smash hit up to and during covid. Within its pages are forty drawings, along with a brief description of the scene and artist tips. Released June 2016 (Harbour Publishing) it quickly went to a second edition.
Laurie McLure has a passion for crime fiction and for those who read it, write it, edit it, represent it and publish it. Laurie garnered significant writing experience throughout her career with government and through working and volunteering with not-for-profit organizations. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Crime Writers of Canada. The great loves of Laurie's life are her family, animals, travel, books and potato chips.
Joanna Vander Vlugt is an author and illustrator. As a teenager, she drew charcoal portraits and wrote mysteries. Now, she uses Copic markers to illustrate motorcycles and scooters. The Unravelling, her debut novel, and Dealer’s Child were Canadian Book Club Awards finalists. The third novel in the Jade & Sage Thyme series, Spy Girls, will be released in March 2024. Joanna draws upon her 13 years’ experience working in the prosecutor’s office and 10 years working in the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner for inspiration for her novels. Joanna is proud of her podcast SAM Magazine and the many authors she has interviewed.
Joanna’s novels, art and podcast can be found at joannavandervlugt.com.
Learn more about Crime Writers of Canada at: crimewriterscanada.com
Find past video interviews at: youtube.com/@crimewritersofcanada1279
Carolyne Topdjian is a writer, essayist, and novelist with stories published in PRISM International, Dreamers Magazine, and Firewords Quarterly. Her creative endeavors gravitate toward fusions of gothic mystery, noir suspense, and surrealist fantasy. As an Armenian of the diaspora and Lebanese-Canadian who’s been displaced by war, Topdjian often explores themes of belonging and human existence in her work—moments when people are caught in dark states of transition, contradiction, and flux.
Topdjian holds an interdisciplinary PhD from York University, is a three-time Pitch Wars mentor and a professor in the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts at Humber College in Toronto. Fittingly, she’s lived in a hundred-year-old haunted house for over a decade. Her recent novel publications include The Hitman’s Daughter and The Black Moth.
Find her at: www.carolynetopdjian.com
Learn more about Crime Writers of Canada at: crimewriterscanada.com
Find past video interviews at: youtube.com/@crimewritersofcanada1279
Tony Ollivier is known for his gripping high-concept thrillers. He is the author of the David Knight Series, which has garnered multiple awards including, the winner of Best Thriller in 2022 by Canadian Book Club Awards and Bronze Metal in The Suspense, Thriller & Espionage category of the 2023 Reader’s Favorite Awards. The first book in the series, “The Amsterdam Deception”, was followed in August 2023 by the sequel “The Tokyo Diversion”. Tony has travelled the world and currently resides in Vancouver. By day, he works in Competitive Intelligence at a software company based in Portugal. His impressive career has included stints at Xerox, Apple, IBM, and Microsoft. By night, he write snarky action thrillers with an unusual protagonists.
Learn more at tonyollivier.com
Learn more about Crime Writers of Canada at: crimewriterscanada.com
Find past video interviews at: youtube.com/@crimewritersofcanada1279
Joel Nedecky is a teacher and writer from Winnipeg. His short stories have appeared with Punk Noir, Urban Pigs Press and Guilty Crime Story Magazine. His novel, The Broken Detective, was nominated for an Award of Excellence for Best Unpublished Manuscript sponsored by ECW press and will be released 2025.
We’ve interviewed Joel before and chatted about his upcoming novel. You can watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/HYbbkbaJpkc.
In this podcast we discuss three recently published short stories. You can read the stories at these links:
Million Miles of Fun: https://punknoirmagazine.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/the-mixtape-side-a/
One Cold Moment: https://www.guiltycrimemag.com/flash/one-cold-moment-by-joel-nedecky
Go with God: https://urbanpigspress.co.uk/2023/12/13/go-with-god-joel-nedecky/
To learn more about Joel, please visit: https://jnedecky.com/
Learn more about Crime Writers of Canada at: crimewriterscanada.com
Find past video interviews at: youtube.com/@crimewritersofcanada1279