John L. Hill is a retired criminal and prison law lawyer. He taught correctional law at the Queen's and University of Windsor Law Schools. But in private practice, he dealt with some of Canada's most notorious criminals as well as with some of Canada's best prosecutors and defence lawyers. In retirement, he has become a nonfiction writer. He is a columnist for Law 360 Canada (formerly The Lawyer's Daily), an online newspaper for the legal community. He has also had two books published: Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement and The Rest of the [True Crime] Story. He has also published a story dealing with slavery in southeastern Ontario in a Florida-based magazine. He is currently working on his third book, The Evil That Men Do.
1: Who is your favourite Canadian author?
I first read Stephen Leacock's works in high school. His Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town struck a chord with me because I grew up in a village with fewer than 2000 inhabitants. I could certainly relate to the characters and the light-hearted way he dealt with them. I guess Leacock had even more of an effect on me than I realized as a high school student. I read that he was a political scientist. That revelation led me to take an Honours B.A. in political science at Queen’s University and to stay on to earn an M.A., writing my thesis on Municipal government before I entered law school.
2: What is your favourite movie?
My all-time favourite movie is Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman as the title character, a nonconformist prisoner in a minimum-security southern prison. I saw the movie while I was an undergraduate. I suspect it stayed with me and fed my intrigue on how prisoners think and behave when I ended up practicing prison law and returning to Queen’s to teach it. Of course, my writing is based on true stories of prisoners and their involvement with the law.
3: If they were making a movie from one of your books, who would play the protagonist?
They are not making a movie about my books, but I have been contacted by a producer and screenwriter wanting to turn my first book, Pine Box Parole, into a TV series. In my book, I describe how the prison system turned Terry Fitzsimmons from a rebellious youth into a cold-blooded killer because of the torture he endured, spending six years in solitary confinement. It will not be up to me to cast the series if it is picked up, but I have nonetheless mulled casting over in my mind. I would like to see Vancouver actor Shane Meier play the role of Fitzsimmons. I cannot even imagine who would be the character of Fitzsimmons’ lawyer (me!)
4: What inspires you to write?
As a lawyer, I had to write numerous letters and legal documents, including case briefs and court factums. Once I retired, I recalled making a promise to Terry Fitzsimmons, who urged me to tell his story. Once I sat down in my retirement from my law practice, I set out to write the Fitzsimmons tale. I found that I enjoyed writing and that, by engaging readers with the deficiencies I spotted in our legal system, I could also contribute to positive change. Not only have I now written 3 books, but I also write columns for Law360 Canada, an online newspaper for the legal community, commenting on recent cases.
5: What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (i.e., first draft, outlining, editing)
I am in great awe of fiction writers who have to dream up believable tales. My stories are non-fiction. The plot has already been played out. My job is to record it in words from a particular perspective. When I write, I think about the best way to approach a story and then bang out a first draft. The real fun is editing that draft to make it a persuasive narrative. I have only one published work of fiction. It is a story I made up about a man wrongly accused of murdering a local landlord. I enjoyed writing it, but I concluded that writing fiction is much more complicated than writing nonfiction.
6: Has a real person ever inspired a character in your stories?
All my characters are real. I have never disclosed any information that would be subject to solicitor-client privilege. All the facts I set out have been reported in the newspapers or contained in court judgments, which are public records. I am always amazed that even the pettiest of petty criminals have interesting stories to tell. If you look at Norman Mailer’s 1100-page book about Gary Gilmore, The Executioner’s Song, you will find that a substantial amount of his narrative deals with description and anecdotes of characters we have never heard of. Yet it is that interplay that led to Gilmore becoming the murderer that we are all familiar with. The characters must be real, but so must those the main characters interact with.
7: Do you have any unfinished manuscripts in your drawer/computer?
I have an 80,000-word manuscript on my hard drive now. It's just too early to turn my attention to seeking a publisher. I’m still in the process of promoting my last book, Acts of Darkness.
8: Are you part of a writing critique group?
I am part of a small group that meets monthly for 1 hour to chat about writing and encourage each other to keep going. We will sometimes exchange work and seek criticism. The first chapter of my latest book, Acts of Darkness, deals with two men who I believe have been wrongly convicted of massive drug importation, supposedly furthering the work of a Sinaloa cartel and are now serving life imprisonment sentences. Before making final edits, I passed my manuscript to our writing group and asked them the simple question: “After reading this, are you convinced of their innocence?” The feedback was impressive. I was able to revise my work so that both men have hired lawyers seeking exoneration and have been paroled.
9: What is your goal as a writer?
I am hopeful that my work will lead average Canadians to not fall for the rhetoric that we must get tough on crime and that we are all less safe because those granted bail are likely to reoffend. I try to stress that our courts are very good at assessing “what” was done that constituted a crime, but only lately have we started asking the question of “why” these people committed the offences. When we take a hard look at the problem, we see that we have not looked as closely as we should have when children are emotionally or sexually abused. We blame everything on psychiatric problems or drug addiction. Many of those problems could have been corrected early on by providing treatment rather than relying on later punishment. We do live in an unsafe world, but we really do nothing or little when the problem is developing to correct it.
10: Other than writing, what is your passion?
I enjoy a very easy-going home life with my wife and our new Portuguese Water Dog, Caboose (The name is to remind us that we are getting old, and Caboose will be our last dog). We take long walks with the pup daily, but have to get up early because she is so well house-trained. The only other hobby I have is participating from time to time as a background performer (extra) on TV and movie tapings. I have a friend in the Toronto movie industry who has encouraged me to try it out from time to time. I saw myself on the big screen for a millisecond in IT Chapter 2. I was also a performer in Cate Blanchett’s Mrs. America, an FBI agent in The Comey Rule, and, this year, in episodes of Ginny & Georgia. I have no illusion that I will make money. I have a lot of fun doing it.
We are thrilled to announce that Crime Writers of Canada will be sponsoring Bouchercon Calgary 2026! The conference takes place from October 21–25, 2026. As part of our sponsorship, CWC is hosting the official Media Room, featuring three days of programming. We will be running 11 dedicated CWC panels, each with approximately four spots. This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase our members' expertise and connect with the international crime-writing community.
We need your help to fill these spots! Whether you have a fully formed panel idea, a specific area of expertise to share, or simply want to join a discussion with your peers, we want to hear from you.
Important Program Details
CWC Sessions vs. General Programming: Please note that this application is specifically for CWC-sponsored sessions in the Media Room. This is independent of any general Bouchercon programming or panels you may be invited to by the convention organizers.
Expenses: Participation as a panelist is voluntary. Panelists are not paid and are responsible for their own convention registration, travel, and accommodation costs.
Book Room: CWC will also have a table in the Book Room. A separate application for Book Room signings and volunteer slots will be sent out this summer.
How to Participate
To be considered for a Media Room session, please complete our Application Form by May 3, 2026.
On Friday, June 5th to Sunday June 7th, 2026, the Toronto International Festival of Authors is hosting MOTIVE, an annual festival focused on crime and mystery. Taking place at Victoria College, University of Toronto, this three-day weekend festival will celebrate writers from Canada and across the world.
With cozy crime, police procedural, psychological thriller and true crime taking the stage, the Festival will be a weekend of suspense, twists and turns as we uncover the secrets behind some of the world’s most gripping stories. Meet the masters of mystery over the long weekend with criminally good conversations, readings, book signings, workshops and more.
An evening of powerful storytelling in defence of historical truth
At a moment when misinformation distorts the past and public memory is under pressure, Remembrance as Resistance brings Canada’s Second World War stories vividly to life through powerful writers who transform archival fact into unforgettable narrative.
Anchored by the Toronto launch of The Resistance Daughter, Joanne Kormylo’s fact-based historical fiction debut, the novel follows a young Polish resistance fighter who rescues Jewish children, aids a downed Canadian airman, and survives imprisonment in Ravensbrück—a narrative inspired by the experiences of Kormylo’s father, a Canadian bomber pilot shot down over the North Sea and held as a prisoner of war for nearly three years.
Joining Kormylo are bestselling novelist Robert Rotenberg, Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings, and journalist-historian Ellin Bessner, whose work recovers the overlooked stories of Jewish Canadians who fought Nazism abroad while facing discrimination at home.
Together, they make a compelling case: when facts are flattened and history is simplified, evidence-based storytelling becomes a form of civic protection.
Joanne Kormylo
Calgary based lawyer and Canadian debut novelist whose historical fiction book, The Resistance Daughter, was acquired by the UK’s legendary Hodder and Stoughton.
Robert Rotenberg
A Criminal Lawyer and bestselling Toronto based novelist best known for his internationally acclaimed Ari Greene detective series.
Maureen Jennings, O.C.
Beloved creator of the Murdoch Mysteries, and Bomb Girls, whose work has shown generations of Canadians that serious history can be explored with wit, warmth, and narrative drive.
Ellin Bessner
Journalist and historian, whose book Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and World War II, uncovers the stories of Jewish Canadians who fought Nazism overseas while facing discrimination at home.
Buy tickets at: Remembrance As Resistance: Why Canada’s WWII Stories Matter Now
CWC is heading to the Toronto Indie Author Conference (April 18–19). We’re thrilled to support this mission of local education and networking.
The Toronto Indie Author Conference is a two-day event tailored exclusively for independent authors. Their mission is simple: to empower Canadian indie authors with essential education and networking opportunities, eliminating the need to venture beyond our borders for specialized knowledge.
At the heart of our conference lies a commitment to delivering top-tier, Canadian-specific content tailored to the unique needs of our indie author community. They take pride in curating a rich program featuring a wealth of Canadian speakers, ensuring that our attendees gain insights from experts deeply rooted in the local literary landscape.
Come say hi at our table and discover how we support your writing journey!
Lorne Tepperman, a long-time resident of Toronto and distinguished figure in academia, ventures into the realm of fiction with his debut work. As an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Tepperman has authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited 88 academic books, delving into topics ranging from social inequality to deviance and crime.
1: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
When I started writing novels, I was a nearly-complete pantser. Then two things happened. First, my nephew Joe introduced me to the plotter-pantser distinction, and I realized the alternatives. Second, I discovered a plot kind of meandered when I hadn’t planned it thoroughly enough. So, I guess I’m a mix now – say, 30 percent planner, 70 percent pantser. But I still love putting my brain on auto-pilot and seeing where it takes me.
2. What inspires you to write?
I’ve always enjoyed writing as a creative act, though I spent the first fifty years of my adult life writing academic non-fiction. Though, surprisingly, even academic non-fiction has a creative element. Especially if you care whether anyone understands what you’re saying. Or whether they want to continue reading what you’ve written. So, there has always been that creative aspect in my writing.
Besides that, there’s the social aspect. All of my novels contain a social message – something about the problems we face as humans. In connection with that, they are all (so far) part of a series about an academic protagonist in an imaginary university – so, they’re all a commentary on the idiocies of academic life in an age of commercialism.
More than anything, perhaps, there’s a political aspect to my writing. I’m trying to cope with – make sense of – the horrors of everyday life in a certain President’s USA. So, many of my books contain characters loosely modelled on American-style moguls. I make sure they get their comeuppance in my books, if nowhere else.
3. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (i.e., first draft, outlining, editing)?
I haven’t mentioned writing craft yet, yet increasingly, I take delight from honing my craft. Finding better ways to express what I want to say, describing my characters, inserting little jokes and jibes like landmines. The more I write, the more I realize how hard it is to write well – interestingly, clearly, evocatively. I’m still miles from where I want to be, though.
As part of this, I love editing – reviewing and revising and improving what I’ve already written. I don’t find it hard to fill a blank page with words, but I know that revising is 90 percent of a writer’s job. I continue to marvel at the way something I wrote – something I thought I’d perfected -- seems ugly and drastically in need of editing, rewriting, rewording just a week or a month later.
I don’t consider myself a natural story-teller. So one thing I’m trying to improve is my wordplay. By that, I don’t mean eloquence so much as variety and surprise.
4. Has a real person ever inspired a character in your stories?
Yes, a certain US President – let’s call him Little Boy -- and his henchmen have inspired some of the characters in my stories. Usually, I have Little Boy (or a clone) in the back of my mind when trying to craft a blowhard, a braggart, a grifter, a windbag, a gangster, or a liar. Though, of course, none of my characters has all these characteristics. No writer could invent a Little Boy – only experience him. Though, if only I were a better, more experienced writer, I might find the words to replicate him more fully.
5. Has a real person ever inspired you to kill them (in your book)?
I have known people with some of the same qualities as Little Boy. Arrogance, greed, self-absorption, self-righteous indignation over perceived slights, endless need for praise and acquisition, and so forth. So, I have put some of these people in my novels. If you look for them, you’ll find them. And they do tend to get themselves killed. In fact, the protagonist in my Rachel Tile Series of novels (currently four novels completed) is fascinated with rage as a political phenomenon. Rachel is also fascinated with revenge as a human motive.
Now don’t get me wrong – I like Rachel, even love her. I understand why she’s so fascinated with the role of rage and revenge in everyday life. Especially, political life. But Rachel can also be adorable, loving, and loveable, when she wants to be. I think she’s an admirable person. I would never want to kill off Rachel.
6. On average, how long do you write in a day?
Increasingly, my energy is a scarce resource – like water in the southwest US. So I cannot write for an entire day, as some people claim to do. (Or maybe that’s an idle claim on their part). I write every day of the year for three or four hours, tops. Usually, I intersperse the writing with other activities – reading, cooking, eating, doing chores, going to the gym, occasionally seeing friends, watching TV in the evening. A few hours of writing in the morning, a few hours in the afternoon. That seems to work for me.
7. Are you proud of the first novel that you wrote? And did you let other people read it?
I am cautiously proud of my first novel, Deadly Donation. Yes, other people have read it. In fact, the book is published, so anyone can read it. I haven’t read it in a few years, so I’m not sure I’m proud of it, though. I would probably change lots of things if I were writing a similar plot today. The result might be better.
That said, I am proud to have started writing novels. Proud to have launched my lead character, Rachel Tile, and her obsession with rage. Proud to have given fictional form to my concerns about social and economic injustice. The point is, I have made a start, knowing I could only get better. I hope I have – gotten better, that is.
8. If you could choose only one, would you rather be a wealthy writer or a famous one?
This question is surprisingly easy to answer, since I am certain I will never be either wealthy or famous. For that reason, I can indulge my fantasy to the full. I’ve always had enough money and enough fame, but if I had to increase one of the two, it would be fame. And I do mean fame, not notoriety. I wouldn’t like to be famous as the worst writer in Canada (let alone, the worst in the world). Ideally, in this fantasy world I am concocting, people I respect would praise my work. They’d come up to me and say “Lorne, I loved your new novel. Are you writing another one? I will surely read it.”
The thing about humble goals, unlike wealth and fame, is that they are humanly attainable. Not always easy to attain, but feasible. And feasibility is one of the things that makes human beings happy.
9. What is your goal as a writer?
My primary goal as a writer is to entertain myself, improve myself, and educate myself. My secondary goal is to entertain others, improve others, and educate others. If you have read my previous answer(s), you will understand why these are my goals.
If I were much younger – if I had many more decades of writing ahead of me – I would offer more grandiose answers. Or merely, more ambitious answers. I miss the grandiosity, the vastness, the impetuosity of youth. So much energy, and (sometimes) such good outcomes when you are young. As a person of twenty-five or thirty, I would have said my goal was to transform writing. Perhaps even, transform society. Of course, I would have done neither. But it is exciting to have such plans.
Today, my goal is to continue exploring Rachel Tile. To better understand her rage. To witness the costs and benefits of that rage, but also the pleasure Rachel takes from her little family. Maybe I have learned something from living, as well as writing.
10. Other than writing, what is your passion?
Since the age of five, I have played the piano. I love music, especially classical music and jazz. At one time, I even thought of becoming a composer. I have worked as a semi-professional musician throughout much of my life. But, repeatedly, I have subordinated my passion for music. First, subordinated it to academic sociology – my source of income for fifty years. Second, since retirement, I have subordinated it to novel-writing. Occasionally, I have regretted these choices, but mostly not.
Our next webinar is on March 10th, 7 pm ET/4 pm PT. All CWC members in good standing will receive an email on March 4th.
Whatever your genre, understanding marketing is essential to your success as a writer, whether publishing traditionally, self-publishing, or both. During this interactive workshop we'll look at the four components of a Marketing Plan, as well as networking, goal setting, and the power of cross-promotion. There'll be opportunity to put pen to paper, and for in-depth Q&A.
Bio:
Bill Arnott is the BC Book Prize bestselling author of the Perfect Day Walks, the Season memoirs, and the award-winning Gone Viking travelogues. For his expeditions he’s been named Fellow of Britain’s Royal Geographical Society and serves as Ambassador for Canadian Geographic and Adventure Canada. Bill also writes for numerous magazines and presents for universities, TV and radio. When not trekking, Bill can be found around B.C. where he lives on Coast Salish land.
Members have access to previous webinars in the members-only section of the website.
Do you have a completed crime or mystery manuscript sitting on your hard drive? Are you looking for professional eyes to help you sharpen your hook, tighten your plot, or navigate the path to publication?
The Crime Writers of Canada is thrilled to announce that applications for our new Mentorship Program are officially open!
This is a unique opportunity for Associate Members to work one-on-one with a seasoned professional author. Whether you are aiming for a traditional deal or preparing for an indie launch, our mentors are here to help you establish a solid literary foundation.
What the Program Offers:
Are You Ready to Apply?
To ensure a productive experience, this program is exclusively for authors with a completed manuscript. To apply, you will need to submit:
Program Details:
More Information Apply to be a Mentee
Note: With only five mentorship spots available for this session, we encourage you to submit your application early!
Questions?
If you have any questions about the program or the application process, please reach out to Ludvica Boota at ed@crimewriterscanada.com.
The CWC is a proud sponsor of the third annual Montreal Mystery book festival in downtown Montreal, where the worlds of French and English literature meet. This event brings together English and French language writers for a weekend dedicated to the mystery and thriller genres.
The event will take place from May 29-30, 2026. The full ticket gives you access to 10 panels featuring over 20 authors from Quebec, the rest of Canada, the United States, and abroad, as well as several book signing periods. Panels will take place in both French and English. Tickets are available now.
Crime Writers of Canada is a proud sponsor of this year’s Bouchercon, an epic mystery fan convention for readers, writers, and lovers of crime fiction. For over 50 years, Bouchercon has been the world’s premier crime fiction convention, bringing together top authors, publishers, and fans from around the globe. The event offers an interactive and immersive experience, featuring numerous expert panels on topics such as policing, investigative techniques, and editing, creating a vibrant literary gathering. The CWC will have a sponsorship table and will host the event’s media room. Two of our members, Louise Penny and Vicki Delany, are among the Guests of Honour.
More information at: Bouchercon 2026