My early June writerly weekend began with a fabulous reading by Anthony Bidulka from his newly released murder mystery, Livingsky, at Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop on Church Street. Tony was in town promoting his new book at Glad Day's Queer Noir at the Bar event. I was fortunate to get a copy of the novel before the store ran out. Author of the long-running Russell Quant series, Tony is a hot ticket these days after winning Crime Writers of Canada's Best Novel Award last month for Going to Beautiful. He writes traditional mysteries in untraditional ways, featuring under-represented settings (such as his home province, Saskatchewan) and characters.
Ed and Rosemary with Tony Bidulka (foreground) at Glad Day Bookshop.
Spent a lovely Sunday selling my books and reading from my work-in-progress at the MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival at Harbourfront Centre. I also managed to catch a talk by prolific British novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz on ghostwriting three James Bond novels. A number of other writers, including Jeffery Deaver and Kingsley Amis, have been assigned by Ian Fleming's estate to pen 007 novels since the author's 1964 passing, but Horowitz is the first to be given Fleming's unpublished material to work with. Not surprisingly, Horowitz is a big Bond fan. "Having original, unpublished material was been an inspiration. How could I refuse?"
At Crime Writers of Canada's book tent at MOTIVE.