It looks like plans are coming along smoothly for this year’s Bloody Words conference. The Bloody Gang has switched things up a bit this year: the conference will be held in Victoria, BC instead of Toronto. That should make things interesting and will perhaps bring some new attendees, whether authors, industry personnel, or fans.
The Bloody weekend kicks off with the Arthur Ellis awards dinner on Thursday night. These awards are given to excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. The name of the award comes from the pseudonym of Canada’s last official hangman.
Following the awesome awards party kick-off, there are many great events scheduled for the weekend. Michael Slade will be making people shiver with a blood curdling 1940s radio play and Ghost Walk (there are many angry and unsettled spirits and phantoms in Victoria... it is God’s waiting room, after all).
The conference has some awesome guests on deck. This year’s International Guest of Honour is Tess Gerritson, author of some kick-ass medical thrillers. The Special Guest of Honour is BC’s own William Deverell, a proud Arthur Ellis winner, who will be receiving a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Canadian crime writing.
Bloody Words also runs the Bony Pete short story contest. This year’s winner will be published online in Monday Magazine (an alternative Victoria, BC newspaper).
The murderous hoe-down has many other good things on deck as well: They’ll have a discussion on The Future of Publishing, a Canadian Mystery Trivia Game, a CSI Victoria workshop, a Social Media workshop, chances to meet with agents, manuscript evaluations and more.
It’s very, very cool that we have Bloody Words. It is the only Canadian Mystery Conference and I’m glad we have it. It really does give authors and fans a chance to connect, it gives a boost to new and aspiring writers, and it gets people talking about Malice and Maple Syrup.
Knock ’em dead!
Good luck...
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