When Words Collide multi-genre writing conference comes to Calgary Aug 9-11, 2013. I’m registered and looking forward to a busy, informative and fun three days. Last year, I participated in three panels. You can listen to podcast of one called Always the Bad Guy.
The discussion wound up focussing on anti-heros, a topic I hadn’t given much thought to before the panel. Interesting to wing it in front of an audience.
Calgary Readers: Check out the CBC Book Sale for some really great finds.
I hosted a fun, informative book club gathering yesterday featuring Alberta author Fran Kimmel and her novel The Shore Girl. 
The Shore Girl is short-listed for this year’s Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. Voting is now open to the public. Prize is $10,000. The winner will be announced at an Edmonton gala on May 25th.
Thursday, April 18, I’ll be hosting another event – the 2013 Arthur Ellis Awards Annoucement.
The event will feature feature music by Calgary Folk duo Hazel Grey, a Musical Crime-Show Theme Quiz, a Mystery Title Scavenger Hunt, a presentation by Canmore mystery author Stephen Legault, the short list announcement, food, drink, chat. Come learn what the Arthur Ellis awards are all about and who’s hot in Canadian crime fiction writing.
When: Thursday, April 18, 6 PM
Where: Owl’s Nest Bookstore
815 49 Avenue SW, Calgary
It’s all free and everyone’s welcome. Hope to see you there! 
Writing in the Works 2013 was a roaring success last night. About 75 people packed the reading room at Memorial Park Library. Marje Wing, librarian, kicked off the evening with a plea to support the Calgary Public Library by getting memberships for all family members and taking out lots of books and other materials. Following Marje, we enjoyed listening to five inspiring and entertaining readers: Ken Cameron, Lori Hahnel, Steve Passey, Roberta Rees and Inge Trueman. I enjoyed playing host to the event. Thanks to everyone who helped, read and attended.
On Thursday, April 11th, I’ll be hosting a reading at Memorial Park Library. Here are the details:
Writing In The Works 2013
Five Calgary writers will read from:
books in progress
books coming out soon
books on the prowl for publishers
Readings by:
Ken Cameron
Lori Hahnel
Steve Passey
Inge Trueman
Roberta Rees
Emcee Susan Calder
Thursday, Apr. 11
7:00 p.m.
Memorial Park Library
1221 2 St SW
Calgary
Free event, refreshments. 
Hope to see you there!
Thursday, March 28, is the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society Spring Student Reading. Events get underway at 7:00 PM at Owl’s Nest Bookstore. I’ll be there with my A Novel Idea class. It’s been such a fun, interesting and informative 10 weeks with this group. I hope they’ve learned as much as I have. Best wishes to them all for their writing and I look forward to one day seeing their novels in print.
The Margaret Atwood event yesterday (Feb 14) at the University of Calgary was like a rock show. I lined up an hour before starting time and got seats three quarters of the way back in the hall. Once all 850 seats were full, they closed the doors on the later arrivals. Stay tuned for a blog post with details.