Tag Archives: #amwriting

Creating a Novel Series Cover Brand

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BWL’s Art Director didn’t set out to create a cover brand for my Paula Savard Mystery Series. The first cover that Michelle Lee designed for me was for book # 2 of my series, Ten Days in Summer, published in 2017. The process began with me filling out a BWL Cover Art Form (CAF). I provided details about the story, its setting in Calgary, and the two main characters and suggested images related to these. At that time, BWL required that most novel covers include at least one image of a person. 


I plugged keywords into the photo image website, searching for ones that suited my protagonist and the story antagonist, a wannabe cowboy. None were exactly right, especially for Paula, my insurance adjuster sleuth. “Female detective” turned up images of young women peering through magnifying glasses. Paula is fifty-two and doesn’t use that prop. Keywords “female insurance adjuster” showed women examining cars. The story involves a building fire insurance claim. I tried “businesswomen” and got images of women sitting in meetings, while Paula spends her time out on the case. 


I selected the best images for Paula that I could find along with images for my antagonist, which included a silhouetted cowboy.  I also suggested images of the Calgary skyline, fires, and a boarded-up house for the burned building. I don’t think Michelle used any of the exact images I sent, but she meshed my ideas into a cover that was better than one I could have designed (see cover image above). The fire suggests the heat of summer in the title. 


Two years later, BWL republished A Deadly Fall, book # 1 in the series. During that short time period, book cover fashion moved away from portraying people and toward crisp and intriguing images that evoke a sense of the story. Now BWL’s CAF stated that most covers would not include a person. I sent people image suggestions anyway, but I found it easier not to have to focus on finding an image that fit the characters in my head. On my CAF, I suggested images for the Calgary skyline and fall — fall leaves on water, a path in fall, trees with colourful fall leaves, and falling leaves. Again, I doubt Michelle chose my actual suggestions, but they were her starting point to create this golden cover.   

When the third series book, Winter’s Rage, was ready for a cover two years later, we were on our way to a series cover brand. My CAF included a few people image suggestions — a woman texting, a man in a snowstorm, but I focused on images of the Calgary skyline in winter and winter driving, since this story was about a hit-and-run collision.  For the first time I considered colour. While red, orange, and yellow suited the fall and summer seasons of the first two books, I saw winter as white, blue, and black (night). Michelle came up with a cover that continued the brand with snowflakes and a frozen Calgary. Winter’s book cover was blue, with yellow lettering that linked it to the colour of the two earlier books in the series.   

 By book # 4 of my Paula Savard Mystery Series, the series brand was established: Calgary skyline, colours to suit the story season, and additional images related to the season or story. Since bicycles feature prominently in Spring Into Danger, I included bicycle images among my CAF suggestions and chose Calgary skyline images that had a place for a bike or cyclist in the foreground. Here’s the cover design for Spring Into Danger, which is scheduled for release in September. 

 I like how the cyclist pops into view. Whenever I look at this cover, I don’t notice him until he emerges from the shadows. The book’s blue cover with yellow lettering matches Winter’s Rage and the covers for the four books have come full circle by including a silhouette on the first and last design. I look forward to seeing Spring Into Danger sitting on a bookshelf.   


When Words Collide Grand Finale

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I’ve attended Calgary’s When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers every year since it began in 2011. That was the year I published my first novel, A Deadly Fall, butI didn’t attend to promote the book. I went as a fan of one of their special guest authors Robert J. Sawyer and because a friend coaxed me into going and WWC was an inexpensive, local event. When I arrived at the host hotel, I was amazed at the festival’s energy. The founders largely came from the science fiction and fantasy community and they know how to party. While WWC included all genres, it helped to understand Star Trek references. I attended several dynamic panels and presentations and did a shift at the book sale table, where I met some interesting people and sold copies of my new novel. 


The following year, I volunteered to lead a dialogue workshop, which had a huge turnout. Buoyed by this success, the next year I volunteered to sit on a few panels. WWC is entirely volunteer-run and presented, although the special guest authors receive expense money. The relative equality between everyone attending creates a democratic atmosphere, even though the guest authors are the stars. A highlight for me every year is the opening night’s two-hour keynote addresses, where the five or six guest authors each introduce themselves and speak on whatever topic they want. Often the speeches are funny and/or thought provoking. 

 
My involvement increased when I joined the WWC board and worked on developing panel ideas. We tried for topics that would appeal to readers of all genres and writers at every stage of the process, from learning the craft to finding a publisher to promoting their books. I met BWL publisher Jude Pittman at WWC 2017 when we chatted in the Merchants’ Room. After the festival, I sent her a query and soon became part of the BWL family.  

                                 BWL’s Nancy Bell and Jude Pittman at When Words Collide

 
Connections also occur at WWC social gatherings. The Saturday evening banquet sells out quickly thanks to the festival’s encouragement of costumes. Here I am (left hand side) with two other ladies in red at the Roaring Twenties theme banquet.  

      Then COVID-19 hit. WWC went online in August 2020 and continued with virtual conferences the following two years. I participated in panels and attended some virtual social events, but not as many as I had previously. Staring at a computer screen wasn’t the same as meeting in person. I left the board, feeling I didn’t have the tech skills to contribute much of value. Other board members dropped off and the festival’s main organizers ran out of steam. They decided to return to the in-person festival in 2023, but this would be the final year for When Words Collide. 


Registration for WWC 2023 has reached its cap of 780 attendees, but this is due to 2020 and later registrations being carried forward to this year since the online festival was free. Spots are expected to open up, so it’s worth putting your name on the waitlist if you’re interested in attending. https://www.whenwordscollide.org/Registration/Am_I_Registered.php


I’m looking forward to the WWC finale on August 4-6 with bittersweet feelings, but this might not be a complete ending. Rumour has it another group is thinking of reviving the festival or creating something similar next year. This could give us even greater reason to celebrate When Words Collide’s wildly successful thirteen year run this summer. Hats off to you, WWC! It’s been grand. 

                                               Me with Special Guest Author Will Ferguson

When Words Collide – in person again!

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Today on the BWL author blog https://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/I write about When Words Collide, Calgary’s annual festival for readers and writers, which will make its last appearance this summer. I’ll be there and plan to attend many panels and events, sit on a panel or two, and host a table for Bouchercon World Mystery Convention Calgary 2026. https://bouchercon2026.com/. Two great events for lovers of mystery writing.

Inside Police Headquarters

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My current novel-in-progress got into police work more than I’d planned when I made two homicide detectives viewpoint narrators. I wrote scenes of them in their workplace from information I recalled from a years ago visit to Calgary Police Service Headquarters – Westwinds, but mostly from my imagination. During revisions of the novel, I made a list of questions I’d ask someone familiar with the place, if I ever had the chance. 

Then a writer-friend mentioned that Calgary homicide detective Dave Sweet had generously answered her questions about her crime novel. I’d enjoyed Dave’s presentations on homicide cases at local crime writing events and read his memoir Skeletons in My Closet https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/skeletons-in-my-closet-life/9781988829036-item.html? My friend gave me his email address and I wrote to him and asked if he’d mind answering my questions. He replied right away, saying he’d be happy to help. 

I emailed my list to Dave. Again he quickly replied. My first question was my greatest worry: are the homicide and robbery units located in Westwinds?  If they weren’t, I’d either have to do a major novel revision or ignore this fact. To my relief, Dave answered yes, both were in the Investigative Services Building on the west side of Westwinds campus. I didn’t remember this second building from my visit.  

Evidently, from my questions, Dave got the hint that I was interested in the workplace environment because he offered me a tour of Westwinds, if I was interested. Yes, I was really interested, and the earlier the better. David said the next day would work for him, unless he got a call out before then. I knew once he was hot on a case, I’d lose the opportunity. We arranged to meet the following afternoon at the entrance to the Investigative Services Building. 

In my novel, I’d described a large lobby. Instead, I entered a cozy space, with a few padded chairs and a side room with toys and a computer screen for children who come in with their parents. Dave waved me past the reception desk and into a huge, oval atrium. He explained that CPS bought the building from Nortel in 2009 when the telecommunications company filed for bankruptcy; the rooms along the sides of the atrium had been Nortel’s executive offices. CPS converted the building to police use, but this space didn’t look like any police stations I’ve seen on TV. He said they use the atrium for large gatherings and the side rooms for special meetings.     

From the atrium, we went to the homicide unit offices. In my novel, I’d given my Detective Mike Vincelli an office with a door. Instead, Calgary detectives work in cubicles. Dave didn’t take us in, to protect his colleagues’ privacy, but he pointed out a glass enclosed room in the far corner, where the unit’s four cold case detectives work. Their windows face west and would have a view of the city skyline and mountain backdrop. My novel had my cold case Detective Novak working in a windowless storage room, which reflected his depressed mood. Now I thought this glass fishbowl office might offer intriguing possibilities.   

  
Next Dave took me down a corridor to a service elevator, located in Nortel’s former delivery dock. This brought us to the holding cells, which I found creepy. The cells were behind solid doors; no looking out through bars. Voices carried between the cells and into the central corridor. Two detainees talked rapidly and loudly. 


“Getting their stories straight,” Dave said.  


I looked through a peephole into an empty cell, directly at a toilet. Two narrow benches lined the walls on either side. Dave said they rarely kept people more than thirteen hours, with twenty-fours the maximum before they sent them home or to longer-term facilities. This would be a problem for my book. I’d had the police keep two of my suspects close to forty-eight hours, which I’d thought was the maximum allowable time before laying charges. Could I change this without radically altering my story? 


Sometimes it’s better not to know too much. Few readers would notice if I brushed aside this policing fact, but I started contemplating solutions for my novel. 

  
In the holding area, we went into an interview room, which was smaller and drearier than I’d expected. Cameras in the corners, but no window for outsider viewing. Peeling paint on the greenish walls. The room had an acrid smell. Dave said they let interviewees smoke to not put them on edge. For the same reason, the police don’t bring their guns into the room. Interviews are typically one-on-one, although a second detective might sit in or stand outside the door if they anticipate a dangerous situation. 


We left the Investigative Services Building and went outside to the main headquarters building. On the way, we passed a grassy area with benches and a picnic table. In my novel, Novak meets someone connected to the cold case in an outdoor area. I’d need to make some minor changes to the setting. The main headquarters building contains classrooms, training rooms for new recruits, and Westwinds’ largest gym, where a recruit class jogged back and forth at an easy pace. Dave said they’d gradually speed up and some would drop out of the pack. 

 
“They’ll never be more fit than they are now,” he said. After recruits become full-fledged officers, CPS no longer requires them pass fitness tests. Now that I knew Westwinds had gyms, I could include my line that Novak had never entered one, to illustrate his disinterest in exercise.     
I came home with lots of material to work into my novel-in-progress. Many were easy fixes. I’d asked Dave, Do police generally refer to the building as headquarters or Westwinds or something else?  Westwinds usually, he said. In my manuscript, I changed this with a simple word find/replace. For my largest problem, I came up with a (hopefully) good reason for the police to keep one of my suspects for two days, but had them release the other one on time. This involved deleting, shuffling, and changing much material, but I think it improved the overall storyline. 


While my tour gave me extra writing work, it wasn’t onerous. I think the new details give my story pizazz. Maybe readers sense when something rings true. And, if nothing else, I found my look inside police headquarters interesting.  

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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I kissed the Blarney Stone! Well, almost. 
Last June my travel companions and I arrived at Ireland’s Blarney Castle in a downpour. Since rain isn’t unusual for the Emerald Isle, we were prepared and dressed in our full rain gear.   

The weather prompted us to duck into the castle, rather than stroll through the extensive gardens. We joined the line for the climb up a narrow, winding staircase to the top of the tower. Along the way, we enjoyed occasional views of the grounds and noticed the rain was letting up.   

Our goal was the legendary blarney stone, which was built into the castle battlements. Kissing the stone is said to grant someone the gift of the gab. Eloquent Irish politician John O’Connor Power defined gab as “flattery sweetened by humour and flavoured by wit.” Myths abound about the blarney stone’s origins. Some say that Irish chieftain Cormac MacCarthy asked a goddess for help with a lawsuit when he was on his way to court. She told him to kiss the next stone he saw. He followed her advice, won his case, and incorporated the lucky stone into his castle. A variation of this myth is that MacCarthy was en route to plead his right to keep his lands and title to Queen Elizabeth I. He met an elderly woman advisor, kissed the stone, and, thanks to his brilliant ‘gab’ convinced the queen to grant his wish. Other stories claim the blarney stone is a magical rock brought to Ireland from Stonehenge, Scotland, or the Holy Land during the Crusades. Scientific studies have determined the stone is local Ireland rock, but who can argue with legend?


Judging from the crowds on that rainy day, the stone’s blarney works for drawing tourists. The long lineup snaked slowly towards the top of the castle. We paused at this warning. 

As we drew closer, we wondered if we’d have the nerve to lie down in front of all the tourists and kiss the stone. We saw an attendant give the stone a quick wipe between people, but was kissing it sanitary in this day of COVID-19?  

I decided I couldn’t come this far without trying. Here I go – awkwardly. In addition to virus concerns, in order to touch the stone with your lips you have to lean your head way back through the gap along the castle edge. A man holds your body and bars prevent falls to the ground. At worst, you’d bang your head. But arching backward over a high drop-off is a creepy feeling of letting go. Did I really need any more gab to write my novels? Hundreds of lips had touched the stone already that day. I blew the blarney stone a kiss and was content with getting close. 

The view from the top was worth it. In the past, Blarney stone kissers didn’t have bars for a safety net. Here’s how far they could fall. 

By the time we returned to the ground, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. A fellow tourist snapped a picture of our group, with the castle in the background. It’s the only picture of all five of us we have from our two-week tour of Ireland. 

The Irish are known for their sayings, blessings, and proverbs. I’ll leave you with a few. 

 
May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.

 
May you get all your wishes but one so that you will always have something to strive for. 


Every man is sociable until a cow invades his garden. 


May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.


A kind word never broke anyone’s mouth. 


May your thoughts be as glad as shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song. May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all year long. 

  
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

Whisk(e)y – with an ‘e’ or not?

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When I heard that BWL Publishing planned to publish a series of Canadian historical mystery novels, I was eager to get involved. In 2021, I wrote a mystery short story set in my home city, Calgary, Alberta, during the second and deadliest wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic. I showed the story to a writer-in-residence, who suggested I turn it into a novel. This intrigued me, but I polished the short story and submitted it to the Crime Writers of Canada 40th anniversary anthology. My story, A Deadly Flu, was accepted and published last spring in Cold Canadian Crime. 

But BWL’s plan prompted me to consider how I could expand my 4,500 word story into a 75,000 word novel. I mulled ideas and decided I’d add three new characters to the story: two suspects and female protagonist, Catherine. I’d still keep my original detective protagonist as a secondary narrator. He and Catherine would both have personal story arcs, including a romantic subplot. WWI would also feature more prominently in the novel, as the story built to the November 11th Armistice. 

Confident these additions would give the story sufficient fodder for a novel, I asked BWL if I could write one of the books. The concept for the BWL Canadian Historical Mystery Series is that twelve different authors or author-pairs would write novels set in our ten Canadian provinces and two of our territories. Authors would have free rein over what to write, as long as the novel features a crime, takes place during a real historical time period, and is 70,000-80,000 words to keep the book sizes uniform. BWL assigned me the story set in my home province of Alberta.

The series will be published over a period of almost two years. Since I won’t have time to start writing my novel before this summer, I asked for the last publication date, December 2024.  The first  Canadian Historical Mystery comes out this month. Rum Bullets and Cod Fish by H. Paul Doucette, set in Nova Scotia, sounds like roaring fun. “The year is 1924 and Prohibition is spawning a new breed of criminal.” An undercover investigator tracks the ringleaders illegally transporting liquor to the US mob. 

Since BWL is promoting the whole series right away, they asked each author to provide a title, story blurb, and suggestions for cover images. Luckily, I have a framework for my novel — my short story and my ideas for expansion. From this, I came up with a blurb. I also needed a new title. My short story title, A Deadly Flu, was a wink at my first novel,  A Deadly Fall. For a novel I’d want something to distinguish the two books. Words like dead, murder, kill, secrets, and their variations are popular for mystery titles. I also find concrete nouns in titles conjure strong images. The weapon in my story is whisky laced with a lethal drug. I settled on a title, A Killer Whisky.

During this process, I discovered a potential problem with the word ‘whisky.’ Ireland and the USA spell whiskey with an ‘e,’ unlike Canada and the rest of the world. My research suggests this might have  been due to Ireland’s desire to distinguish its whiskey from Scottish whisky. Did Canada adopt the Scottish spelling because many of our early explorers and fur trade merchants came from Scotland, while whiskey became popular in the US with waves of Irish immigration? That’s my best guess. 

I debated changing my title to one that wouldn’t confuse American readers, or using US spelling, or making the poisoned drink a non-spelling-controversial liquor, like rum. But whisky is so concrete that I can almost smell it when I hear the word. It’s also infamous in western Canadian history. Our fur trade is often called the whisky trade, which caused alcoholism problems for indigenous people. In the end, I decided to stay with whisky and Canadian spelling. Early in the novel, I’ll have a character point out the difference between the countries, so US readers won’t think I can’t spell. 

For images, I suggested  a bottle or glass of whisky, as well as a piano. I plan to start the novel with my protagonist playing the instrument and music will feature through the story. Michelle Lee, BWL’s cover designer, worked with my suggestions and created a stunning cover. I love the golden whisky colour against the black background. I can hear the clashing chord as the glass hits the piano keys. The glass of whisky stops the music, like murder.