I’m starting a blitz blog tour today. I’ll be visiting different blog sites every day until March 7. You can check them out and leave a comment for a chance to win an Amazon/Barnes and Noble gift card. Here’s the link for my first blog visit. https://joanneguidoccio.com/2025/02/24/blurb-blitz-a-killer-whiskey/#comments
Calgary writer and literary historian Shaun Hunter interviewed me earlier this month. She had some interesting questions. In case you missed it, here’s the interview posted in her blog: http://shaunhunter.ca/writing-the-city
Calgary’s first snowfall of the season has got me dreaming about my holiday in California this September. The main purpose for the trip was to attend Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in San Diego. My husband Will (an avid mystery reader) and I spent four interesting days attending panels and events like Speed Dating for Writers and Readers and the New Author Breakfast. Both were more fun than I’d expected and popular enough to fill the large rooms by 7:00 am. When we weren’t occupied with the convention, we enjoyed the views from our hotel in the San Diego Marina.
After the convention, we stayed an extra day in San Diego to see a little more of the city. We walked along the boardwalk and took the short ferry ride to Coronado Island, an upscale vacation beach community. The highlight was a concert in the park featuring a great cover band. Hundreds of people gathered. Since we didn’t have chairs, we stood at the front and danced to songs like “Witchy Woman” and “One of These Nights” made famous by the Eagles.
From San Diego, we drove to Julian, a “hippie” town located in the apple-growing hills east of the city. In addition to exploring the quirky, historic former gold mining town, we gorged on apple pie – arguably the best I’ve ever had. A half dozen bakeries produce pies for tourists, many of them day-trippers from San Diego.
Sunshine, warmth, ocean, books, wine, apple pie — pretty much a perfect trip!
On today’s BWL author blog, I reminisce about holiday in southern California in late August-September. It’s even relevant to my writing. https://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/
Last month I held my first in-person book launch in 4 1/2 years. Fifty people gathered in The Treehouse at cSpace, which is located in Calgary’s former King Edward Junior High School. I had toured the renovated building when cSpace opened in 2017 as an arts and community hub and fell in love with the Treehouse meeting room. Its top floor setting, three walls of windows, and outside deck offer panoramic views of the city. On September 21st the weather was perfect for an evening event.
Prior to the launch, I often wondered if the effort was worth it. After I settled on the venue and date, the first step was sending out invitations. I created a Facebook Event page, invited my Facebook friends who live in Calgary, and kept the page active with comments to stimulate interest and discussion. In one comment I talked about cSpace and urged people to come to the launch to see what this unique building is like. In addition to numerous artist studios, cSpace houses community groups for seniors, indigenous peoples, writers, and those interested in speaking French.
For friends not on Facebook, I created an invitation, which I emailed to each person. I started out wondering if anyone would come. But eventually enough people said “yes” that I realized I’d get a good crowd. Then new worries set in. Would they enjoy themselves and be glad they came?
During the week before the event, I purchased wine, juice, and snack food: cheese, crackers, vegetables and dip, and desserts.
I developed a PowerPoint presentation, which focused on Calgary locations that inspired my story. I combined these with readings from the novel interspersed through the presentation. My first reading featured my protagonist Paula Savard in her office in Inglewood, Calgary’s oldest suburb. In my mind, Paula works in this four-story brick building on Inglewood’s main street. My added touch: the building is rumoured to be haunted.
For fun, at the end of my talk, I added a trivia quiz. Since the novel takes place in spring 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown, the ten trivia questions all related to COVID-19. I took my questions from the COVID timeline that I’d made for the novel to remind me of what was happening in the world on the story’s dates. To test your memory, here are my first two trivia questions:
On what date did WHO (World Health Organization) declare COVID-19 a pandemic? Month, day, year required.
Shortly after this declaration, what celebrity couple announced in Australia they’d tested positive for COVID-19?
The questions turned out to be too hard. The winner only got three right and received her prizes, which were priceless during the lockdown: hand sanitizer and a roll of toilet paper. I wrapped up the presentation with random draw prizes: two mystery puzzle books and two sets of playing cards because a character in the novel has a gambling addiction that affects the plot.
Then everyone gathered for conversation, wine, food and drink. I signed books and talked with as many guests as I could. From the buzz in the room and comments afterward, I think people enjoyed the event. Was the work and strain I put into launch preparations worth it? I don’t know. It’s fun to to host a party to celebrate something good in life and now I have these wonderful pictures with friends who made the effort to attend and cheer on my writing.
Today on the BWL author blog I talk about my September book launch for my new novel, Spring Into Danger, and describe the planning that went into it. https://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/
Since I no longer subscribe to physical newspapers, a friend emailed me this clipping from yesterday’s Calgary Herald. Nice to see Spring Into Danger listed in actual print.
In the old days, I used to laminate newspaper clippings of my articles and previous appearances on Calgary’s Bestsellers List. Now I save them to my digital files.
