And so it ends....

... sailing off over the wine-dark sea, or at least taking the ferry from Victoria over the deep blue Strait of Georgia

Into the sunset... (or rather away from it since the ferry is actually going east).

...back to Alberta where the sky is wider and the land flatter but the authors and publishers as expert at their craft as any in the country.

With thanks to:

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts for funding support and encouragement to give away as many books by Alberta authors and from Alberta publishers as humanly possible;

Mystery Writers Ink for sponsoring the Writing the Open Range panel;

The following publishers who donated books:

University of Calgary Press
University of Alberta Press
Folklore Publishing
Lone Pine Publishing
Cormorant Books
Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
TouchWood Editions/Brindle & Glass Publishing

And authors Garry Ryan, Sharon Wildwind, Joan Donaldson-Yarmey, Susan Calder, and Anthony Bidulka who donated books and items to the prize basket and promoted the panel, and were all-round good ambassadors for Alberta's many fine writers.

We had a wonderful time at Bloody Words 2011. Thanks for allowing us to represent Alberta authors and publishers

Sincere Best Wishes from

Jayne Barnard & Anne Jayne

Amuse Bouch - Anthony Bidulka

Amuse Bouch - Anthony Bidulka

2003 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel Finalist
2003 ReLit Award shortlist

A gay wedding gone bad. A missing groom. An unsullied reputation at risk. Enter Russell Quant, cute, gay and a rookie private detective. With a nose for good wine and bad lies, Quant is off to France on his first big case. 


This book was given out thanks to the generous support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Date with a Sheesha - Anthony Bidulka

Date with a Sheesha: 

A Russell Quant Mystery (2010)

ISBN: 978-1-897178-90-4

Neil Gupta travelled to the Middle East to buy carpets. Instead, in a dim corner of an exotic spice market, his lifeless body is found wrapped up in one. 

 

From the glitzy, flamboyant, mega-high rises of Dubai, to the frankincense fields of Oman and scorching sand dunes of Saudi Arabia, PI Russell Quant is on one heckuva magical carpet ride; one that skids to a deadly halt on the frozen surface of a Saskatchewan pond.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Russell prepares to face the killing heat, choking sand storms, and pungent, dead-black nights of Arabia. Attempting to find out why Neil Gupta was killed, Quant embarks upon a perilous journey that pits him against a deceitful Bedouin sheikh, shifty souk merchants, a snooty museum curator, quirky antique carpet enthusiasts, and an underground club for “fabulous men”. 

As Russell’s spicy foreign adventure heats up, he learns valuable lessons about love, life, and learning to seize the moment…before it all disappears like smoke from a genie’s lamp. On the verge of solving his sizzling mystery, Russell finds himself making the biggest personal decision of his life, and discovering that sometimes, bitter endings pave the way for new beginnings.

 www.anthonybidulka.com

Anthony Bidulka - Panel Moderator

Anthony Bidulka’s mystery series tells the story of a half-Ukrainian, half-Irish, Saskatchewan, gay, ex-farm boy, ex-cop, world-travelling, wine-swilling, wise-cracking, Canadian prairie, private detective living a big life in a small city.

The Russell Quant series is a multi award nominee including for the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award and Saskatchewan Book Award. The second book in the series, Flight of Aquavit, was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery. 

Anthony Bidulka has enjoyed time well-spent and misspent in the worlds of academia, accounting, footwear, food services, and farming. In 1999, Anthony Bidulka, BA, BEd, BComm, CA, left a decade-long career as a chartered accountant to pursue writing.

Anthony has toured extensively throughout Canada and the US. A great believer in community involvement, he has sat on the boards of the International Association of Crime Writers, Crime Writers of Canada, Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Persephone Theatre, and is a co-founder of Camp fYrefly-Saskatchewan (a life skills camp for LGBT youth). Anthony has been the banquet MC for Canada’s premiere mystery conference, Bloody Words, and in June 2011, will be the MC for Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Awards.

The Russell Quant books: Amuse Bouche (2003), Flight of Aquavit (2004), Tapas on the Ramblas (2005), Stain of the Berry (2006), Sundowner Ubuntu (2007), Aloha, Candy Hearts (2009), Date With a Sheesha (2010). The eighth Russell Quant book, tentatively titled Dos Equis, is due to be released spring 2012.

Please visit www.anthonybidulka.com.

Welcome to Writing the Open Range!

This blog chronicles Alberta crime books and crime writers at Bloody Words, Canada’s national conference on mystery fiction.
 
Your blog hosts are Jayne and Anne, better known from Mystery Writers Ink in Calgary.  Along with descriptions of panels we attend and mystery icons we meet in the elevator or the autograph line, we’ll feature books by Alberta writers and writers who set their mysteries in Alberta, along with crime novels and non-fiction published by Alberta publishers.

Many books will be given away to unsuspecting conference-goers. Some of the titles were donated by the authors and/or publishers, and many others were purchased with generous support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Mystery Writers Ink, a Calgary-based mystery writers group, sponsors the 'Writing the Open Range' Panel at 6:30 Friday evening, showcasing Alberta crime writers Garry Ryan, Sharon Wildwind and Susan Calder along with ex-Alberta writer Joan Donaldson-Yarmey. The amazing Anthony Bidulka, author of the Russell Quant mysteries, moderates.

For more news on the panel and the Ink authors, see the group's blog at  Mystery Writers Ink

A tip of the cowboy hat to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, whose support makes possible our promotion of Alberta books and publishers here at Bloody Words.

Jayne and Anne