Blogs The Bookworm

FYI:

Winners announced for 25th Annual National Capital Writing Contest

Perth writer Ken McBeath won the short story category and Joan McKay of Ottawa, the poetry category in this year’s National Capital Writing Contest.

The awards were presented May 8th at an event at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

This year’s Poetry category winners were:

First Place: Joan McKay, Ulster Crescent, Ottawa – In the Beginning.
Second Place: Maureen Korp, King Edward Ave., Ottawa – Friday Afternoon.
Third Place: Carol Stephen, Carleton Place – Walking in Thomson’s Red Sumac.
Honorable mentions: Alison Griffith, Nepean – A Writer’s Page; Joan McKay, Ulster Crescent, Ottawa – In the Middle of this Century (Dust Covered), and Luminita Suse, Gloucester – Mammogram.

The Short Story winners were:
First Place: Ken McBeath, Perth – Walking the Tunnel.
Second Place: Karen Massey, Glenora Street, Ottawa – Tar Man.
Third Place: James Hooper, Dorion Ave., Ottawa – The Shifting Sands.

Honorable mentions: Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, Felicity Crescent, Ottawa – Sylvain et Les Senateurs; Roberta Jones, Rockhurst Road, Ottawa – The Stringhouse; André Narbonne, Stewart Street, Ottawa – My mother is in shadow at the top of the stairs, and Miriam Sciala, Lanark – Music Mag.

The Guardian has an article about how some libraries in Florida have banned the hot selling Fifty Shades of Grey.

Banning books is just wrong.

This weekend when I stopped in at Chapters I noticed a pretty big display in the front of the store with quite a few copies of Fifty Shades of Grey. Several people checking them out. I’m tempted to at least get the first book just to see what the hype is all about. But isn’t that how this thing turned into a best-seller in the first place? It has decent success online and the more people talk about it, the more curious we get and then we finally break down and buy the thing. I wonder what we’ll think of the novels in three years time.

Ottawa resident Roger White has been nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.

Published by BPS Books, Tight Corner: A Capital Crime is about a former public servant turned classic car repair shop owner who is ensnared in an immigration identity document scam run by a murderous gang.

White spent 25 years in federal government communications and before that worked as a reporter/editor at various weekly and daily newspapers in Ontario.

The Arthur Ellis Awards were established in 1984 and are named after the pseudonym of Canada’s second official hangman. The winner will be announced on May 31 in Toronto.

For more information, check out the website.

If you’re a fan of PD James (like I am), then you can’t go wrong reading Elizabeth George. Although some might say that if you’re a George fan, then perhaps you might like to read James.

But there is no doubt these two authors have very similar styles and are two of the best British mystery writers out there. What I like about both is that their novels have suspense, great plot twists and strong character development.

Last night I finished reading For The Sake of Elena, published in 1993. Thomas Lynley jumps at the chance to investigate a murder in Cambridge. A young student, the daughter of a prestigious professor, has been found beaten and strangled to death one early morning. As Lynley investigates, he discovers there were a few different sides to the young woman. Each person they interview gives them a different sense of the relationships she had with family and friends.

It’s a great read in the traditional British sense. And even better, there are quite a few Lynley mysteries for me to catch up on.

One of the other delightful discoveries (yes, I said delightful) is that there are some novels that focus more on Simon St. James and his wife Deborah, characters who share an equal billing with Lynley in the first novel I read.

It was quite the adventure for an Ottawa writer recently.

Michael J. McCann is a crime writer based in Oxford Station. He recently went up 6,000 people in a global writing content. And he won! For his efforts, he is going to Scotland in mid-May to help the company that sponsored the contest distill single malt scotch.