Here comes my biggest weekend of the year. Three days of pure insanity at the best little bookfest in Western Canada – When Words Collide – Friday to Sunday at the lovely Delta South Calgary, in beautiful mid-town Cowtown.

And don’t forget: #NOIRBARYYC Friday night, 9-late at the Boomtown Pub – OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

If you’re at the convention, and wanting to check out the miscreant roadshow that is Axel Howerton and/or Coffin Hop Press

Here’s where we’ll be:

Friday 4 PM – Fireside
Coffin Hop Press Presents
Tall Tales of the Weird West (2015) and other upcoming projects.
Join Axel Howerton, Dwayne Clayden, Rick Overwater and more.

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Friday 5 PM – Parkland-Bonavista-Willow Park
Real Life Mysteries
Shirlee Smith Matheson, Rebecca Bradley, Axel Howerton
Truth is often stranger than fiction. Our experts discuss unsolved mysteries from the past
that fire the imagination, offering popular theories and, for a few, how modern technology
has solved mysteries once thought unsolvable.

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Friday 6 PM – Rundle
Mystery Shorts
Axel Howerton, Darusha Wehm, Jayne Barnard, Sam Wiebe, Constantine Kaoukakis (M)
What are the ingredients and markets for short mystery stories? Short mystery stories
need to be succinct and punchy. They are a writing challenge on their own. There are
conventions, guidelines and various markets to be considered. Join us for a lively
discussion to learn about the writing opportunity.

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Friday 9 PM (till late) – Boomtown Pub
#NOIRBARYYC
Literary mayhem with Canada’s best crime writers.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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Saturday 10 AM – Fireside
Sleuth Magazine
Constantine Kaoukakis launches Sleuth Magazine with
Barb Galler-Smith. Sleuth magazine is a literary vehicle for crime fiction, suspense, thrillers & other writing related to the mystery genre. sleuthmagazine.ca

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Saturday 2 PM – Fireside
AB Negative
Coffin Hop Press presents a new anthology of the very best in Alberta crime and mystery
from Alberta’s greatest crime writers. Join Axel Howerton, Jayne Barnard, Robert Bose,
Susan Calder, Dwayne E. Clayden, Randy McCharles, Brent Nichols, Al Onia, Rick
Overwater, Sharon Wildwind, and S.G. Wong

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Saturday 3 PM – Waterton
Does Being an Editor Make You a Better Writer?
Richard Harrison, Axel Howerton, Nowick Gray, Darusha Wehm, Barb Galler-Smith (M)
The Left Brain – Right Brain Dominance Theory suggests that editing is a left brain
function while creative writing is a right brain function. Does being an editor hurt or help
your writing? Does being too analytical interfere with your creativity? Or can you control
which brain has dominance at different stages of writing?

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Saturday 9 PM (till late) – Acadia
The Usual Suspects Fandango
Drop in for some killer excitement with crime writers from across Canada.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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Sunday 10 AM – Fireside
In Places Between Sampler
Come to this pre-session reading to hear a sample of each of the short stories in line for
first place in the Robin Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest.

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Sunday 11 AM – Fireside
In Places Between Contest Judging
Axel Howerton, Kate Larking, Sandra Kasturi, and Robin Van Eck
Our panel of judges announces this year’s winners of the Robyn Herrington Short Story
Contest and discusses their selections

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Sunday 12 PM – Rundle
Does Size Matter?
Axel Howerton, Steena Holmes, Sarah Kades, Tod McCoy
Novellas and short stories are on the rise, but does length of a story make a difference?
We hear from readers, editors and writers who will share their thoughts on story length,
how it can affect sales, and whether the appetite for shorter fiction is here to stay

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Sunday 1 PM – Bonavista
Murder – Ancient and Contemporary
Axel Howerton, Dwayne Clayden, Charles Prepolec, S.G. Wong
What are the differences and similarities in writing mysteries in different eras. How do you
do the research, how much of true facts can you include in historical mysteries. What
differences dialogue, setting and forensics do you encounter?

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Sunday 2 PM – Parkland
The Past Is a Terrible Place
Rebecca Bradley, Axel Howerton, Steve Swanson
Compared to the present day, the past was filthy, bigoted, stratified, polluted, violent, and
crude—whether thousands of years ago or yesterday. What possible appeal could travel
into the past have? How does it vary based on your current socioeconomic status, or on
the status you have (or can acquire) in the past with your knowledge of history, technology, and sociology? We’ll discuss various depictions of travel into the past, including Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series

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Sunday 4 PM – Rundle
The Publishers Panel: Short Fiction
Axel Howerton, Rhonda Parrish, Ron Friedman, Kevin Thornton, Tod McCoy
Publishers and editors discuss industry trends, their working relationship with authors, the
impact of ePublishing on their business, and other questions raised from the audience