Mystery is on the menu with two featured Canadian mystery authors at the next Electric Mermaid live reading event.
Electric Mermaid: Live Reads is a literary event that takes place online via Zoom on the third Friday of each month. It is hosted by Char’s Landing in Port Alberni. The next event is scheduled for Friday, July 16 at 5:45 p.m.
Catherine Macdonald’s first mystery novel, Put on the Armour of Light, won the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction at the 2016 Manitoba Book Awards. So Many Windings is the upcoming sequel to that book and finds the characters in Scotland, where they tour the Highlands by bicycle.
Macdonald says she’s had a strange but interesting career as an archivist and freelance historian, during which she came across many odds and ends of details about Winnipeg as it was at the turn of the twentieth century.
“One morning I woke up with the idea of stringing some of these odds and ends together into a mystery story,” said Macdonald. “The result was my first book, Put on the Armour of Light. Since it was published, I’ve written fiction full-time.”
Macdonald will be joined by C.C. Benison—the nom de plume of Doug Whiteway. His first book, Death at Buckingham Palace, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel, and was followed by others in the “Her Majesty Investigates” series.
He followed that series with the Father Christmas mysteries. C.C. Benison’s latest intriguing and delightful Father Christmas mystery will leave cozy mystery readers puzzling over the outcome and, like a refreshing English cream tea, wishing there were more.
Electric Mermaid creative director Jacqueline Carmichael said it’s a real mid-summer treat to have two mystery authors on the program at the Port Alberni-based monthly event.
“As always, we welcome everyone to come and listen to the authors themselves,” she said. “Going virtual has enabled us to get face-to-face with writers and readers from around the continent, and that’s pretty cool. Thanks to our Zoom producer in Port Alberni, Charlene Patterson, this is a quality literary event on the third Friday of each month.”
Writers who would like to read their own work in the curated open mic can sign up at ElectricMermaidReads@gmail.com for a spot of up to five minutes.
Attendees can go to charslanding.com and click on the link to the Electric Mermaid to go to the Zoom link for the event.
