Soho Crime's mandate is to publish "atmospheric crime fiction set all over the world." Their author list includes the likes of Colin Cotterill, whose novels are set in 1970s Laos, Martin Lίmon, whose series features American army investigators in South Korea in the same time period, and Henry Chang, whose contemporary crime novels are set in New York City's Chinatown.
I've had pretty good luck exploring Soho Crime's titles as a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, and that luck held when I selected Australian Garry Disher's Signal Loss for review.
I must confess I hadn't heard of Disher before, despite the fact he's published 40 books to date, but I enjoyed reading Signal Loss. Here's why I liked it.
Our challenge as readers is to find new writers with new voices and new perspectives. Many of the old familiar bestsellers have written themselves out, and their new publications are often not worth buying. Thankfully, Soho Crime is opening up our horizons and bringing us new names to try out.
Day Three at Bouchercon 2017 was a very busy day for me. It started early, as I volunteered at the Crime Writers of Canada table at 8:30 a.m. to spend an hour enticing people to sign up for our newsletter and/or become a member.
The CWC was sponsoring coffee and treats in the refreshment area today, and at 10:30 a.m. I was one of several CWC authors sitting at a table chatting with fans attracted by the lovely pastries. I had a fascinating conversation with a retired couple from Mountain View, California. He was a retired NASA aerospace engineer who worked with their wind tunnel technology. When he was done telling me about his career, I told him frankly that what I do pales in comparison to what he's done. Mind-blowing stuff.
At 1:30 I was back at the CWC table signing up more readers, and at 2:30 I caught a bit of a very interesting panel discussion including Louise Penny, Mark Pryor, Heather Young and Laura McHugh on their "hidden pasts." Very entertaining.
On the way out of the hotel for a mid-afternoon break I saw Colin Cotterill and his wife sitting in the lobby, and he very graciously signed my copy of The Rat Catchers' Olympics. (Read my New York Journal of Books review here.)
He told me he is a dog-lover and currently has seven, all street dogs he's rescued (he lives in Chumphon, Thailand). He told me he has started up a program to help stray "temple dogs," called WatDog2. They spay females, provide veterinary services, and so on. He has set up a PayPal link with the vet he uses, and they could use a little help. Colin explains the whole thing and provides the PayPal link in his website diary - you really should read this.
At 5:30 pm I was back at the CWC table for another hour-long stint. I should mention the table was managed by Alison Bruce, who's absolutely tireless. It exhausts me just thinking about how much stuff she does for the CWC.
Tonight there's live music down in the ballroom, and I think I'll slide down and give it a listen.
Tomorrow's getaway day, so I'll give you a wrap-up of the convention on Monday.
Catch you on the flip side.
This coming week I'll be attending Bouchercon 2017 at the Sheraton Centre hotel on Queen St. in Toronto. This is the annual world mystery convention that brings together crime fiction authors, readers, publishers and booksellers for four days.
Attendees this year include Colin Cotterill, Rick Mofina, Louise Penny, Linwood Barclay and Joseph Finder, among many others.
This is the first time I'll be attending Bouchercon, so I'm very excited to see what it's all about. And I'll be pretty busy.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, the first official morning of the convention, I'll be delivering a 20-on-20 session in the VIP Room from 11:40 am to noon. I'll use my 20 minutes to talk about my work and to read a short (!) excerpt from SORROW LAKE. Will anyone show up? We'll find out!!!
I'll also be at the Crime Writers of Canada table set up outside the Book Room on Friday morning at 10:30 and Saturday morning at 8:30 (yawn!). Then I'll move to the CWC table in the refreshment area at 10:30 am on Saturday and again at 1:30 pm.
If you're attending the convention, please stop by and say hello. If you're not attending, watch this space because I'll be posting updates every evening once I arrive in Toronto on Wednesday.
Here's hoping it'll be a great event!
