The Fun of Creating a Whole New Town

By Vicki Delany

Barbara talked last week about setting in her books, how she’s been exploring remote Canadian locations in person and by map searching for good settings.

I on, the other hand, sometimes just make it all up.

Case in point: my Year Round Christmas Series from Berkley Prime Crime. When I was tossing around the idea of a cozy Christmas-theme-shop book, the first thing I had to consider was if it would be a shop in a nice, typical town. Or in a town totally dedicated to Christmas.

It didn’t take long to decide on the latter, and Rudolph, New York was born. In Rudolph, they love Christmas so much they celebrate it all year round.

Now, I had my town, so I had to fill it with something.  Mrs. Claus’s Treasures sells everything you need for decorating your home, as well as toys and jewellery, and many of the goods are locally made.  Victoria’s Bake Shoppe is famous for its gingerbread.  There’s Candy Cane Sweets, the North Pole Ice Cream Parlour, The Elves Lunchbox, Cranberries Coffee Bar, Touch of Holly Restaurant, The Yuletide Inn, the Carolers Motel. The possibilities are endless.  (Looking at this list it seems as though the residents and visitors to Rudolph like to eat a lot.)

Then we need people.  Merry Wilkinson is the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures.  Merry’s father, Noel, is the town’s Santa Claus. Merry knows her dad isn’t really Santa, but sometimes she does wonder how he knows what people want before they so much as say so.  Merry’s best friend, Vicky, owns the bakery.

The fondest wish of the residents of Rudolph is to be known officially as America’s Christmas Town. But they have tough competition from the likes of Snowflake, Arizona or North Pole, Alaska.  In the first book of the series, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen, they’re delighted when a reporter from an international travel magazine arrives to do a feature he is going to title “America’s Christmas Town”.

Delight changes to something else when the reporter dies from eating a poisoned gingerbread cookie baked at Victoria’s Bake Shoppe. And rivals from a nearby town begin to whisper the worst: Christmas Town or Horrorville?

The second book in the series will be released on November 1^st, and it’s titled We Wish You A Murderous Christmas.

This time there’s a Grinch in town when the owner of the popular Yuletide Inn takes ill and his son, Gord, arrives to take over. Gord, unfortunately, isn’t exactly imbued with the Christmas spirit.

The joy of writing cozies, I have found, is the pure fun in it.  I’ve had great fun creating Rudolph and its inhabitants, and I hope you enjoy reading about their adventures. 

We Wish you A Murderous Christmas is now available for pre-order in mass market paperback and ebook at your favourite independent bookstore as well as Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound 

My take on book launches

by Rick Blechta

Since a few Type M bloggers have mentioned their book launches/signings and made some interesting comments, and finding myself faced with the same situation, I thought I’d throw my thoughts out there and see what folks think.

To me, book launches have always revolved around two things: promotion of the new publication, but even mores as a celebration of a huge milestone in my writing life.

Think about it — I’ve just worked very hard and spent a lot of effort, not to mention hours of my life, all towards the end of producing a new work. In the background of this — and not having all that much to do with the actual creation of what is now enclosed between the covers — is the work of writing a proposal, coming up with a sample chapter or two, perhaps a detailed plot synopsis, etc. These are about as much fun to do as the math homework your high school teachers assigned every bloody day. We’re not even talking about the struggle of finding an author in the first place!

And now you’re actually able to hold a tome in your hands — which in my current situation is a very “generous” word to use. Still, I’ve produced something tangible. That’s a pretty incredible thing on its own.

Doesn’t something like this deserve a big celebration? And that’s how I personally view the launch of a book. This is exciting stuff (especially for me) and I want to have a big party!

In the past, some of my books have enjoyed really huge parties. For The Fallen One, I booked Toronto’s Arts & Letters Club, arranged for food and drink, invited to opera singing friends to perform (and I am still very grateful to Anna Bateman and Emilio Fina for their extreme generosity) and 100 people showed up! Anna and Emilio sang beautifully to orchestral recording of some iconic opera arias, and to wrap it up, they sang the Brindisi from the first act of La Traviata and opera which had a large place in the novel’s plot) with the audience “helping out” on the choral parts. Now that was a book launch.

This time out, I can’t afford something quite that extravagant, but my latest, Rundown, will get its due and be unleashed on an unsuspecting public on November 5th, from 2:00 until 4:00 at Toronto’s iconic mystery bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street.

Type M’s founder (and my dear friend), Vicki Delany, is partnering with me to launch the second in her Year Round Christmas series, We Wish You a Murderous Christmas — and that’s a pretty cool thing in itself. Vicki and I have shared the stage at many a book signing, but never for a launch (and it was all her idea).

There will be food (including some seasonal goodies — considering Vicki’s book’s subject matter) and drink (bubbly, perhaps, since any good launch deserves a broadside from a Champagne bottle.

Sure, our party will help generate awareness and hopefully translate into increased sales, but for me, it will be an afternoon to celebrate a great accomplishment with friends: my eleventh book. For Vicki, it is her 23rd book. Think about that one for a minute, folks.

If you’re around, please drop by and help share in our joy at accomplishing something that’s pretty great!