On Thursday, October 11, 2018, I was scheduled to sit down with former Prime Minister Stephen Harper for an interview to be published in Report on Business Magazine. The interview was timed to coincided with the publication of Harper’s new book on conservative politics, Right Here, Right Now. We knew… Read more »
Thursday night at a gala event at Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club, the Crime Writers of Canada association handed out its annual prize — the Arthur Ellis Award. In the category of Canada’s best nonfiction crime book, The Whisky King came out the winner! I couldn’t be more thrilled. (That’s… Read more »
There was plenty of enthusiasm — and coffee and cookies — in the Events Room at RHPL last Monday night. It was the launch of my four-month residency at the library — a “welcome tea” someone called it. And welcoming it surely was. Graciously introduced by library programmer Anete Ivsina,… Read more »
We got two flashes of unexpected good news this week. The first was that The Whisky King has been shortlisted for The 2017 Speakers Book Award. This award is given by Ontario’s Legislative Assembly to recognize “works by Ontario authors reflecting the diverse culture and rich history of the province and of… Read more »
The Writers’ Trust organization has been good to me over the years — that 2010 Fiction prize nomination for Practical Jean topping the list of goodies. So when they invite me to their annual shindig, I’m always happy to go. And when I get to sit with a bunch of folks as… Read more »
Well, here’s the story so far… Since the book’s launch in April, the media reception has been pretty wonderful for The Whisky King. Thanks to the hard work of publicist Mike Millar who set up the radio and TV interviews, the book and yours truly have been featured on TVO’s The… Read more »
It’s very early days for The Whisky King out in the world, and this is lovely news. The April 18, 2017, Maclean’s Non-Fiction Bestseller list featured its debut at #4!
There’s no doubt that, because Rocco and Bessie Perri settled in Hamilton in 1915 and used it as a base for their bootlegging operation for decades, a lot of important events in The Whisky King take place there. But the book has a much bigger scope than that. Here’s just a… Read more »
I knew it would be hard work, and ultimately it was more work than I imagined. But now that the books have arrived and the launch is close, I can say for sure that I’ve never had more fun as a writer. Digging through archives, reading detective’s reports from the… Read more »
Book trailers are fun to do and some are enjoyable to watch. I think the chief attribute of a good book trailer is brevity. So here is a very short one for Hope Makes Love: Thanks to Alessandra Ferreri for her initial idea, and to Valerie Cole for her terrific narration. … Read more »