It's that time again! Time for the CBC Literary Awards:

http://www.radio-canada.ca/prixlitteraires/english/index.shtml

Ready, set, write!

The Literary Awards Team is anxiously awaiting your original and unpublished works (short story, poetry, and creative non-fiction) by November 1, 2009. You could win $60,000 in cash prizes.

Submit online!

Join us on Facebook!

The Awards are Canada's only literary competition celebrating original, unpublished works in both official languages. There are three categories: short story, poetry, and creative non-fiction, with cash prizes totalling $60,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, publication in Air Canada's enRoute magazine, and visibility for the winners and their winning entries offered by CBC.

If you've already received this email, please feel free to forward it.

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your submissions!

The Awards Team
Literary_Awards@cbc.ca
1-877-888-6788

(This information line is open from June 1 to December 15.)

Semi-Permanent Change of Venue

Due to overwhelming support by members who voted at the May meeting, the June 11, 2009 meeting and AGM will be held at Owl's Nest Bookstore in Brittania Plaza (Elbow Drive and 49th Avenue SW, Calgary), starting at the usual time of 7 p.m.

Speaker TBA.


Further, the attending members voted overwhelmingly to move to the bookstore for the new Ink year starting in September 2009.

The venue will be reviewed by membership consultation toward the end of the next Ink season (May/June 2010) and a decision made then whether to stay at Owl's Nest or move back to the Old Y.

Meanwhile, the mailing address will continue to be care of the Old y as shown on the website.

How to Decontaminate a Meth Lab

From "Forensic Magazine" :

Homemade laboratories pose dangerous risks not only to those running them, but also to neighbors and the environment. The chemicals involved in meth production are toxic, corrosive, and flammable, creating a high risk of contamination. Further, it is estimated that the production of one pound of meth produces over 5 pounds of toxic waste. As most clandestine “cooks” are amateurs, you can expect a good deal of contamination in a seized lab. Not only will all surfaces be contaminated by the fumes, but much of the toxic waste will have been disposed of in sinks, toilets, bathtubs, and the land surrounding the lab.

For the full article go to

http://www.forensicmag.com/News_Articles.asp?pid=549

April Meeting CHANGE OF VENUE

April speaker: Mike Hare, co-owner of Owl's Nest Bookstore

Topic: The bookseller's role and how authors can work with sellers to make their books fly off the shelves.

Venue: *Different location Owl's Nest Bookstore in Britannia shopping
centre, on 49th Ave SW at Elbow Dr.

There is a parking lot in front of the store and a large overflow lot
in the back. For transit users, the #3 bus stops right outside
Sunterra market. It is a frequent and late-running bus.

Updates of Miscellaneous Interest

Reminder: February 12th at the Old Y, Melanie Little from Freehand Press will be speaking. See the preceding post for details.

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Further to the recent Mystery Press article on the present sorry state of the publishing industry, two things have changed since publication:

1) Book Expo Canada is, as predicted, officially now canceled.

2) The Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a one-year stay of enforcement of the newly added certification and testing requirements for manufacturer and importers of products for children. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

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Fun link that will nibble away at your spare time for weeks: Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2009/02/05/top-100-creative-writing-blogs/

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Quotable on Mystery Writing:

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution,
once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
- Raymond Chandler

Feb 12 Meeting: The Editing Process

Melanie Little of Freehand Books will speak and answer questions on theprocess of working with an editor--from the initial steps of submitting a manuscript through the collaborative editing process in all its stages.

Melanie Little is an editor at Calgary's Freehand Books, publishing the bestin new Canadian fiction, poetry, and literary non-fiction. Books she hasacquired and edited have been nominated for the Giller Prize, the McAuslanFirst Book Prize, and the BC National Award for Canadian Non-fiction. She isalso the author of The Apprentice's Masterpiece, a novel-in-verse foryoung adults (Annick Press), and Confidence, a collection of stories(Thomas Allen), a Globe and Mail Top 100 book. Her fiction has appeared inanthologies including The Journey Prize Anthology and Scribner's Best ofthe Fiction Workshops, and she has been shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed,Bronwyn Wallace, and CBC Literary Awards. In 2005-6 she was theMarkin-Flanagan Writer in Residence at the University of Calgary.

Ten Stupid Things Cops In Books Do

From that noted cop and crime writer, Robin Burcell:

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2009/01/ten-stupid-things-cops-in-books-do.html