Popular Montreal newspaper columnist Bernard Mendelman has been kind enough to recommend my book to Hillary Clinton, which is of course him being nice to a new writer, and also dangling a hook for his readers. But Hillary’s taste in Eastern Townships murder mysteries must be familiar to most Canadians now, since her recent […]
My Conversation with Joanne Guidoccio
In which I chat with Joanne Guidoccio, Canadian author of the Gilda Greco mystery series Tell us a little bit about your series, including where the idea originated? Too Many Women in the Room is the second book in the Gilda Greco Mystery Series. Based in Northern Ontario, these books feature a fifty-something Italian woman, […]
When Your Hometown Newspaper Recognizes You
New novel a unique pleasure for former Cornwallite Anna Dowdall By Todd Hambleton, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder Tuesday, September 5, 2017 7:36:11 EDT PM An author who grew up in Cornwall has had her first novel published. Anna Dowdall, who was born in Montreal and currently lives in Toronto, has written After the Winter, a crime novel […]
Book Review
When you get your first good book review, and not from some writer to whom you will be reciprocating, bless their hearts, but from a celebrated writer like Joan Barfoot, I’m afraid there’s no end to your desire to reblog it and mention it at the drop of a hat. So here is the beginning […]
Toronto Public Library Free Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop: Light Fiction, Serious Themes Presenter: Anna Dowdall Does light have to be trivial? Does serious have to be boring and strident? Are you a beginning or aspiring writer interested in exploring how genre fiction (romance, mystery, humour, science fiction, fantasy—the kind we all love to read!) can also express the things that […]
New Release!
Dear friends— A week from today, on Friday, August 25, AFTER THE WINTER comes out. I’m excited to bring you the first book in a new mystery series set in Quebec, THE ASHLEY SMEETON FILES. “A perfect read for a rainy afternoon…,” says my first review! AFTER THE WINTER stems from my addiction to mid-twentieth […]
First and Second Natures
A while ago I watched Hitchcock’s film VERTIGO again. The more I watch his movies the more I love Kim Novak, more than other Hitchcock female leads such as Grace Kelly and probably right up there with the extraordinary Tippi Hedren. And the more I marvel at the way Hitchcock movies combines excellence with popular […]
Toronto Gothic
The Canadian writer Margaret Millar was Agatha Christie’s favourite mystery novelist. For very good reason. THE IRON GATES (1945) is set in Toronto – the gated park in the book being Toronto’s very own High Park under snow. The novel falls into the category Urban Ontario Vintage Winter Gothic – a category I might have […]
Book Covers that Haunt…
I can’t fully explain my love of these vintage Gothic romance book covers, that were very common even into the 1970s and sold a variety of qualities of books from pulp to classics. You can find this type of pulp cover on inexpensive paperback reissues of classics, such as JANE EYRE. They’ve burrowed into my […]
I am obsessed with the Gothic!
This is a great British Library article – it reads almost like a how-to checklist to write Gothic-infused romantic suspense like AFTER THE WINTER! How persistent these conventions are, I note while rereading Daphne duMaurier’s REBECCA, and I would add a few other motifs on a smaller scale to the article’s: a child in peril, […]