We had a wonderful time chatting with fellow members at our December in-person meeting. Then after an enjoyable meal, we were treated to an interesting talk, filled with great tips by Bernadette Cox.
An audio recording of Bernadette’s talk will be up on the Members Only section of our website by Saturday.
Thank you to those that came to the dinner, and we missed everyone that would have joined us if not for the snowstorm. A special thanks to the executive who are the reason CCW runs so smoothly. Many thanks as well to the Kallisto Greek & Mediterranean Grill restaurant for hosting us.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanuka and the best of the Season!
Our December meeting is an in-person dinner in Ottawa. If you are interested in attending please contactcommunications@capitalcrimewriters.combefore December 7, 2025.
Guest Speaker:Bernadette Cox: Editing A Capital Mystery
Bernadette will share what events brought her to editing fiction and talk about her role co-editing A Capital Mystery, the highly acclaimed anthology of short crime stories by Ottawa writers, published by Ottawa Press and Publishing. She’ll share the early steps taken to determine if the project was feasible, highlight some common errors and bright spots in the writing and leave tips for writers to consider before submitting stories. She will also let us know what she found to be the most difficult parts of the job and what she learned from the experience. She hopes to hear from CCW members, many whose work appears in the anthology, about their views on the writer-editor relationship, particularly how to improve it. Those who contributed stories to the anthology will be encouraged to share what they found exciting, annoying and/or fun about the project.
After 10 years in community and farm journalism, Bernadette Cox moved to corporate communications, first with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and then leading the communications unit of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency. Completing 21 years in corporate agriculture communications, she began freelancing and has written and edited for national organizations in the fields of health, municipal affairs and labour. She is among the editors of Mike Martin’s award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mysteries and edited his first poetry book, Hope and Love and Other Dreams. Together with Mike, she edited A Capital Mystery, an anthology of short stories written by Ottawa and Ottawa-area authors, and has just finished helping him with his second book of poetry, which is scheduled for release in early 2026.
All the Feels – Crafting Your Reader’s Emotional Journey by Pam Barnsley, Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EST)
Of all the skills we writers bring to our short stories and novels, the ability to evoke an emotional response in our readers is arguably our most vital. When our reader feels their own fear, anger, sympathy, desire for revenge, nostalgia for a time gone by, laughter, heartache—that is what engages them.
Great hooks, strong voice, tight plotting, interesting characters, and smooth prose are all important, but the greatest satisfaction for the reader comes from having gone on their own emotional journey. There are tips and tricks we can use in our writing to evoke those emotions.
Pam Barnsley is a writer living on Vancouver Island, whose short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Cold Canadian Crime Anthology, Midnight Schemers and Daydream Believers Anthology, and Dangerous Games Anthology. Her novel, The River Cage, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Best Unpublished Novel in 2020. Her short literary story, The Troll Artist, was longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2025. Pam is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, and Sisters in Crime. She is also a former snowboard instructor, award-winning poet, and from her father she learned the ancient art of training a cat to jump over a stick. Find her at www.pambarnsley.com.
Forensic Field Techniques for Human Remains by Christopher Courtin: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT)
Forensic Field Techniques for Human Remains is based on an educational documentary DVD produced for students of forensic science and as a reference for law enforcement officers. Working with experts from Laurentian University’s Forensic Science department, the roles, equipment and procedures used by anthropologists, botanists, and entomologists (or bones, plants, and bugs) are explored. Topics such as techniques for searching, the body decomposition timeline, and the effects of exposure to fire and water are covered.
Christopher Courtin was educated as a scientist but has worked primarily in visual storytelling as a cameraman, editor, and director. He is the author of the “Margot & Harley” comedic mystery series, and lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife and two children.
Insight from language science for character creation: A foray into sociolinguistics by Sali A Tagliamonte – Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT).
Sali Tagliamonte’s field is sociolinguistics, which can help writers consider social groups, region, and different registers to create language and dialogue that authentically represents a person’s identity, social allegiance, origins, age or other characteristics. She will talk about how understanding the systematic nature of language variation is a kind of writers’ gold, offering an enhanced toolkit for augmenting their craft.
SALI A. TAGLIAMONTE is Canadian, she was born in northern Ontario and raised in northwestern Quebec. She wrote and published poetry as a teenager but when she went to York University (Ontario) in the late 1970’s she discovered Sociolinguistics and the amazing world of language variation. She went to graduate school in Ottawa in the 1980’s where she worked on dialects of English spoken by people of African descent in the Caribbean and Canada. She graduated with a PhD in 1991 and took up a post-doctoral position for several years honing her craft of studying how language varies and changes over time and across social groups. In 1995, she took up a Lectureship at the University of York (England) where she worked on dialects from the far north shore of Scotland to Devon in the southwest (1995-2001). She returned to Canada in 2001 to become as Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. She has been working on Ontario dialects ever since, in essence she has gone back to her own roots. Sali lives in East York (Toronto) on an oak ravine with her husband and two cats. She has five children aged 22 to 42, 4 grandchildren and innumerable academic ‘children’ from the host of students that have come through her teaching
The top five finalists for the 2025 Audrey Jessup Short Story Contest, listed in random order, are:
Kathy MacLellan – Imogen St. Pierre is Dead Jennifer Jorgensen – Watts on Tap Maya Valenzuela – The Ties That Bind Grace Quon – Mama Bear Nathan Poole Shannon – Snake Eyes
The winners will be announced at the June meeting.
Creating a fictional thriller novel inspired by a true Mafia whistleblower by John Christmas – Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT).
John Christmas is a former banker whose banking career ended when his whistleblowing against his employer Parex Bank of Latvia was covered up by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Parex was later named by the Spanish court in the Tambovskaya Mafia prosecution as the money launderer for that St Petersburg gang which was closely connected with Vladimir Putin. Christmas was witness for the FBI following the cover up. He earned a BA at Dartmouth College and MBA at Cornell University. He is co-author of the ‘KGB Banker’ novel which won ‘Best Conspiracy Thriller 2022’ from Bestthrillers.com and ‘Best Fiction Novel 2022’ from Royal Dragonfly Awards. The other co-author William Burton McCormick was a previous guest on Capital Crime Writers.
I started off in banking expecting a safe career. I was surprised to learn serious organized crime and corruption information while at work. This led to a life of threats, slander, cover-up, FBI meetings, and never posting where I really am on social media. Lesson: don’t count on regulators, auditors, or even the FBI to take action when it’s important. My life as a whistleblower has been scary and frustrating at times. However my story makes for an excellent thriller novel with betrayals and twists. My transition into writing went well with ‘KGB Banker’ winning two awards. I just produced a documentary film about the real whistleblower story which isn’t premiered yet. My next project is making ‘KGB Banker’ into an action thriller movie. I’d like to develop ‘KGB Banker’ into a full brand with more books and films in the future.
It’s Criminal! Adding Comedy to Crime by Melodie Campbell – Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT)
In this fun talk, Melodie Campbell will discuss the different types of written humour in fiction, and gives practical pointers on how you can add humour to your stories. She’ll also touch on the difference between writing comedies vs writing crime with humour.
Called the “Queen of Comedy” by the Toronto Sun, Melodie Campbell was also named the “Canadian Literary heir to Donald Westlake” by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Melodie has won ten awards, including the Derringer (US) and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence, and has been featured in USA Today. Her publications include over one hundred comedy credits, eighteen novels and sixty short stories, but she’s best known for The Goddaughter mob caper series. The Silent Film Star Murders has just been released by Cormorant Books.
My plunge into the dark world of true crime by Lorna Poplak – Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 7:00 pm (EDT)
In addition to discussing her circuitous journey as a writer and the importance of research in her work, Lorna will share stories and images of the Don Jail, and reveal how she copes when things get really dark.
Lorna Poplak is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and researcher drawn to the sombre side of history. With a background in law, literature, information technology, and technical communications, Lorna has written medical and historical articles, travel pieces, short fiction, and a radio play. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and Mesdames of Mayhem.
Lorna’s two true crime books are Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada (2017) and The Don: The Story of Toronto’s Infamous Jail (2021), which was nominated for the Ontario Speaker’s Book Award and shortlisted for both the Crime Writers of Canada Excellence Award and the Heritage Toronto Book Award. Her latest book, On the Lam: Great (and Not So Great) Escapes from Prison, will be published in Fall 2025.
