On March 14th, 7:00 pm, Ottawa’s own mystery maven, Linda Wiken, will answer any and all questions on writing and publishing ‘cozy’ mysteries. After running Prime Crime Books for 14 years, this April Linda’s first cozy mystery will on the shelves. Writing under the pseudonym Erika Chase, A Killer Read is the first in her Ashton Corners Book Club mystery series. Over the course of the evening, Linda will take us on her publishing journey from mystery seller to published author with US publisher Berkley Prime Crime, and tell us what it takes to write and publish this kind of crime fiction.
Linda Wiken Bio
For 14 years, Linda Wiken owned the mystery specialty store, Prime Crime Books in the Glebe. Now, she’s embarked on a life of crime between the pages. Writing as her alter ego, Erika Chase, her first novel in the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries, A Killer Read, will be published April, 2012 by Berkley Prime Crime.
Her short stories have appeared in the seven Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies (three of which she co-edited), and in the magazines Mysterious Intent and Over My Dead Body. She has been short-listed for an Arthur Ellis Award, Best Short Story, from Crime Writers of Canada.
Before life in the world of mystery, she worked as an advertising copywriter, radio producer, journalist, and community education worker. As a volunteer with the Ottawa Police Service for over 15 years, she developed a strong, sometimes scary interest in police procedures. She wrote weekly crime stats articles for the local community newspapers for them, along with stories for the OPS internal newsletter. She also sang with the Ottawa Police Chorus for several years and now indulges her passion for choral singing with two (other) choirs.