On this earth day, I am recycling a piece I wrote earlier today for this year’s Bloody Words’ program. Bloody Words is a gathering of mystery writers and mystery readers. This year it will be held in Toronto from May 28 to May 30th. It’s a neat weekend and if you’re interested being part of it, visit http://www.bloodywords2010.com/bw2010-reg.html
I think the piece below is self-explanatory.
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On being the first Guest of Honour (Canadian) at the first Bloody Words
It was hot—sidewalk-meltingly, armpit-drippingly, lung-searingly hot, and the Arts and Letters Club established in 1908 to house “a dynamic community of men and women for whom the arts is an essential part of life” and site of the first Bloody Words was not air-conditioned.
My speech was long – very long. I am a Virgo and I took my assignment as the inaugural speaker very seriously. I prepared a speech that offered a comprehensive history of the mystery from Aesop to Jane Tennison, with long and loving stops along the way to discuss (at length) Edgar Allan Poe, Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, Hercule Poirot, Raymond Chandler, Lew Archer, Mickey Spillane, Sara Paretsky, Charlie Salter, Benny Cooperman and Kate Henry. After that, I turned my attention to the future of mystery writing in Canada.
There were no chairs in the room in which I spoke. The audience, bludgeoned by the heat and by my endless drone, grew glassy-eyed, pale and faint, but I had been asked to speak and speak I did.
After I took my bow, Bloody Words took a turn for the better. That weekend at The Arts and Letters Club we all experienced the “good conversation and the companionship of kindred spirits” that the Club has offered since its founding. It was a great beginning.
Gail Bowen – April 2010