27 Dec Ringing Out 2025!
And Christmas is over with New Year’s Eve on our doorstep. I hope you are having a lovely holiday season as we enter the last week of 2025. This is the time I like to look back on my writing year that was before turning the page into a new year.
Who Lies in Wait, fourth in the Hunter and Tate series, hit stores May 1st with the launch May 22. I was so fortunate to hold the event at the Ottawa Curling Club with my good friend Kathryn Anthonisen as M.C., Jim Sherman, owner of Perfect Books selling copies, and buddy Fred Taylor taking photos. Thank you to everyone who came out and a special thank you to Dalal Abou-Eid for so kindly hosting at the Ottawa.
Also this year, a short story that I wrote titled “The Success Story” appeared in the anthology A Capital Mystery, which was released in October. Mike Martin was the driving force behind the project, which included a brilliant marketing campaign. Fellow contributors Nancy Pawelek, Kathy MacLellan and I appeared on CBC Radio’s All in a Day hosted by Alan Neal, and a large group of us visited Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at City Hall to give him a copy. Most of the authors took part in the October 16th launch, which was packed to the rafters with family and friends.
After completing Who Lies in Wait, I immediately plunged into writing the eighth Stonechild and Rouleau book, which was due in to Dundurn June 1st. Nobody Tell will be released in January 2027 if nothing changes in the schedule. My editor Shannon Whibbs and I are currently deep into editing with a January 10th (2026) deadline. After finishing the draft in May, I wrote a short story for a Dundurn anthology, which will be out later in 2026. The theme is monsters, and I wrote a crime fiction story that I hope you’ll find compelling.
Another highlight was having Fatal Harvest, third in the Hunter and Tate series, shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Fiction Novel set in Canada award. You can read my interview with Charlie Senack of Kitchissippi Times about the novel here. In January, along with Mary Jane Maffini and Barbara Fradkin, I helped to organize a get-together of local authors who belong to Crime Writers of Canada at Grounded, a local restaurant that has become one of our favourite places.
Also this year, work was going on behind the scenes as Sullivan Entertainment, Dundurn and I worked on a contract to option Cold Mourning for television. I had a chance to meet Kevin Sullivan via Zoom to talk about the project. The announcement came out in Publisher’s Weekly a week before Christmas.
This was also a year of store signings and other events. A highlight was being invited to the inaugural St. Lawrence Writers’ Festival in Brockville in early September. Katie Tallo, John Delacourt and I were on the mystery panel, M.C.’d by Don Butler. I also attended the interview with Linwood Barclay and the talk by Ali Hassan, making for a very interesting weekend. Plans are in the works for the festival to run again in 2026, and I recommend you make the trip.
A week after the Brockville event, I took the train to Toronto to stay with my friend Dawn, who had bid on a book club visit for the charity Blues for Youth, which supports kids at risk. We met in her back garden and it was such a lovely afternoon.
Other book club visits included a trip to Harmer House in March and a Zoom call to the Terrace Bay Public Library one evening in October, and other local neighbourhood clubs. Book clubs are the best!
I also did several store signings and met some terrific new readers as well as friends who came out to buy the latest book.
I took part in some author events organized by Peggy Blair, including Books on Tap at Kichesippi Brewery in May, and Crime for Christmas at the Barrhaven Legion in November. Peggy also invited me to be on a panel as part of a rural librarian conference in Perth in May. Thank you to Peggy for organizing all these opportunities and for inviting me to take part.
This year, I met Katie Tallo for the first time at an event she organized at the South Keys Chapters. We talked mysteries on a panel that also included Lis Angus, Randall Denley and John Delacourt.
As for publicity, I didn’t take on too much this year, although Debbie Mack, an American author, interviewed me in March for her podcast Crime Cafe. I was also featured in Neighbours of the Glebe. In addition, Who Lies in Wait received terrific reviews in the Glebe Report and BookLife. Also, A chapter was featured in the Ottawa Citizen’s summer reading series.
And I believe that’s a wrap! It was a busy, exciting year and I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming one. I’m currently writing the fifth Hunter and Tate and am aiming to have this one out in the fall. I’ve already got a few events lined up early in the year and hope we meet up on one of my outings. Until then, I toast you and wish you health and happiness in 2026 (this photo from the Writers’ Room Bar atop the Park Hyatt in Toronto)!
