Yesterday, my agent forwarded me a rejection letter for WHAT BURNS WITHIN. It was actually an amazing letter. It referenced my work as “fast-paced and well written” with a “compelling story” and my favourite line: “I can see why Ms. Ruttan has garnered such wonderful praise; she writes with incredible vividness and great attention to detail.” The editor even called me talented.

This is much better than form letter rejections or, worse, a “please fuck off and take…

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In the wake of the deadliest school shooting in US (and one would assume world) history comes the news that the killer in the bloodiest U.S. gun massacre has been identified as a 23-year-old undergraduate English major at Virginia Tech whose creative writing was so troubling that the university referred him to counselling.



"He was reported to be getting increasingly violent and erratic in the… Continue

The crime in Canadian fiction far outweighs the reality and this country is just too ‘polite and civilized’ to be noir.

That’s what was stated in a recent post on a discussion list, and this is an expansion of my response to the statement there. In my opinion, for all the bellyaching we do about ‘realism’ in our crime fiction, when it comes to location we dispense with that concern. Time and again the tried and true locations of popular US cities are the settings of new novels,…

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Who, Me? Lose My Temper? Yes, I lost it yesterday, so I went and deleted what I said moments later.

The reality was, there wasn't anything wrong with what I said, except for the use of one four-letter word. And so I'm going to vent my spleen here, sans cuss words.

I've been on a few forums over time. I have seen a few forums I participated in regularly get shut down. One forum I used to frequent has become one I won't recommend because the trolls won. The mantra…

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She was 16, pretty, with her whole life ahead of her.

Until she encountered a killer at a bus stop.

He raped her, stuck pins in her, struck her in the face with a brick repeatedly and she eventually died from a fractured skull and asphyxiation.

Her killer taunted police with a letter at the time of the murder: "I won't strike again until next year at the same time... Set up your bait and try to catch me ... See ya next year."

Her name was…

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From the charming folks at Fantasy Book Spot:

Who Can Win? Open to all FBS Members.

How do you Win? Send me a PM with Suspicious Circumstances as the subject and you are entered.

What is the deadline? Send your PM anytime before April 20th. The winner will be randomly selected and announced soon after.

So, just to clarify - I'm not…

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Natasha Cooper sent me word this morning that Peter Temple will not be able to attend Harrogate this July. We'll be updating that in the online Harrogate article in the new issue of Spinetingler. These things do happen, and I know from my own experience how hard it is for the program chair, who not only has to face their own disappointment but feels bad…

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The new issue of Spinetingler is up. You can follow this link for the PDF download and table of contents.

Or take the direct links below for the stories, interviews, reviews, website features, a sampler of Harrogate 2007 and a very special article.

I asked blogger and author Sela Carsen to give us some insight on the…

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