If you saw the front page of the website, you'll have seen the two promotional events for Deadly Lessons, one on March 3rd at Chapters in Coquitlam, the other on Thursday night, March 8th, at the downtown branch of the Vancouver Public Library.
At the latter, in addition to doing a reading I'll be preparing a little talk about the use of the high school as the setting for a crime novel (or, dare I say, a crime series). I'm hoping to focus on the controversial issues that arise in a high school setting, particularly in light of the Tom Ellison conviction and sentencing in January and two recent cases in my own school district of teachers having inappropriate relationships with students. I'll talk about the kinds of things that are taboo in terms of mining them for fiction and even just expressing divergent opinions on. I'm hoping it will be an interesting conversation. I'm also hoping people will show up!
The following week I'm being interviewed by the producers of a new documentary series on Global Television called "True Pulp Murder." It's a 13 episode show that each week will focus on a homicide investigation, with re-enactments and interviews with detectives who investigated the cases. Then they'll interview a crime novelist each week who will give his or her thoughts about the investigation, parallels to stories he or she has written and/or published, what kinds of true life themes are evident in the case that often appear in fiction, etc. It should be an interesting series. And, of course, I get to plug the book.
And, of course, I'll be on CKNW this coming Sunday afternoon, trying to become their next Talk Show Idol. Actually, I really don't care if I win: I'm kind of doing it for a lark because I love having anything to do with radio and if I get to hold court on the Top Dog for a half hour, even once, that'll be fun.
That certainly doesn't preclude anyone from going to cknw.com and voting for me, of course.
