Please come out on Saturday, April 30, and buy a book or two at your favourite independent bookstore in honour of national “Authors for Indies Day”.

Don’t know what to buy? Doug Whiteway—better known as C.C. Benison to mystery fans—and I will be at “Whodunit”, 165 Lilac St., April 30 from 11:00AM to 3PM. Doug and I look forward to chatting with you about our favourite mystery writers, our own books and anything else that fellow lovers of mystery and crime fiction care to shoot the breeze about.

This is the second year that writers from across Canada will be out in their neighbourhood bookstores on “Authors for Indies Day”. The idea is to shine a light on those stores that care about Canadian books and Canadian readers. They hold readings and in-store events and host writing and book groups. So much more happens in these places than the word “store” suggests; they foster community in many small but important ways. We value them but we can also take them for granted. That’s what “Authors for Indies Day” is about. The Canadian writing community gets to spend a day raising awareness about the stores that have given us so much.

So come out on Saturday. We’ll have a blast.

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