Author nominated for prestigious award

on Apr 29, 2021

Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology has been shortlisted in the short story category of the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. Marcelle Dubé, who now calls High River home after living here for almost a year was pleasantly surprised she was nominated.

“Then, I have to admit, a little humble. My story is up against some stiff competition. I plan to enjoy every moment until the day the winners are officially announced, on May 27,” she said.

“What was especially pleasing to me is the fact that Cold Wave was published in the inaugural anthology of Sisters in Crime Canada West. Two of the stories in Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology are finalists in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence (formerly the Arthur Ellis Awards). That would be Cold Wave and a novella by sibling Winona Kent for her Salty Dog Blues. Cold Wave features Olivia, a Yukoner who is trying to catch up to her friends who have skied ahead to reach the ski hut where they will spend the night. It’s cross-country skiing and the hut is a few hours away. It’s also January, one of the coldest months of the year in the Yukon, a month in which daylight is still in short supply. Olivia starts off late and arrives at the hut in the dark—frozen, hungry and exhausted—only to find her friends in danger. Now she has to find a way of rescuing them without dying of hypothermia or getting herself shot. Also read: https://www.frontlist.in/womens-prize-for-fiction-shortlist-includes-authors-brit-bennett-patricia-lockwood-yaa-gyasi/ The title of the anthology triggered the idea.

When I read Crime Wave, I automatically thought Cold Wave,” said Dubé. “That comes from 35 years of living in the Yukon, where cold waves are common. Once I thought cold, I thought snow and skiing and how dangerous it could be to ski in such cold temperatures, especially alone, with night coming on and a maniac with a gun on the loose.” Dubé feel as if she has been writing forever. “While I can’t remember a time I didn’t write, I was what you might call a late bloomer,” she said. It was 2001 before she published her first short story (“Root Fire” in Storyteller: Canada’s Short Story Magazine), and 2010 for her first novel, On Her Trail (published by Carina Press). “Since then, I’ve published over two dozen short stories and 13 novels, including two series: the A’lle Chronicles (alternate history/science fiction/mystery) and the Mendenhall Mystery series (contemporary mystery),” said Dubé. “I’m now working on my sixth Mendenhall mystery, which is set in the fictional town of Mendenhall, Manitoba, and researching my third A’lle Chronicles mystery, which is set in Lower and Upper Canada early in the 20th Century and features aliens who crash-landed on Earth two centuries earlier.” Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology is available as an e-book everywhere e-books are sold, and in print by ordering it through your local bookstore or through Amazon.

“I hope the High River Library will carry it,” said Dubé.

The author is looking forward to meeting more locals in person when time and circumstances allow it. “I moved to High River last June, in the middle of the pandemic. I haven’t had a chance to get to know the locals—because, you know, pandemic—but those I’ve met could well be honorary Yukoners: independent, stubborn, and friendly. I look forward to exploring the area, making friends, and setting new stories here,” said Dubé. Source: https://www.highrivertimes.com/