A writers’ group in Centretown is now accepting entries for its popular annual short-story contest.
The Audrey Jessup Award – known as “The Audrey” – is given every year by the Capital Crime Writers in recognition of excellence in unpublished crime fiction.
Established Ottawa mystery author Brenda Chapman is a long-time member of the group, as well as the 2008 winner of the Audrey Jessup Award. She says for an entry to be successful, it should contain a number of the stylistic codes and conventions of the genre.
“In a mystery short story or novel, you have to have a good puzzle in your plot, and you have to put your clues in so that you’re playing fair with the reader, and they can figure out ‘whodunit’,” she says. “You need to have a bit of a hook, and a ‘surprise’ kind of an ending, and it also just needs to be good writing – a good story that people don’t want to put down.”
The Capital Crime Writers group was established in 1988 after members of the Ottawa Romance Writers Association decided the mystery genre deserved its own organization.
The group, which has since grown to about 70 members, meets on the second Wednesday of every month in the Honeywell room at Ottawa City Hall and caters to both readers and aspiring authors.
Ottawa has proven itself to be a popular setting for the Capital Crime Writers, with many members featuring familiar locations within their stories. Chapman’s Stonechild and Rouleau series uses the city as a backdrop and the second book in the series, Butterfly Kills was fittingly launched earlier this year at Perfect Books in Elgin Street.
The novel is a follow-up to 2014’s Cold Mourning, and revisits eponymous crime-fighting duo Jacques Rouleau and Kala Stonechild as they investigate a succession of grizzly crimes that contain unsettling coincidences.
Chapman says the Capital Crime Writers provides a nurturing and friendly environment for people to discuss and engage with the genre, while also providing professional help for those wishing to gain ground within the industry.
“I think a group like this really helps the beginner writers to get their foot in the door,” she says. “Also, groups like this are important in getting likeminded people with the same interests to get together and talk and discuss and feel supported.”
As well as conducting writing workshops and providing editors to look at members’ work, the group also regularly invites guest speakers to give talks and presentations. Past guests include forensics experts, private investigators, psychologists and detectives, which Chapman says help writers understand the technical policing process that is crucial to their stories.
Michael Murphy, president of the Capital Crime Writers, says the entertaining nature of crime-fiction has made it a popular category for both readers and writers alike.
“Fiction is a way to escape your everyday life and go into another world and crime fiction is one of the genres that really allows you to do that,” he says.
Murphy says the group plays an important role in helping to foster emerging talent, as well as providing resources to those already established within the genre.
“Capital Crime Writers is an organization that supports crime writers and our members range from people that are just thinking about writing fiction, to people who have written their first short story, to people that have just finished their first novel – all the way up to people that have written a number of novels and are now established authors,” he says. “It’s also an organization for people that just love the genre of crime fiction.”
Entries for the 2015 Audrey Jessup Award are due April 1. The contest is open to all members of the Capital Crime Writers group and residents of Ottawa who are over 18 years of age. A shortlist will be announced in April, with the winner announced in June.
Fact Box:
The issue: A short-story competition being run by the Capital Crime Writers.
What’s new: The award for this year, including dates of entry deadlines and winner announcements.
What it means: Those in interested will be able to learn more about this award, as well as the group behind it.
What’s next: The entry deadline (April 1), as well as the announcements of the winners, (June).