Whale of a Crime Newsletter: December 2018

Welcome to all our new registrants since the last newsletter. Only three more months until Left Coast Crime in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!

It's time to renew your passports and brush up on your French, or maybe your Cantonese and Mandarin, as you will be coming to Vancouver. There are lots of things to see and do in Vancouver! Visit our Hotel & Travel page for more information about traveling to Canada.

Writing Workshop: Hollywood North

Left Coast Crime 2019 is pleased to announce a Writing Workshop for writers, published or not, interested in learning about adapting work for the screen and screenwriting. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, from 9:00 AM to Noon, at the convention hotel, the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.

Cost: $75 CAD for LCC registrants, $100 CAD for non-LCC registrants
REGISTRATION LINK
Note: The workshop will be cancelled if the minimum is not met. Registration will be limited to 60.

Hollywood North
The film industry in Canada is alive and well and is often referred to as Hollywood North. How does a book become a TV series, a movie, a play or anything else people are turning “properties” into in the 21st century? How do you pitch a project? And would you rather pitch your book, option it or hide under the covers when a producer calls to ask about your baby? How “attached” do you want to be an adaptation of your work? And how attached can you be? Mark Leiren-Young explores the realities of navigating the media scene.

Presenter: Mark Leiren-Young
“Mark Leiren-Young, who has a background in pretty much everything — journalism, television, comedy, theatre and film — is without a doubt one of the most talented, multi-disciplinary voices in Canada.” – National Post.
Recent screen projects include writing and directing the award-winning documentary, The Hundred-Year-Old Whale, writing and acting in ReBoot: The Guardian Code and writing the MOW thriller, The Perfect Match. Mark has several screenplays in development, including an adaptation of sci-fi legend Spider Robinson’s sci-fi crime thriller, Very Bad Deaths. Mark was a story editor of the horror crime series, Blood Ties, and has been through the development dance with most of Canada’s major TV networks. Mark is the author of The Killer Whale Who Changed the World (winner of The Canadian Science Writers Book Award) and Never Shoot a Stampede Queen (winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour). Mark was the editor of Reel West and covered the Canadian entertainment scene for most of Canada’s major newspapers and magazines like The Hollywood Reporter.
Mark’s website

Looking for a Hotel Roommate?

Noemi Levine is our Roommate Liaison. Email Noemi if you would like to be matched with a roommate and share a hotel room.

Author Couch Surfing

Vancouver author Sam Wiebe has offered to match up local authors willing to host a LCC visiting author during the convention. For details, please email Sam.
Note: Dog optional

Lefty Awards

We hope you have been making lists of all your favorite mysteries published in 2018. If not, start looking back over your notes because your Lefty Nomination Form will be coming your way very soon! Registrants of the 2018 and 2019 Left Coast Crime Conventions will be able to nominate three titles in each Lefty Award category. Nominations will be accepted the first two weeks of January, for the four 2019 Lefty Awards:

Best Mystery Novel
Best Debut Mystery Novel
Best Humorous Mystery Novel
Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bruce Alexander Memorial), covering events before 1960

To be eligible, titles must have been published for the first time in the United States or Canada during 2018, in book or ebook format. (If published in other countries before 2018, a book is still eligible if it meets the US or Canadian publication requirement.)

Nomination forms will be emailed to all 2018 and 2019 LCC registrants in late December. The Lefty Award nominees will be announced around January 16, 2019. Final voting for the Lefty Awards will be by paper ballot at the convention in Vancouver.

Questions about the Lefty Awards? Email Awards Co-Chairs Lucinda Surber & Stan Ulrich

Whale of a Crime Sponsorship Opportunities

Left Coast Crime encourages organizations to sponsor a variety of events such as the Opening Reception, the Awards Banquet, the Friday “Meet the New Authors” breakfast, the Saturday breakfast, and the hospitality suite. Other options include sponsoring one of our Guests of Honor or supporting Left Coast Crime by sponsoring products such as the convention book bag.

Books for Book Bags
We are happy to accept crime fiction and non-fiction for distribution in the book bags. There is no charge, but you will need to ship the books to arrive in early 2019. For non-Canadian donations, we are negotiating with a Canadian company to accept shipments and transport them over the border with no additional cost to the shipper. We prefer not to have more than 200 copies of a single title; multiple titles are recommended if you would like to place a book in every bag. In order to make book distribution work for both the participants (who will love receiving your books) and the booksellers (who will plan to bring different books to sell), we ask that you provide the title(s) and number of books you would like to donate.

If interested in donating books or other sponsorship opportunities, please email Lucinda Surber for details.

Advertise in the Whale of a Crime Program Book

Attention Authors! Please encourage your publisher to advertise in the Left Coast Crime Program Book. There are sizes and prices for every budget. Don’t be left out! The deadline for reserving ad space is February 15, 2019. Details and Ad Form

Book Room Operations at Whale of a Crime

All authors at LCC 2019 will have the opportunity to have books for sale in the Book Room. Fan Guest of Honour Don Longmuir of Scene of the Crime Books is our Book Room Chair.

“Traditionally Published” Authors
Black Bond Books, a Vancouver independent bookstore, will be in the Book Room selling traditionally published books, those returnable through major publishers or distributors like Ingram or Baker and Taylor.

“Indie-Published” Authors (self and small press)
The bookseller handling consignment sales for authors published through alternate avenues that are not returnable will be finalized by the end of the year. Consignment authors will need to bring or ship their own books to the convention.

Optional Side Trips though Landsea Tours & Adventures

We have partnered with Landsea Tours & Adventures for special rates on all scheduled sightseeing tours between March 23 and April 3, 2019.

All tours include door-to-door service from the hotel. Hotel pick-up times will be confirmed via email once you have registered. Tour fares include all taxes and admission charges, and are quoted in Canadian Dollars.

Vancouver Delights Tour
Tour starts at 10:00 AM (approximately 7 hours)
Highlights of Vancouver, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, the Capilano Salmon Hatchery. $121.50 CAD

Vancouver City Highlights Tour
Tour starts at 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM (approximately 4 hours)
Stops in Stanley Park, Granville Island, and atop the Vancouver Lookout. Tour through Gastown, Chinatown, Robson Street, English Bay, Vancouver Harbour. $76.50 CAD

Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour
Tour starts at 8:00 AM or 9:00 AM, depending on the date selected (approximately 12 hours)
Includes a fully narrated tour, 90-minute mini-cruise, free time in downtown Victoria and admission to Butchart Gardens. $193.50 CAD

Whistler Mountains & Adventures Tour
Tour starts at 8:30 AM (approximately 10.5 hours)
Stops include viewpoints, Whistler Village, Shannon Falls, and the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Museum. $135.00 CAD

To receive the LCC discounted rate, visit the Landsea Whale of a Crime page, click ‘Book Now’ and select your preferred date and tour. Use the code “LCC2019” on the payment screen to receive your discount.

Other Optional Side Trips

Wednesday, March 27: Babes in the Woods Cold Case Tour
The Babes in the Woods Case is one of Vancouver’s most famous cold cases: the discovery of the remains of two children in Stanley Park in 1953. Although many police hours were spent on the investigation, the murderer was never found. This tour is organized through the Vancouver Police Museum. A bus with a Vancouver Police Museum tour guide will pick up people at the hotel at 1:00 PM. The bus will take people for a drive around Stanley Park and the tour guide will talk about Vancouver crimes and murders. Then everyone will visit the Vancouver Police Museum for a private behind-the-scenes tour. The bus will return at 3:30 pm to take everyone back to the hotel. The Vancouver Police Museum is the oldest police museum in North America and is in a heritage building, which used to be the City Morgue. Because the building is old, there is no elevator and it is not wheelchair accessible. Many TV shows and movies are filmed here, including X-Files. You can even see the mortuary table where Errol Flynn’s autopsy was performed. This is an exclusive tour for Left Coast Crime attendees and there are limited spaces available. The cost of the tour is $39. Registration link

If you want to visit the museum on your own while you are in Vancouver, it is located at 240 East Cordova Street, and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors. More information: Police Museum website

Museum of Anthropology at UBC
The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver houses one of the world’s finest displays of Northwest Coast First Nations arts in a spectacular Arthur Erickson designed building overlooking the mountains and sea. MOA is a place of world arts and cultures with a special emphasis on the First Nations peoples and other cultural communities of British Columbia. The museum displays art and material culture from ancient times to the present. One highlight is its Multiversity Gallery where much of the collections, which would normally be stored behind the scenes, are visible to the public. Unfortunately, the Great Hall (with the totem poles) is closed for renovations to make the building more earthquake resistant. Although we won’t be organizing a formal tour, we encourage people to visit on their own. The museum is located at 6393 NW Marine Drive, and is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission rates are: $18 for adults and $16 for seniors. More information: Museum of Anthropology website

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art

Another option for people who are interested in Indigenous Northwest Coast art is to visit the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. It is located only one block from the convention hotel, and celebrates the Haida master artist Bill Reid and the diverse living cultures of the Northwest Coast. The gallery has a collection of stunning gold and silver jewelry, monumental sculptures in bronze and stone, and a towering totem pole. The art gallery is located at 639 Hornby Street, and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. More information: Bill Reid Gallery website

Whale of a Crime

Whale of a Crime T-shirts and other merchandise are now on sale through our CafePress Store. Order your T-shirt now and arrive at the convention in style!

Not sure if you are registered for LCC 2019? Check our Whale of a Crime List of Attendees. Then visit the LCC 2019 Registration Page if you need to register for Left Coast Crime 2019.

There is lots to see and do in Vancouver — Canada’s third-largest city — and the convention hotel rate can be applied three days before and after the convention, depending on room availability. Come for the convention and stay for a holiday!

Left Coast Crime 2020: San Diego

Registration is Now Open!
When: March 12–15, 2020
Where: San Diego Marriott Mission Valley
Guest of Honor: Rachel Howzell Hall
Guest of Honor: T. Jefferson Parker
Toastmaster: Matt Coyle
Fan Guest of Honor: Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore
Visit the Murder’s a Beach website for all the details and to register.