Senior Editor, Robert Runté chosen as Editor GoH

From the Desk of Senior Editor, Robert Runté: I am deeply honoured to have been chosen as the Editor Guest of Honour for the When Words Collide Festival (Calgary), August 12-14, 2016; which is also that year’s Canvention, the Canadian national SF&F convention at which the Aurora Awards are presented. Previous Editor GoHs at WWC have included Adrien Kerr (Editor of Commercial Fiction at Penguin Canada) and super literary agent, Sally Harding, so I feel…

When Words Collide Festival Report

From the Desk of Senior Editor, Robert Runté When Words Collide (Calgary) convention was once again wildly successful, with great programming, wonderful Guest of Honour speeches, and 650 wonderful-to-meet-and-talk-with attendees. Small enough convention to feel ‘intimate’, but large and diverse enough that one constantly learns new things. The cross-genre format of WWC leads to a lot of cross-pollination. (For example, the launch of Sleuth at WWC this year, a new mystery magazine from the people…

Dutch Schultz, by Nate Hendley, receives high praise from former Ithaca Journal reporter

I thoroughly enjoyed your book, “Dutch Schultz: the Brazen Beer Baron of New York.” You deftly blended the story of Arthur Flegenheimer with the history — and zeitgeist — of the prohibition era. Here are two of your stand-out sentences: “The urge to drink proved stronger than the will to obey the law. Almost overnight, an enormous black market in spirits sprang up, serviced by young, enterprising criminals.” “Against this backdrop of social engineering, Arthur…

Stephen Hume at Vancouver Sun reviews King Kwong, by Paula Johanson

There’s an excellent review by Stephen Hume of Paula Johanson’s fascinating biography of hockey legend Larry Kwong in the August 4 edition of the Vancouver Sun.  King Kwong, book by Paula Johanson.  Photograph by: Handout Mention the China Clipper and football fans think of Calgary-born Normie Kwong, the hall-of-famer who won three consecutive Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimos. But for all his deserved accolades in football, in business and as Alberta’s lieutenant-governor — fellow footballers…