Rob Brunet's Blog

Interviewing Terry Shames on Authors on the Air

Anyone who's spent three minutes with Terry Shames knows the label #NastyWoman is a perfect fit in its contemporary inverted sense. Brilliant, present, sure, and engaged, she's the ideal interviewee.

About three weeks ago, I had sent her a note saying I wished we could head to the corner for coffee. She told me she'd drink tea, but since Berkeley is more than a few blocks from Toronto email was going to have to suffice.

Then Pam Stack asked if I'd co-host an episode of her Nasty Women of Ja...

Guest Post by Amy Shojai: Fighting Dog Fighting

The old saw about never killing the dog—no matter what else your readers will stomach—is one that kicks off many a twisted story. When I invited Amy Shojai—a pet advocate, no less—to guest blog here, the last thing I expected was a piece about dog fighting. Thankfully, she kept the gory bits off the page. You won't want to google them, either.

DOGFIGHTING, PIT BULLS & LAWS HELPING KIDS

As an author I wear a couple of different hats, and am a certified animal behavior consultant and pet advoca...

"Skinny's Beach" in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

My short story "Skinny's Beach" is in this month's Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. This one is special to me because it's set on the white sand of Constance Bay—the beach I grew up on. That's probably what led Janet Hutchings, EQMM's editor to say, "What impresses me most about Rob’s work is his keen sense of place; his settings play almost as important a role in his fiction as his characters do."

This particular place—the best swim spot on a beach that stretches about 7 kilometres around a ba...

Interview with Todd Robinson, Chief Editor of Thuglit

I've got a Jackson on my wall, framed with the cover of ThuglitIssue 3. It's the first twenty bucks I earned writing fiction. So it should come as no surprise that I jumped at the chance when Ed Aymar, editor of The Thrill Beginsasked me if I'd interview Todd Robinson, the man behind one of the most important venues for both new and established authors of hard-edged short stories about crime. Here's the piece which originally ran earlier this month.

Recent Thuglitcovers pretty much tell you...

Crime fiction conferences

Over the past couple years, I’ve been a bit of a conference junkie and, in the process, learned how welcoming the crime fiction community is to new participants.

This week, in my column on The Thrill Begins, I'm talking cons with Jon Jordan of Crimespree Magazine and Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee fame. The list of conferences we discussed grew longer than any editor would allow, so I'm dropping the list here, leading with the ones I've attended.

This is a simple (and short)list for convenience...

Getting to the Point

Canadian Wildlifeeditor Cooper Langford gave me an opportunity to visit the southernmost tip of mainland Canada when he sent me to Point Pelee to write a feature on our best-known bird sanctuary. The story behind the park and the evidence it provides of the positiveinfluence humans can have on an environment became the heart of my piece. But it's Neil Ever Osborne's photography that's going to make people want to visit.

Habitat is subjective. Every species has its preference and thrives or d...

Author interview: Melissa Olson

I met Melissa Olson when she graciously co-appeared at Mystery to Me bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin in February. Somehow, in the midst of what reads like an exhausting writing schedule—not to mention pretty deep life obligations involving raising young children, herding dogs, and a social media presence that rivals most teenagers'—Melissa found time to answer a few questions and give me a peek into her creative space. She even sent a T-shirt.

Rob: How would you characterize the differences be...

Disappearing Act

Seems I let it happen. Drifting away from even sporadic blog posts. Hibernation. Sloth. Call it whatever. Thing is, I didn't think I'd let it happen so easily.

I've been out and about on a few other sites, busy writing, rewriting, and getting my sea legs after launching Stinking Rich. And then there's been teaching at George Brown College, a couple Noir at the Bar Torontos. No shortage of excuses. None of them particularly good, but they're real.

Solution? This utterly self-indulgent post to re...

A chat with Amber Love on Vodka O'Clock

Last October, I met Amber Love at a reading in New Jersey, at [words] of Maplewood. She asked Tommy Pluck, Tracey Landau, and me some great questions during our author discussion. Later, I learned she was host of Vodka O'Clock. I'd heard of her podcast and was buzzed when she agreed to interview me.

Amber's interviewing style is warm and conversational. Before I knew it, she had me riffing about religion, dead dogs, and the cuddly side of crime writing.

Here's a taste:

“A lot of what I write,...

Interview on TV Cogeco Kingston

Kingston, ON is featured in Stinking Rich as the hometown of Buzz Meckler, self-appointed super hero, and the temporary home of Danny Grant, while incarcerated. So it was only natural that I kick off my recent books 'n boots tour there.

It certainly helps that my brother, Curtis, is one helluva talented video producer and lives in town. Here's the interview segment he put together for K-Town Source, one of the shows he's created. It features appearances by Liz Strange and Ryan Aldred, both of...