By Bill Selnes, Mysteries and More – June 2024
Last Wednesday was a wonderful evening at the Melfort Public Library as Anthony Bidulka came for an event to celebrate the publication of his new book, From Sweetgrass Bridge. It is the second in his Merry Bell trilogy.
Joining Anthony was his husband, Herb McFaull.
I have been on the Library Board since 1979 and was the host for introducing Anthony, conducting an interview after he made an address and asking some questions of those in attendance.
The library staff and other members of the Board made the setting memorable with Rider memorabilia including cereal boxes from the year two of the Riders headlined Co-op brand cereals. I had forgotten about Fantuz Flakes and Darian’s Darios.
Anthony spoke eloquently of his reasons for writing which focused on writing on under-represented groups and settings.
He guaranteed that Merry, a transgender woman, and her sidekick Roger, a cross-dressing man, are the only Western Canadian sleuthing duo with those backgrounds.
He reminded us of the never ending challenge for prairie writers to gain national recognition, especially in Toronto, the media centre of Canada.
He told us that he limits himself to writing 4-5 book blurbs for other authors in a year.
On book buying he tends to buy e-books from different sources, including Amazon. Because of the amount of travelling that he and Herb do each year it is easier to have e-books.
I asked him about how he edits his writing. I said I like to use a red pen. He says he does editing on his computer.
Anthony further spoke about the importance of an editor in the book writing process and the interaction between writer and editor.
We learned that Anthony and Herb have travelled to over 100 countries.
My surprise for the evening was learning from Anthony’s niece that, when she was a girl, long before he started his professional writing career, he would create and illustrate stories for her with the pages folded so that they had to be unfolded in a specific order.
The most unique aspect to the evening was the library staff arranging for the Golden Grain Bakery to create cookies with a copy of the book cover, From Sweetgrass Bridge, upon the cookies.
Anthony showed he had done some research on me with a neat zinger. He looked up my review of his first book, Amuse Bouche, and noted that I had said:
Bidulka is Saskatchewan’s second best mystery writer. Gail Bowen remains the best.
Twenty years after that review I will amend my assessment to say Anthony Bidulka and Gail Bowen are Saskatchewan’s best mystery writers.
Anthony is an engaging guy. I encourage all readers to go see him if you are near one of his book launches or author events.
(The photos are from the Melfort Public Library Facebook page. Please go take a look for further photos from the evening.
