Thursday, May 7, 6:30-8:30: Mid-Valley Willamette Writers Speakers Series. This month features Bill Cameron speaking to the topic “World Building in the Real World: As Real as the World Out Your Window.”
(Members free, suggestied $10 donation for all others)
W.H. Cameron raises backyard chickens in Oregon, and shapes unruly words into captivating people caught in harrowing situations in his writing room. Writing as Bill Cameron, he is the critically-acclaimed author of the edgy and stirring mysteries County Line, Day One, Chasing Smoke and Lost Dog—featuring irascible Portland homicide cop Skin Kadash. His young adult mystery Property of the State, introducing troubled yet resourceful Joey Getchie, was named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2016: Teen.
In a starred review, Kirkus described Property of the State as, “An eminently satisfying series opener for mystery fans who want their downtrodden detectives to be appealing, clever, and unafraid of action.” Booklist said, “Joey’s intense, gripping narration of his heartbreaking life will haunt readers.” Publishers Weekly said of County Line, “Contemporary sharp-edged noir doesn’t get much better than Cameron’s mournful novel featuring ex-cop Skin Kadash.” New York Timesbestselling author Chelsea Cain described Day One as “an utterly engrossing page-turner.” In the Vancouver Voice, Carolyn Schultz-Rathbun said, “The body count is positively Shakespearean, but in Cameron’s vision of P-town’s dark underbelly, love really is strong as death. Maybe stronger.” Chasing Smoke received a starred review from Library Journal, and Booklist declared, “it engages the reader on an emotional as well as literary level.”
In 2012, County Line won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Northwest Mystery. Lost Dog was nominated for the 2008 Rocky Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Spotted Owl Award. Cameron’s short story, “The Princess of Felony Flats,” was nominated for a 2011 CWA Short Story Dagger Award. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Portland Noir, Murder at the Beach, Killer Year, First Thrills, and The Hangman Isn’t Hangin’: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan (Fall 2019).
He is currently at work on a series about an apprentice mortician more comfortable with the dead than the living. Melisende Dulac will make her debut in the story “Hey Nineteen” in Fall 2019.