The Exumas are a chain of 365 cays over 130 miles in The Bahamas, starting thirty miles southeast of New Providence. Great Exuma, at 60 kilometres long, is the largest and most populated island (about 7,000). Much of the beaches and sea in the area are preserved by the government under the Exuma National Land and Sea Park, protecting underwater limestone and coral reefs, drop-offs, blue holes, caves, and marine life. I snapped this picture […]
When Is Life Stranger Than Fiction? Let’s Discuss…
Recently I wrote about Anthony Broadwater, a man convicted of the rape of bestselling author Alice Sebold, the experience of which she wrote about in her celebrated 1999 memoir, Lucky, was exonerated. And in a stranger-than-fiction twist, the Executive Producer of the Netflix film adaptation of Lucky played a supporting role in the exoneration before he himself was fired from the production for raising questions. In a plot twist worthy of an Oscar, the project was then subsequently killed, […]
WOW – An Afternoon of Literary Entertainment, Sunday Dec 5, 2021, 2-3pm ET
Join us virtually for the annual Words the Orangeville Way literary event, produced in partnership with local independent bookstore, BookLore. This year attendees are invited to enjoy an afternoon of literary entertainment featuring part-time Mono resident and author Helen Walsh and part-time Caledon resident and author Suzanne Hillier. The panel discussion will be moderated by Orangeville’s own freelance writer Bernadette Hardaker. It will dive into the powerful themes in each author’s most recent book: Pull Focus by […]
Toronto International Festival of Authors – Oct 22nd, 3:30-4:30pm
Toxic Truths: Lola Akinmade Åkerström & Helen Walsh Join us for this free, virtual event October 22 at 3:30pm. Registration HERE. Tune in to an engaging talk with authors Lola Akinmade Åkerström and Helen Walsh about their powerful debut novels, exploring important social issues, from racism, classism and fetishization; to contemporary feminism and toxic masculinity in the #MeToo age. In Nigerian-American writer and photographer Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s In Every Mirror She’s Black, three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm as they build new lives in the most open society run by […]
Massey College Pull Focus Literary Salon – October 18th, 4:30-6pm
October 18, 2021, 4:30-6pm, Massey College,4 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON M5S 2E1 Please join us for this free hybrid event featuring Helen Walsh and Nalini Stewart in conversation, moderated by Doug Gibson. Registration for in-person attendance can be found HERE. Additionally, the event will be broadcast on Massey College’s YouTube Channel with access HERE.
My house burned down, I contracted Covid, and I moved to the country—all in the past six months
Published September 22, 2021 via Toronto Life. In late 2015, I bought a house at Yonge and Summerhill, just down the street from my partner, Michael. I fell in love with the village pocket of small streets and independent shops. At the end of my street are graffiti-strewn stone steps that descend into the Vale of Avoca ravine—a glorious urban forest with paths winding around Yellow Creek that fill with families and dog owners every […]
Ramsay Talks: Sept 27/21, 6-7pm (virtual). FREE with registration.
Join us for this free, book launch with Helen Walsh, author of Pull Focus. A thriller about dirty money and weaponized sex at a film festival. What fun! Helen Walsh’s new mystery isn’t even published and it’s already drawing raves, listed as a must-read Fall 2021 book. Deepa Mehta said: “I fell deeper and deeper into the complex and intricate mystery so artfully created by Helen Walsh. Pull Focus is like a shot of adrenaline: with every page, […]
Shiver Me Timbers: A Little Murder with My Fall
Published September 7, 2021: 49thShelf.com “Is there anything more delicious than a chill up the spine as nights grow longer and shadows lurk?” Helen Walsh’s debut novel Pull Focus—a feminist thriller set behind the scenes at an international film festival—publishes September 7 in North America and October 7 in the UK. Autumn’s long shadows cut across the darkening sky. A director frames a close-up shot of a woman in an armchair clutching a book, legs curled […]
10 Crime Novels About the Cutthroat Business of Culture
Go behind the scenes in these tales of love, murder and revenge among the glitterati. Published September 7, 2021 via crimereads.com The film industry has long provided a grisly backdrop for authors. A world of rags-to-riches and sudden reversals; glamour and seediness; eccentricity and charm—cinema and its players are perfect fodder for the criminally inclined. And it’s not just Hollywood. Around the globe writers have killed, maimed, kidnapped, or ransomed with abandon the glitterati and […]