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15,000 word novellaAs the First World War is winding down, a young man avoiding conscription at a remote lakeside resort in northern Ontario becomes involved in investigating the brutal murder of a notoriously bad mannered but very talented painter.

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BIOGRAPHYScott McKinnon began his career writing screenplays, mostly romantic comedies, and now has turned his hand to "cozy" murder mysteries. Born and raised in Alberta, with stints in Los Angeles and Vancouver, he now calls Toronto home. Inspired by Anthony Horowitz, Rian Johnson and Agatha Christie, Scott creates entertaining and thought-provoking stories through wry humour, unconventional plots and compelling characters. He successfully pitched his comedy crime thriller novel “Note to Self: Don’t Die” at Toronto’s Crime and Mystery Festival, regularly performs his work at public events such as Noir at the Bar and is an active member of the Crime Writers of Canada.

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SCOTT'S WINNING PITCH PRESENTATION for the comedy-crime thriller novel “Note to Self: Don’t Die” at the 2022 Toronto Crime and Mystery Festival.--------------------------------------Good evening everyone, distinguished panelists,
I going to start off by relating some pitching advice I received from my writerly friends:One, just be yourself. Then they added quickly, though not your annoying, neurotic self.Two, tell them a story, and don’t worry if it has anything to do with the one you wrote.Three, don’t tell them the title of the novel, because if they hate it, it’s all they will remember from your pitch.#Ok, now on to the formal part of the presentation.My name is Scott McKinnon and I am here today to pitch you on my 60,000 word rom-com thriller. Please note that I did not mention the title.The central character, Rose, is a head-strong, jet-setting teenager feeling down on her luck.After a year of gallivanting around Europe, her father unexpectedly cuts off her lavish allowance and demands she return home. She’s tried to make a go of it on the fumes of her expense account but her champagne tastes won’t tolerate it.She thinks she’s hit rock bottom, but her situation goes from bad to worse when she reluctantly agrees to transport a mysterious package for a desperate woman she meets in the departure lounge of Heathrow airport.Suddenly Rose finds herself playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a shadowy anarchist organization.On the run and nowhere to turn, Rose spots a young man in a crowded Toronto subway stairwell that she hooked up with a year ago.Back then Mike was a nerdy computer consultant but now has transformed himself into a counter-culture hacktivist.Rose convinces him to hide her in his crumbling Chinatown apartment and she rapidly insinuates herself into his life — hijacking his friends and family, draining his meagre resources, and insisting he use his digital ninja skills to track down the missing woman so they can learn the terrible truth of the mysterious package.Their adventure takes them across the path of a rogue Canadian intelligence officer, a rakish young man who claims to be the missing woman's brother, and a cunning billionaire futurist with an agenda of his own.As their pursuers close in around them, Rose and Mike must put aside their lingering romantic resentments, and do what they can to stop an attack on a gathering of world leaders that authorities don’t see coming.I would describe the novel as Agatha Christie-esque and will appeal to people who enjoyed comic thrillers such as Knives Out and Killing Eve.I still have a minute left in my alotted time so I'm going to read a very short excerpt from the novel.#Rose rode the surge of passengers off the subway platform and up a narrow stairwell. It was what her father liked to call “nuts to butts” and exactly the urban camouflage she needed while she figured out her next move.Just as she was about to reach street level, a sting of recognition caught the corner of her eye.“It couldn't have been him”, she thought, “not in Toronto.”Impulsively Rose turned and yelled down the crowded stairwell, “Mike, I’m pregnant with your baby!”A few people reacted with annoyed looks, but for the most part ignored her as they pushed past.“Of course it's not him,” she told herself. She felt desperate and ridiculous.Then she heard a voice call back, “But I’m a eunuch!“It’s a eunuch baby!” she replied excitedly.She saw him moving up towards her.He had changed so much since she had seen him last. The buzz cut was overgrown by awkward curly locks and his suit was replaced by torn jeans and a t-shirt that read “This Planet Sucks!” He still had those curious eyes and inviting smile though. She would have recognized him anywhere.A woman carrying a stack of catering trays, angrily pushed past him. Another commuter yelled, “Take it outside!”She hugged him and said, “I need your help.”#Ok, that’s my presentation of “Note to Self: Don’t Die”, and I hope you remember my pitch for more than the title. Thank you.

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Excerpt from "Last Light at Loon Lake"Winona breezed onto the veranda and sat herself at our table. She was breathless and said, “Last night’s wine simply wiped me out. I just slept and slept this morning. Was it just me?”“No,” I said, “we are all moving a little slower today. None so slow as you, though.”“That’s me,” she said. “First or last and nothing in between. And what are you up to there Adonis, reading a dime-store detective novel no doubt?”Adonis looked up at her curiously. “I'm too boring for that,” he said with a smile, “but I am undertaking some detective work.”“How so?” she asked, resting her chin on her hands in a playful display of interest.“I thought I had captured a migrating Monarch butterfly but instead I've been duped.” He held up a butterfly for her to examine that he had staked on a large pin.“Oh, clearly not a Monarch,” she said with a wink. “But what could it be?”“This little sneak is a Viceroy,” he replied. “It assumes a similar colouring as the Monarch, which is poisonous to any bird that may try to eat it.”“But the Viceroy is not poisonous,” she guessed.“Exactly!” said Adonis excitedly.“That is quite clever,” she said, “to hide in plain sight of one’s enemies.”

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Excerpt from "The Proposition"For the past week I’d been consoling my wounded ego on a local online discussion forum for wronged spouses and very early on established an easy rapport with a woman who called herself Desperate_Housewife#81. I regaled her with stories of my controlling, narcissistic wife who was bleeding me dry financially. In turn, she told me about her emotionally manipulative husband who she feared would become violent if she ever tried to leave him.Wanting to make her feel better, I typed, “Send the bully my way and I’ll gladly take care of him.”“Can anyone see your screen?” she typed.“No,” I responded, wondering excitedly if this was a prelude to her sending me a nude photo. What came next though wasn’t flesh, it was madness.“If I kill your wife,” she asked, “would you kill my husband?”I snapped the lid of my computer shut with a bang. My forehead felt flush, and I began to shake and sweat uncontrollably. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart and I grabbed the edge of my desk thinking that I might faint. I looked around the living room full of knick-knacks and family photos and thought, “I’m no killer.”

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Excerpt from "Not a Murder Mystery"“This is not a murder mystery,” I repeated sharply to my brother in the dull, fading light of our mother’s kitchen.I’d been back in my childhood home for barely forty minutes and spent nearly all of it arguing with Johnny about an event we couldn’t change, with emotions we couldn’t process, in circumstances we couldn’t comprehend. His circular, fallacious statements made me feel increasingly angry but mostly they exhausted me, draining my resolve to remain civil. Sensing this, he countered my bubbling aggression with big brother condescension.“Liz, you have streams of snot running down your face,” he said in a flat, nasally voice he had saved just for this moment. Johnny was ten months older than me which he took as social license to treat me like a child. For the past forty-three years, he has chastised me for being overly academic, snobish, and irrational, which infuriates me. I am a tenured English professor while he stocks shelves at a grocery store, yet he gets to characterize himself as practical and me as magical. Infuriating.

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SCOTT'S MURDER MYSTERY READING RECOMMENDATIONSDISCLOSURE OF BIAS:I have a fondness for first novels. They aren't as well crafted as an author's later work, but I find these early works steeped in a vitality and energy which often makes them a pleasing read. For me at least, an unique new character told with a fresh voice is exhiliarating and papers over the cracks of a wonky plot or clunky transition.I will also admit to having a love / hate relationship with murder mystery fiction. The good ones are easy to love, but in truth most are very bad.This list represents a lifetime of combing through the hay stack looking for gems. I hope you find it useful and invite you to send me word of your own finds.FEATURE NOVEL:Alex Pavesi's "Eight Detectives"This novel is not just a great story, but a facinating meditation on classic murder mystery structure. It does this through vignettes that deliberately unpacks various elements of mystery fiction mechanics and then replays them in surprising new ways. Pavesi is like a street magician who warns us he's going to take our wallet and does so time and time again while we watch on helplessly. In fact though, Pavesi has a PhD in Mathematics and uses his sharp, logical mind to isolate story elements to turn them into engaging stories that fill the novel. Each one tests a single essential rule of classic mystery fiction while maintaining a broader, master narrative that neatly ties all the disparate pieces together in a satisfying whole. A lesser writer would have lost his audience along the way, but Pavesi is able to both confound and delight his readers as he lures them through a labyrinth of literary analysis with lurid murder and dazzling plot twists. Oh, did I mention this was his first novel?THE LISTIsaac Asimov
• I, RobotDan Brown
• The Da Vinci CodeMicheal Chabon
• The Yiddish Policmen’s UnionRaymond Chandler
• The Big SleepAgatha Christie:
• The Secret Adversary
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
• The Murder at the Vicarage
• Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?P Djeli Clark
• A Master of DjinnUmberto Eco
• The Name of the RoseP.D. James
• An Unsuitable Job for a WomanSue Grafton
• A is for AlibiAnthony Horowitz
• The Magpie Murders
• The Word is MurderStieg Larsson
• The Girl with the Dragon TattooJonathan Lethem
• Motherless BrooklynRichard Osman
• Thursday Night Murder ClubAlex Pavesi
• Eight DetectivesLouise Penny
• Still LifeMaj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
• RoseannaPeter Swanson
• 8 perfect murdersBen H Winters
• The Last Policeman trilogy

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