I Regretfully Decline by Vicki Delaney

Jenn McKinlay: Most of you know I am a summertime Canadian. My family has had a cottage in Nova Scotia for forty years and my brother and I ran amuck on the shores of the Bay of Fundy as kids just as our four boys have done all their lives. To say that I have been UPSET by what the current administration is doing is putting it mildly. When our dear friend Vicki Delaney reached out and offered a post from the Canadian perspective - of course, I said yes. The librarian in me is a big believer that information is power. So here's Vicki to give us some insight from the North. 

Community note: Any nasty messages will be deleted. As lovers of books and the book community, we're all in this together. Conduct yourselves accordingly, please.

Hooligans on our beach in Scot's Bay with their Wowa.

Vicki Delaney: When I decided to try my hand at writing a book, about the last reason was in order to meet interesting people and make new friends.  Turns out that’s the best part of it. I include Jenn and the rest of the Reds in the friends I cherish. 

I am a Canadian, and in the 20 years since I became a full-time author, I’ve travelled to the United States many, many times. I love meeting readers and fellow authors. I love listening to their stories and talking books and brainstorming promotional efforts. Of the three major mystery conferences (Left Coast Crime, Malice Domestic, and Bouchercon) I’ve gone to at least one every year, many years all of them. (COVID years excepted, naturally). I’ve been to smaller festivals and conferences, to libraries, to bookstores. I’ve done a signing in a bowling alley and one in a gym and have been a guest speaker at the Pennsylvania Tea Festival. I’ve toured with wonderful American authors many of whom I now consider good friends, and I’ve spent before and after event time enjoying a vacation. 

Is all that over? Possibly. I posted the following to my Facebook author page in February. 

With much regret I wrote to the Malice Domestic Board today to tell them I will shortly be cancelling my registration and hotel booking. As a proud Canadian, I can not in good conscience travel to the United States as long as the President continues to insult our Prime Minister and our country and is threatening Canadian sovereignty, either by destroying us economically, or invading militarily. I will miss getting together with my many American friends and readers. I hope, but do not expect, that the situation will change and we can meet again. 

I believe Canada, and the entire democratic world, is at an existential crossroads. The current regime in the United States is determined, for whatever demented reason, to eliminate Canada as an independent country, by whatever means necessary.  The insults from the President and other members of the regime against our Prime Minster personally (and yes, Governor is an insult and meant as such) as well as the country as a whole  are relentless. The tone and much of the wording is exactly the same as used by Russia prior to its invasion of Ukraine. (Trump: Most Canadians want to be 51st state. Peter Navarro: Canada has been taken over by Mexican cartels. Elon Musk: Canada is not a real county). 

We don’t for a minute believe, even if this comes to pass, we would be a “51st state.”  We wouldn’t be a state, with voting rights and government investment, but a colony, a vassal to be exploited for resources. 

In 2019, the leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico negotiated a revised free trade treaty called CUSMA (CanadaUSMexicoAgreement). This treaty is up for renewal in 2026. 2026. Not today. Showing that the word of the President of the United States is meaningless, Trump has overturned the agreement and slapped steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico. 

The pretext Trump is using to impose tariffs on Canadian goods (in violation of a treaty he himself signed) is that supposedly Canada is allowing fentanyl to “pour’ across the border. That is an out and out lie. 

According to the CNN on Feb 3, 2025 :  Fact check: Canada makes up just 0.2% of US border fentanyl seizures | CNN Politics

Federal statistics show US border authorities seized 21,889 pounds of fentanyl in the 2024 fiscal year. Of that amount, 43 pounds were seized at the Canadian border — about 0.2%

Only a month later, on March 4, 2025, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quoted data from US customs and border protection: 

“..fentanyl seizures from Canada have dropped 97 per cent between December 2024 and January 2025 to a near-zero low of 0.03 pounds seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

Near zero. Down from a very low figure to begin with.  

Therefore, there is literally nothing Canada can do, as the PM pointed out, to fix a problem that does not exist.  (As an aside there are no customs and immigration checks upon leaving either Canada or the US for the other country.  Is it not, therefore, the responsibility of US customs to stop illicit goods coming in?)

Why then does Trump keep repeating the lie? Because it isn’t about making trade ‘fair’ or fixing problems that don’t exist, and thus cannot be fixed, but creating circumstances to permit the annexation of Canada’s Arctic, natural resources, and water. 

This isn’t a trade dispute; it is an outright attack on our sovereignty and Canadians are coming together in a way they haven’t since WWII.  We are well aware that a trade war hurts everyone, but the Government of Canada believes appeasement will accomplish nothing, so Canada has imposed tariffs on a wide range of US goods. 

As well as retaliatory tariffs, Canadians are fighting back in other ways. Stores are posting stickers on shelves indicating Canadian goods. Apps are being created to indicate the nationality of companies and the source of their product, and Canadians are taking those apps shopping. The world’s largest purchaser of alcohol is the Ontario liquor stores - all US products have been removed from the shelves and the same thing is happening in other provinces.  The province of Ontario (where I live) has announced a 25 percent surcharge on exports of electricity to the US. Substantial numbers of Canadians are cancelling holidays to the US, or, like me, forgoing optional business trips. The list goes on and continues to grow.

We’re not interested in the game of ‘on-again, off-again, on-again’ Trump is engaging in. As long as the threat exists, Canada will retaliate. 

It has been said that Canadians are prepared to sacrifice much in this fight and Americans nothing, so we do have the upper hand. Which of course, considering your President, might not matter.


We will see how things pan out, but I am encouraged by the solid and vocal support we are getting from our many American friends.

There isn’t much I can do, as an average Canadian citizen, to resist these threats, other than make my position public, shop mindfully, and refuse to grace the United States by my presence, definitely not spend any money.  

Others have different opinions. Some say it’s important to engage Americans, and point out that despite propaganda from the US leader and members of his party and administration, the overwhelming number of Canadians are firmly against any take-over.  I’d argue in return, we have social media on which to present our case and a substantial number of my American friends approve of my choice to make this clear stand. 

I will admit the decision to forgo travel to the US is easier for me than it might be for self-published or small press authors and particularly for writers just starting their career. I have a solid social media following, I have a strong reader base, I’m active in two prominent online cozy mystery groups, I’ve been building my newsletter distribution list for twenty years. 

It’s up to each of us to decide what’s best for us and for our country. I’ve made my decision. 

Elbows up. 

(You’ll be seeing the phrase “elbows up” a lot. That’s a hockey saying meaning to protect yourself and your teammates, to fight back.)


JENN: I just bought a t-shirt with "Elbows Up" and a maple leaf. I support you, Canada, and will spend a boodle up North when I arrive in the summer (fingers crossed). Count on it!

Reds and Readers (many of whom are also Canadian), what questions do you have for Vicki about what's happening in Canada? She'll be popping in all day to discuss.

Vicki Delany is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than fifty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy.  She is currently writing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year-Round Christmas mysteries, the Tea by the Sea books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates). 

Vicki is a past chair of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival.  Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the CWC Awards of Excellence. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.  

Having Fun Again By Vicki Delany

Jenn McKinlay: One of the people I most love to see at mystery conferences is the fabulous Vicki Delany! Super talented and (bonus points) she always makes me laugh, she's here today to talk about her multi genre world.

Vicki Delany: I started my writing career writing standalone novels of psychological suspense, what’s now so hugely popular under the label of domestic suspense; I then wrote an eight novel police procedural series. In between those I wrote a historical series set in the Klondike Gold Rush and novellas for adult literary. 

And now I’m writing cozies. Why the change?

About six years ago, I was starting to get a bit... shall we say burned out?  I was seriously thinking about giving up writing. I can’t really say why, maybe I wasn’t having fun with it any more. Tough stuff, even fictionally, is tough to deal with sometimes.  

None of my suspense novels or the police series were exceptionally graphic in their descriptions of violence (not going there!), but they dealt with the ugly side of life. As my protagonist Constable Molly Smith said:

       “When I decided to become a police officer I knew I’d have to deal with the hard side of life. Beaten children, raped women, accident victims, blood and gore. But that’s not the hardest part, is it? It’s the goddamn tragedy of people’s lives.” 

--Among the Departed, by Vicki Delany

In one book, Molly Smith kills a man; in them all the fall-out of the murder or crime is wide-spread and devastating. I dealt with the murder of a mother, the disappearance of a father, the suspected betrayal of a spouse, the death of adult children (not touching little kids), a man who went to prison for twenty-five years for a crime he didn’t commit, and an ex-soldier with PTSD and a gun on his lap.

The standalones were about dysfunctional families and the lasting repercussions of wartime trauma. I completed a book (never published) about a tough-as-they-come former cop whose niece is sold to a sex-trafficking ring and tries to find her.  

I had a vague idea for a new standalone, maybe something about a WWII era ghost living in an abandoned barn that’s being developed for a new winery, when I was asked by Kim Lionetti of Bookends if I’d like to try my hand at the Lighthouse Library series work-for-hire Berkley was offering. 

Sure, thought I. Might as well. I gave it a go, got the contract, and I’ve never looked back. 

Because I found that writing could be fun again. I love writing cozies.  One thing led to another and I’m now writing FOUR cozy series. That’s three or four books a year. I approach every day (well, almost every day) excited to get back to the computer and the story. 

The word I often use for the cozies I write is FUN. They should be fun for the author and fun for the reader.  Not all cozies are humorous, but I hope mine are. Writing humour, I’ve found, makes me smile. (The master, if I may say so, of the laugh-out-loud cozy is Jenn McKinlay!)

Jenn: Aw, shucks. Thanks, my friend, I feel the same about yours! Humor is the secret sauce, in my opinion, to a good cozy series.

Cozies are intended to be nothing more than an entertaining read. You won’t learn many lessons about the human condition, no one is suffering from angst or threating to kill themselves because of depression. No PTSD. No terrorist attacks or serial killers. Just people with friends and lovers and community. And the occasional enemy. And a murder of course.

Cozy mysteries are not trying to make an important statement about the human condition, or hoping to change the world. A cozy mystery tells a story that attempts to be entertaining, that’s about people much like us (or like us if we were prettier, or smarter, or younger!) and our friends and family. 

Cozy mysteries are about real people living real lives (except for that pesky murder bit), although writ large. Everything is exaggerated. The nosy neighbour is nosier, the ditzy friend is ditzier, the mean girl is meaner. And the handsome man is, well, handsomer.  Even better if there are two of them. 

Case in point: My newest book is the fourth in the Year Round Christmas series, Silent Night Deadly Night, coming August 27 from Berkley.  It’s set in the week before Thanksgiving when Merry Wilkinson’s mother hosts her college friends for a reunion.  What’s Thanksgiving but family, friends, food? Oh, and a decades-long resentment that finally spills over. Literally over, into the pot luck supper.  Take a look at that cover – I bet it brought a smile to your face.

Readers who enjoy cozies often tell me they read them to escape from the real world. They get enough bad news on TV, and sometimes even in their own life. Cozy mysteries really are an escape.  

I get a lot of letters asking me to write a new Constable Molly Smith or another standalone. And maybe someday I will, but right now I’m loving the opportunity to write cozy mysteries. 

As a writer, I might be committed to cozies now, but as I reader I really do like to mix it all up. I’d love to know what type of novels Jungle Red readers prefer. Are you into the dark gritty stuff, or do you seek escape in your reading? Maybe both?

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She is the author of more than thirty-five published books, so far: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane, the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series, for Crooked Lane Books.  

Vicki lives and writes in bucolic Prince Edward County, Ontario. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing.