Janice MacDonald

Janice Elva MacDonald (born 1959 in Banff, Alberta) is a Canadian writer of literary and mystery novels, textbooks, non-fiction, and stories for both adults and children. She is best known as the creator of a series of comic academic mystery novels featuring reluctant amateur sleuth Miranda "Randy" Craig, all of which are set in Edmonton, Alberta. The latest of these, Another Margaret: A Randy Craig Mystery, released in September 2015, takes Miranda to a reunion of her fellow graduate school students and resurrects a mystery involving a Canadian literary figure who has been long-believed dead. The Roar of the Crowd: A Randy Craig Mystery was released on July 10, 2014, with a plot involving the Edmonton theatre scene, including the Freewill Shakespeare Festival and the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. The Roar of the Crowd quickly became the #1 fiction book in Edmonton, making it the third consecutive bestseller for the author, and it went on to be nominated for the David Award for Best Mystery Novel at the 2015 Deadly Ink Conference and featured as a recommended read in both the 2015 Edmonton Travel Guide and the 2015 Avenue Magazine Summer Reading Guide. Condemned to Repeat: A Randy Craig Mystery, was published on June 15, 2013, and involves a series of deadly events connected to Alberta historic sites, including Rutherford House, Fort Edmonton Park, and the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village; it debuted in the top spot on the Edmonton Journal's bestseller list on June 21, 2013 and went on to be shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the 2013 Manitoba Book Awards as well as the David Award for Best Mystery Novel at the 2014 Deadly Ink Conference. Hang Down Your Head: A Randy Craig Mystery, was published in November 2011 and features "cameo" appearances by several real-life folk musicians, as well as a corpse discovered at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. The book was a hit in MacDonald's home city and spent more than six months on the Edmonton Journal's Top 10 list. The book and its author were profiled on CBC Radio, CityTV's Breakfast Television show, in the Edmonton Journal, and in the Edmonton Examiner. A January 2012 cover story in Edmonton Woman Magazine and a half-hour interview on the CKUA Radio Network's ArtBeat program, looked more extensively at the entire mystery series.
While pursuing her own writing career, MacDonald has also served in a variety of leadership and mentorship roles for other writers from Alberta and across Canada. She was a member of the executive board for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) from 1989-1990 and President of the WordWorks Society of Alberta from 1996-1997. MacDonald’s longtime service with the Canadian Authors Association (CAA) at the provincial and national levels included a stint as President of the Alberta Branch from 1993-1996, during which time she co-chaired two national conferences and created/developed the Exporting Alberta Award, which is still awarded annually. At the national level, MacDonald served as the CAA’s National Vice President for Awards from 1995-1997 and as the CAA Fiction Award Manager from 1995-2005. She continues to mentor writers by teaching at workshops, conferences, Blue Pencil events with the WGA, and writing camps such as YouthWrite and its spin-off for adults, JustWrite.

The Randy Craig Mysteries put a spin on the "ivory tower" academic mysteries by presenting a lead character who cannot seem to land a tenure-track position. Instead, she changes jobs on the periphery of academe in each new adventure, managing to find trouble (and a body or two) wherever she goes. The novels have been celebrated for their use of the city of Edmonton as a "star character." MacDonald herself wrote her Master's thesis on detective fiction, appeared as an on-air mystery expert for the Canadian television series "Booked" and was, for many years, the regular crime fiction reviewer for the Edmonton Journal.

Ms. MacDonald's non-mystery works include award-winning non-fiction and children's titles. The best-known of these is a well-received chapter book for young readers, The Ghouls' Night Out.

Janice MacDonald was born in Canada's Banff National Park in 1959 but has spent most of her life in Edmonton, Alberta, where she lives and works with her husband and two grown daughters. MacDonald is a former lecturer in English literature and Communications at both the University of Alberta and Grant MacEwan College, and she has taught courses on writing and detective fiction at national and international conferences. She is sometimes mistaken for another writer, Janice Macdonald (lower-case d), an American author of romance novels.