Elizabeth Duncan, a professor with the Humber School for Writers (HSW) and the college’s public relations programs, has won the 2013 Bloody Words Bony Blithe Light Mystery award – the latest of several accolades she’s received for her mystery series featuring protagonist Penny Brannigan.

“I was delighted to have won,” says Duncan, whose traditional mysteries are set in a market town in North Wales. “Awards, and the evaluations that come with them, are a good way of affirming that you’re on the right path, that you’re doing something right.”

Indeed, an award got Duncan started as a professional mystery writer. In 2006, the manuscript for the first book in the series, The Cold Light of Mourning, won a Malice Domestic grant for unpublished writers; this was followed in 2008 by the Malice Domestic St. Martin’s award, which included a publishing contract with one of the largest publishers in the United States.

She was the first Canadian to win either award, and the first person to win both.

The mystery-writing life isn’t one that Duncan intended to pursue.

“I’d been working as a journalist, a PR professional and a teacher for many years, but I had never planned to be a fiction writer. Then, an idea for a mystery novel just came to me – and I had the bones of my first book.”

Currently in Wales working on the sixth Penny Brannigan book, Duncan says a sense of place is essential to her writing process.

“This upcoming book is set against the backdrop of the Welsh slate industry so I’m visiting museums, mining and quarrying sites to see and understand as much as I can,” she explains. “Research is essential. When I have the place nailed down in my head, it’s easier to write.”

With the success of the series –the fifth book, Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By, will be published in October – Duncan will be leaving her work with the PR programs to allow more time for writing. She will continue to work by correspondence with a small class of writers in the HSW.

“I love working with aspiring authors,” she says. “I try to encourage them to maintain a routine when it comes to their work. Fifteen minutes of writing a day can accomplish a lot. And who knows – maybe with a little more time I can now start to follow my own advice!”

You can connect with Elizabeth Duncan via Twitter at @elizabethduncan or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJDuncan