Blog Bytes Bonus

I somehow managed to overlook the face that Bill Crider mentioned this blog in one of his "Blog Bytes" columns for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: "Maybe you'd like a single site where news about the mystery field is udpated often. Take a look at BV Lawson's In Reference to Murder, which as someone used to say, has loads of "news, views, and interviews." Media murders? BV covers movies, TV, the web, and radio. She also writes about marekts and  even contributes to 'Friday's Forgotten Books.' On the left side of her blog she has links to most of the stuff on In Reference to Murder referenced above. Many thanks for the mention, Bill!

The Criminal Element

Macmillan has relaunched its Criminal Element newsletter as a web site, CriminalElement.com, with original crime stories, pre-release excerpts from Macmillan author books and blogs by the likes of Charles Adai, Bill Crider, Joseph Finder, Terrie Farley Moran and more. Recent essays include an inside look (literally) at research by Finder, a look back at Robert Park and Spenser by Jake Hinkson (part of a Hall of Famer series), and today's topic by Amy Dalton reviews John Burdett's Bangkok mysteries featuring Thailand cop Sonchai Jitpleecheep.

Sherlock Fans, Take Note: The Game’s Afoot

Author Laurie R. King, creator of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, and Leslie S. Klinger, a leading expert on all things Sherlock, have teamed up for the anthology The Grand Game: A Celebration of Sherlockian Scholarship. It's filled with essays based on the fantasy "game" that Sherlock scholars and fans have played through the years, in which the great detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson are imagined as real people. The book includes contributions from such game-playing luminaries as Ronald Knox, A.A. Milne, Dorothy L. Sayers, Christopher Morley, Rex Stout, Anthony Boucher, Red Smith and even Franklin D. Roosevelt — and this is only Volume One, covering 1902-1959.

This Friday, January 7, from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, King and Klinger will take part in a book-signing event at The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, an event capping off the week-long celebration of Sherlock Holmes's birthday and held in conjunction with the Baker Street Irregulars' annual banquet.

But wait — there's more! Graham Moore will be on hand to sign copies of his best-selling mystery The Sherlockian, and publisher/Mysterious Bookshop owner Otto Penzler will also be at the party signing copies of his newly-released Sherlockian book, Bohemian Souls.

Deerstalker hats are optional.

In Reference to Blogs

I'm forever grateful for all of the crime fiction bloggers out there who work tirelessly to promote the genre, authors, reading, etc., but since since part of the raison d'etre of this particular blog is to provide reference materials for writers and readers of crime fiction, I thought I'd point out a few blogs that are especially helpful with "insider" information:

Lee Lofland is a veteran police investigator and author himself, whose Graveyard Shift blog is a wonderful resource for topics like police procedures and death investigation. Lee is also the organizer of the Writers' Police Academy which was just held in North Carolina.

Author Terry O'Dell was a participant in the recent Academy, and wrote up her experiences in four parts (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four). Hopefully, Lee will be holding another of these events next year, so keep an eye out for dates and registration info on Lee's site.

D.P. Lyle is a doctor of cardiology and a consultant to authors and TV shows about getting medical details and forensic right in your stories. His Writer's Forensics Blog is a wealth of information, and if you want to learn more about corpse identification, DNA, poisons and drugs, you should start there.

Guns, Gams and Gumshoes is a terrific blog if you're writing private eye fiction. It's the brainchild of authors and P.I.'s Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman. 

Mark Young is also a former law enforcement officer (and ex-Marine) who turned his hand to writing. His Hook 'Em and Book 'Em blog has a variety of crime-related topics, such as his recent two-part look into terrorism with Fred Burton, a former counterterrorism agent.

The Women in Crime Ink blog features authors who are also attorneys, officers, and forensics experts. As you might imagine with that variety of backgrounds, the topics are also varied, including this week's post with Michael Street, the "Sketch Cop."

The Crime of It All

This past year Len Wanner, PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, started gathering background information from crime fiction authors around the globe via e-mail Q&A's as part of his dissertation, but he's also turned the results into a new social media web site, The Crime of It All.

Wanner says he hopes to "bring greater attention to new releases, back catalogs and everything that is criminally underrated" and has includes over 200 interviews with writers, reviews, articles, polls, events and a forum. He's inviting writers to set up a profile in the "Writer's Room" (it's free) and even has links to Amazon to help you sell your books.

Fortified Serials

Since detective fiction owes a great deal to the serialized format, it's nice to see the tradition continuing. Starting tomorrow, "Whodunit: A Canadian Crime Fiction Showcase" will feature stories from William Deverell, Maureen Jennings and Rick Mofina in an online blog over a five-day period or as a 3,000-word weekend read in Saturday editions of Sun Media newspapers in Canada. Online readers will also have the opportunity to "comment on the stories, authors, and provide their own take on Canadian crime writing." Look for it starting tomorrow, Monday, August 9th, with William Deverell's "The Bust" featuring his series character, trial lawyer Arthur Beauchamp.

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows...

After the nasty winter most of us have endured, we could all use some sunshine, and that's exactly what Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare did by honoring In Reference to Murder with a Sunshine Award, given out to those whose "contagious positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogging universe." I am humbly honored.

Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on the blog within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blogs.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Some blogs I might ordinarily include in my dozen have already been mentioned on similar posts at the Rap Sheet and Bill Crider's Pop Culture, so be sure and check out those, as well as the other links on Janet's blog above. I don't want to duplicate any they've listed, so folks who are mentioned there and not here:  rest assured ALL OF YOU are already bookmarked and have a special place in my Blog Roll of Fame.

So without further ado, here are my additional 12 blogs, in sort-of alphabetical order (depending upon whose alphabet you're using):

1. CrimeSpree Cinema   
2. Criminal Brief    
3. Declan Burke's Crime Always Pays   
4. Elizabeth Foxwell's The Bunbuyist   
5. Ed Gorman's blog    
6. Hey, There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room  
7. Lee Lofland's The Graveyard Shift 
8. Murder, Mystery and Mayhem 
9. Mystery Books News  
10. Poe's Deadly Daughters
11. Sandra Seamans' My Little Corner 
12. Women of Mystery 
    

Killer Reads

 

HarperCollins has joined the lineup of publishers offering crime fiction web sites to promote the genre and their authors' works. Their Killer Reads site was officially launched this week, with an extract of Jillianne Hoffman's new novel, Pretty Little Things. The site will also feature blogs, a newsletter, and the occasional article, such as a current one about Ngaio Marsh. Publishing brand manager Kate Bradley said "The site is going to be really dynamic and the content will be updated and refreshed constantly. We are passionate about our crime authors and we want to share that passion with the online community." (Hat tip to the Bookseller.)

HarperCollins joins other publishers with crime fiction sites, including Blood on the Page, the suspense book club from Random House which features a different author blogging each week, and Moments in Crime from Minotaur Books, which has evolved from a blog into a Twitter feed, although Minotaur does have a general companion book site.

New Kids on the Blog

It's always a pleasure to welcome new arrivals to the blogosphere, particularly in the crime fiction realm. So, take a moment to say "howdy" to some new friends.

Mystery Page Turners is a blog out of Canada created by a newly-minted librarian who also holds a Master's and Ph.D in English. Right now, she's sharing novels that she finds interesting, in keeping with the blog's stated theme of "Looking for a great mystery novel to read – one that you can’t put down?" There will be a mix of old and new included to suit various tastes.

British historical crime author R.N. Morris has started the Bloody Blog. It's so new, it's still got a little shrink wrap around the edges, but we'll welcome posts like his recent "From a Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity and Toxicology (1903)."

Crime Watch was born in August and is the brainchild of writer/reviewer Craig Sisterson from New Zealand, who focuses on crime fiction from that region (but others, too). He's been participating in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme started by the Mysteries in Paradise blog, and his latest post is a feature of Kiwi author Paddy Richardson.

Wednesday Wanderings

 

From around the blogosophere, here are some interesting tidbits which include a couple of book giveaways (proving sometimes there is a free lunch, or at least, a free book), interviews ranging far and wide, and essays on topics such as "why we don't need stupid characters" and "lady killers of the 1940s."

• Over at the Women of Mystery blog, Lois Karlin reviewed British crime writer Martina Cole’s Faces and has info on a chance to win a copy of the just-released American edition of the novel.

• Meanwhile, the Book Bitch has the lowdown on how to win a signed copy of Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer and two unsigned paperbacks from that same series.

• On the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's blog, Oline Cogdill notes that Chauncey's Book Group on Facebook is hosting James O. Born in their online discussion of his book The Human Disguise, tomorrow at noon.

• The busy Cogdill also writes for the Mystery Scene Magazine blog, taking inspiration from a discussion on the Dorothy-L list as she opines about why we don't need stupid characters in mystery fiction.

• Ali Karim over at the Rap Sheet has a great interview with Joseph Finder, who switches from standalone thrillers to a series character, corporate investigator Nick Heller, in his novel, Vanished.

• Speaking of Joseph Finder, his latest column for the Daily Beast features Stephen L. Carter, Yale law professor and author of the new novel Jericho’s Fall, who reveals he wrote his latest novel in eight weeks.

• Martin Edwards of Do You Write Under Your Own Name? reviewed an episode of the Wallander series produced by Swedish television (not to be confused with Kenneth Brannagh's production) which was recently shown on BBC4. Starring Kirster Henriksson in the title role, Edwards pronounces it "first-rate viewing."

• Mysterious Matters looked back at some of the lady killers from the 1940s, including Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (The Innocent Mrs. Duff and The Blank Wall), former MWA Grand Master Dorothy B. Hughes, Margaret Millar (In a Lonely Place) and Celia Fremlin. 

• Mysterious People held a conversation with Scottish novelist Gillian Philip, who actually began her writing career while living in Barbados. 

• The Beatrice blog interviewed Rennie Airth about his series of police procedurals (Scotland Yard) set in England a few years after the First World War.

• Sandy Parshall interviewed Katy Munger for Poe's Deadly Daughters. Munger took a few years off from publishing but returns with two new novels, the debut of the Dead Detective series (written under the pseudonym Chaz McGee), and Bad Moon on the Rise, the latest in her Casey Jones series.
  

• The Guardian wrote an obit for Gordon Burn who died this past Friday, calling him "one of the greatest – and arguably underrated – British writers of his age" who influenced other writers like David Peace and turned northern England into as foreboding a backdrop as James Ellroy's Los Angeles or Ian Rankin's Edinburgh.