Mystery Melange

 The new Fall issue of Mystery Scene magazine includes Oline H. Cogdill's feature on Val McDermid, an article on "pioneer feminist" Arthur B. Reeve, a timely pre-Halloween feature by Steve Hockensmith on supernatural crime fiction, and much more.

The Fall/October Plots With Guns issue is due any day, with new fiction by Patti Abbott, M. James Blolod, Matthew C. Funk, Chris Gordon, Ryan Jackson, Stephen Graham Jones, Thomas Pluck, Pee Risley, Art Taylor and Charles Dodd White. 

A new short fiction anthology from Pulp Metal Magazine (bringing you the "Noir-est genre-bending fiction to come from the imaginations of the best authors out there") features stories from Ian Ayris, Paul Brazill, Melanie Browne, Charlie Coleman, Frank Duffy, Richard Godwin, Michael Gonzalez, Danny Hogan, Heath Lowrence, Jodi McArthur, UV Ray, Chris Rhatigan, and BR Stateham.

Mike Ripley (a/k/a "The Ripster") published the most recent version of his always-entertaining "Getting Away With Murder" column for Shots Ezine with his latest news and reviews, including his take on the long-awaited "officially sanctioned" new Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz.

Lawrence Block is the latest bestselling author to go the self-publishing eRoute, with eBook and POD versions of The Night and the Music, a collection of short stories featuring his iconic private eye Matthew Scudder. Block has written novels, novelettes and short stories about Scudder since the early 1970s, and this particular collection contains the nine stories he's published over the years plus two new ones.

We're hearing more lately about South African crime fiction authors, but mostly about the fellas. Here's a list with a few suggestions for female writers from South Africa.

The interview roundup this week features Shamus award winner Gar Anthyony Haywood in a Q&A with the Sons of Spade blog, telling how he came up with his Aaron Gunner character by "deciding over time what I DIDN'T want him to be." Over at Shockya, Max Allan Collins discusses his new novel The Consummata, based on a manuscript by legendary late crime writer Mickey Spillane.

The University of California-Berkeley library is currently featuring the exhibit "Bullets Across the Bay: The San Francisco Bay Area in Crime Fiction," exploring the rich history of mystery, detective, and crime novels set in the San Francisco area. In association with the exhibit, the Library will present a special mystery edition of the Story Hour in the Library series featuring a panel discussion with authors Kelli Stanley, Eddie Muller, and Lucha Corpi, moderated by Janet Rudolph. The event  is Friday, October 14, 2011 from 4:00-6:00pm and is free and open to the public.

There is still time to register for the last Mystery Writers of America University of 2011, to be held in San Francisco on October 15th. Sessions include "Dramatic Structure & Plot," "Setting & Description," "Character & Dialogue" and more.

A free evening presentation about espionage will open the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference on November 10 at the Hotel Santa Fe, The Hacienda and Spa. Created by Edward Held (author of A Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque), the program will reveal some of the locations used by KGB operatives to meet with informers and gather information on atomic secrets. The KGB's single greatest intelligence and counterintelligence coups and the planning of their most infamous assassination all took place within one mile of Saint Francis Cathedral in historic Santa Fe.