Mystery Melange

Crime Scene Europe, the Eighth Festival of New Literature from Europe, is taking place now through the weekend in various locations around Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The literature tickets are free, and you don't have to RSVP, but for tickets to the film noir screenings, visit www.movingimage.us. Writers include Caryl Ferey (France), Zygmunt Miloszewski (Poland), Ana Maria
Sandu (Romania), Stefan Slupetzky (Austria), Jose Carlos Somoza (Spain), and Jan Costin Wagner (Germany) joined by U.S. guest author Dan Fesperman.

You have two weeks left for early bird pricing for ThrillerFest VII (scheduled for July 2012), including CraftFest, with authors like Lee Child, Steve Berry and Lisa Gardner teaching classes on the craft of writing and marketing, and AgentFest. Six attendees from last year’s AgentFest have already signed with top agents, so it's a great opportunity to pitch your manuscript.

Mysterious Press has gone digital. Founded in 1975 by Otto Penzler, it has printed many novels and anthologies by bestselling authors, and now they're adding eBooks that were out of print or protected by copyright. Authors whose works are currently available include Ken Bruen, Thomas H. Cook, James Ellroy, Adam Hall, Mark McShane, Ellery Queen, Ross Thomas, and Donald E. Westlake, with many more in the pipeline. Plus, the website plans to add bonus material with exclusive content and video from the authors.

Editor Janet Rudolph is still seeking articles for Mystery Readers Journal upcoming issues, particularly Author! Author! essays about yourself, your books and the topic. Remaining themes for 2011 include "Shrinks & other Mental Health Professionals," with a deadline of November 27.

The Q&A roundup this week includes a conversation between Cort McMeel and Dennis Tafoya about the launch of a new online crime publication Noir Nation. McMeel was the force behind the now-defunct Murdaland zine, and is also launching an e-book press in late November called Bare Knuckles Press.

Your favorite classic literary authors—as Legos! Complete with yellow skin and cup hands, here are Hemingway, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and my favorite, Edgar Allan Poe.