Fall for the Book

 

The 14th annual Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University starts tomorrow and lasts through Sunday, September 30th. As part of this year's event, the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America is sponsoring the Mason Award presentation to Neil Gaiman, creator and writer of the DC Comics series Sandman and author of the bestselling novels American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and Coraline. In addition, Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, will receive this year’s Fairfax Prize honoring outstanding literary achievement.

Individual author events include sessions with crime fiction authors John Gilstrap, Will Lavender, and Laura Lippman. A Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America panel moderated by Alan Orloff will include authors Tracy Kiely, Thomas Kaufman, Sandra Parshall, and Joanna Campbell Slan. A trio of first-time novelists will take the stage to discuss their debut political thrillers, including defense anthropologist Alexandra Hamlet, U.S. Naval Academy grad Kathleen Toomey Jabs, and Mark Harril Saunders.

Another highlight of the festival for fans of crime fiction will be the panel "On Literary and Genre Fiction" on Sunday from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.  The National Book Critics Circle hosts a discussion of literary fiction and genre fiction, asking the questions, What's the difference? What's the divide? Where's the overlap? Weighing in on these topics are novelist Julianna Baggott, whose latest novel, Pure, ventures into the realm of post-apocalyptic horror; Louis Bayard, whose literary mysteries include The School of Night; Alma Katsu, author of The Taker and The Reckoning; and journalist and critic Laura Miller, author of The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia.

The 'Zine Scene

 The newly-resurrected magazine Thuglit is back and badder than ever after being on hiatus for a few years. The first issue of the new zine features stories by Johnny Shaw, Mike Wilkerson, Jason Duke, Jordan Harper, Matthew Funk, Terrence McCauley, Hilary Davidson, Court Merrigan, and editor Todd Robinson. It's switched over from a free website 'zine to a Kindle 'zine, but at 99 cents, it's a bargain.

Upstart Noir Magazine is raising funds on Kickstarter. The publication plans to be "The first-of-its kind tablet magazine for the mystery, thriller and true crime genres in all mediums." Some of the best-known names in the genre are already on board, including Megan Abbott, who will serve as the magazine's Editor at Large. The Board of Advisers and contributors include Ace Atkins, Cara Black, Ed Brubaker, John Buntin, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Joel Engel, Lyndsay Faye, Sara Gran, Denise Hamilton, John Harvey, Stephen Hunter, Leslie Klinger, Denise Mina, T. Jefferson Parker, Otto Penzler, Ian Rankin, April Smith and Joseph Wambaugh. 

The third issue of Blood and Tacos is out. This online and Kindle-zine is edited by Johnny Shaw, who touts this issue that "includes a schwack of fist-pumping fiction from the legendary Stephen Mertz, along with Garnett Elliott, Todd Robinson, Chris La Tray and Rob Kroese. Like you couldn't have read that on the cover. We're also featuring a great article this month on the Cannon studio and four exemplary films from same and reviewing Doomsday Warrior (specifically book 9). Finally, have a look at our new feature, Cooking Like a Tough Guy."

Crime Factory #11 is live, with Road To Perdition writer Max Allan Collins; comics-superstar Jimmy Palmiotti; a discussion of boxing pulp novels by Paul Bishop, Mel Odom and Eric Beetner; fiction by Jonathan Woods, Michael A. Gonzales, Matthew C. Funk, Michael Bracken, Robin Jarossi, John Kenyon and Nigel Bird; and much more.

The winter issue of Plots with Guns has short fiction by Eric J. Bandel, Taylor Brown, Terry Butler, Andy Henion, Erik Lundy, Dan Ray, Craig Renfroe, Rick Ripatrazone, and Tim L. Williams.

Spinetinger's latest reviews include The Prophet by Michael Koryta and the TV show Breaking Bad, and there's also Spinetingler's view on the recent revelations about fake Amazon reviews (a/k/a "sock puppets") in an essay titled "Internet Integrity and The Ethics of Review."

The editors of Near2TheKnuckle created it to provide an outlet for darker, grittier fiction. Now, they're looking for submissions for their first Kindle anthology of stories between 1,000 and 3,000 words. You can still submit stories for the regular website zine, too, which at present are nonpaying, publicaton only. The editors hope to raise funds from the anthology to pump up the website zine and also offer a print anthology in the near future.

If you've got a hard-boiled or noir short story of 4,000 words or less looking for a home, Beat to a Pulp has opened its submissions again through October 15.

The "Six Questions For" blog featured Eddie Vega, Editor-in-Chief of Noir Nation, an eBook journal of high quality crime fiction, essays, and author interviews, illustrated with living art: tattoos. Vega talks about what he looks for in submissions and what he's learned about writing based on his experience as an editor.