Mystery Melange

Congrats to this year's Macavity Award nominees, which include Best Novel nods to:  Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl; Peter May, The Black House; Louise Penny, The Beautiful Mystery; Hank Philippi Ryan, The Other Woman; B.A. Shapiro, The Art Forger; and Ariel S. Winter, The Twenty Year Death.

Lee Lofland is seeking donations for the raffle and silent auction at the annual Writers' Police Academy. Profts from the WPA go to the criminal justice foundation at the host police academy to supplement the training budget for police officers and other first responders, many of whom volunteer their time and equipment to teaching workshops at the WPA. If you are a published author, send along signed copies of your books or TV and film scripts, and if you're not a published author, you can still help out – past donations have included chocolates, craft items, oil paintings, cell phones, DVD's, police items, hats, and a guitar signed by numerous country music stars. If you have an item to donate, contact Lee via his website.

The July issue of Suspense Magazine has exclusive interviews with authors about their latest releases, including: James Rollins about his novel The Eye of God; Tami Hoag and The 9th Girl; Brad Taylor and his new Pike Logan military thriller The Widow's Strike; Richard Godwin and One Lost Summer; and former British Intelligence bureau chief Matthew Dunn discusses his spy novel, Slingshot. Also, bestselling author Lisa Gardner talks about overcoming the dreaded synopsis headache, and there are many more articles and reviews.

Issue #5 of Pulp Modern, which blends literary and genre fiction, is now available via Amazon with new short stories by Patti Abbott, A.A. Garrison, Ron Scheer, C.J. Edwards, Sam Graves, Robert Helfst, Scotch Rutherford, Jason Darcy, Gene Hines, Luther Jackson, and Stanley Rutgers. Edited by Alec Cizak.

There's a new criminally-good poem up at the 5-2, titled "On the First Hot Night in May" by Alison Morse.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Jeffery Deaver chatting with The Hollywood Reporter about his talks to "ripped-from-the-headlines, Hollywood-ready novels" on topics such as assassinations, intelligence, drones and twisty mysteries; and Ruth Jacobs is the latest "Short, Sharp Interview" subject at Paul D. Brazill's blog.

I recieved a note from a Los Angeles artist the other day. Loren Kantor makes original woodcut prints inspired by classic film noir movies. Check out some of his creations, including James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brandon and even Edgar Allan Poe.

Need another reason to read books? A study published in the journal Neurology found that a lifetime of reading slows cognitive decline.