Mystery Melange

By now, most of you probably know that the great crime fiction author Elmore Leonard died yesterday, at the age of 87. The obits and tributes are pouring in, including those from CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times, and there will be plenty more to come. You can also listen to two half-hour-long interviews he had with Don Swaim at the CBS Radio studio in New York, talking about his life, his career, and his books.

Janet Rudolph, edtior of Mystery Readers Journal, put out a call for submissions for an upcoming themed issue, "Murder in Transit." If you have written a mystery that involves transportation—boats, autos, trains, planes, hot air balloons, etc—in some way, consider writing an author! author! essay (first person, 500-1500 words). The deadline is September 15. For more information, check out the journal's website.

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "High School Memory" by Casey Zella Moir, while the featured pulp of the week at Beat to a Pulp is "Verbal Warning" from Stephen D. Rogers.

Couldn't make it to St. Hilda's Crime and Mystery Conference in the UK this year? Ayo Onatade over at Shots Magazine has a very nice recap of last Saturday's festivities, including PD James, Frances Fyfield, Martin Edwards, Peter Robinson, Andrew Taylor and Val McDermid.

Hopefully, you're headed for Boucheron 2013 in Albany, which is less than a month away. The schedule was posted last week (on the website or as a PDF) and is packed with enough authorial starpower and intriguing panels to make your head do an Exorcist head spin.

The Q&A roundup this week includes authors Chuck Wendig (who also runs the Terrible Minds blog) and Stephen Blackmoore who visited Whack Magazine for a tongue-firmly-in-cheek interview to answer the kind of sexist questions normally targeted at women; and Dorothy Cannell, best known for her lighthearted traditional mysteries featuring Ellie Haskell and her husband Ben, chats with the Maine Crime Writers. Ed Gorman also has a couple of "Pro-Files" on his website, with Dave Zeltserman and Libby Fischer Hellman.

Another reason to wish we had more extensive train service in the U.S.: UK train operator Virgin Trains is planning a series of highspeed book signings. Travellers will be informed over the on-board announcement system and invited to buy a book before meeting authors including Scandinavian crime writer Jo Nesbo in a book-signing car. Fans can check out schedules via the train company's Facebook page.