Mystery Melange

Congratulations go to Debra Ginsberg who was honored with the 2013 T. Jefferson Parker Award from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA), for her novel What the Heart Remembers. The other finalists included Strawberry Yellow, by Naomi Hirahara and Suspect, by Robert Crais. (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet.)

Kirkus Reviews turns 80 this year, and in honor of the anniversary, they're sponsoring a New York City Literary Tour contest. The prize includes round-trip airfare, a hotel stay, breakfast at the Algonquin Roundtable, bookstore gift certificates, passes to the Greenwich Village Literary Pub Crawl, and dinner at PUBLIC. You can enter every day through October 22, and one lucky winner with the correct answer to a quiz will win a free NYT best-selling book. Each time you answer a correct answer, you also get an
entry for a new iPad.

The Fall issue of the online 'zine Mysterical-e is out, with 17 new fiction tales, book reviews, an essay from Jan Christensen on how to make time for reading and a look at the new TV season's crime dramas from Gerald So.

Omnimystery News posted its regular feature of new hardcover releases come up during the month. October will see publication of titles from the likes of Tasha Alexander, Donna Andrews, Max Allan Collins, Elizabeth George, Charlaine Harris, G.M. Malliet, Sara Paretsky, Lisa Scottoline and many more.

This week's poem over at the 5-2 is "At Home in Abbtottabad, Pakistan" by Nancy Scott. The weekly pulp offering from Beat to a Pulp is "The Heist" by Fred Zakel.

Comets and Criminals ezine has started taking submissions again, after a hiatus. However, they are seeking reprints of previously-published short fiction in the categories of science fiction, crime/mystery, adventure, historical, and westerns, as long as it comes in under 10,000 words. (Hat tip to Sandra Seamans.)

Pan Macmillan is setting up a publishing industry-wide campaign titled Movember. In what is becoming an annual campaign, the program hopes to raises fund and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer throughout the month of November.

In the Q&A roundup this week, author and police officer Frank Zafiro chatted with Noir Nation editor Eddie Vega about his latest novel, Queen of Diamonds, co-written with Jim Wilsky; short story author Jerome W. McFadden, who is also editor for the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable monthly online literary journal, visited Writers Who Kill to chat about writing short fiction; and Russell Blake, author of over 20 suspense/action thrillers, spoke with Omnimystery News about his first detective novel, Black.

Following Patricia Highsmith week recently for Patti Abbott's Fridays "Forgotten" Book, Nick Jones has added a new feature to his blog Existential Ennui of first edition book covers of Highsmith's works, with not only "jackets and cases but uncorrected proofs and a few intriguing, little seen editions of her novels."

Scribd, the online document publishing service, announced a deal with HarperCollins, Kensington and other publishers for a global "Netflix-like" service for ebooks.

Good news for kids' literacy: the Reading Rainbow app, developed from the former PBS program, surpassed 3 million books read in its first year.

Think you are an expert on banned books? Try taking this quiz from The Guardian.

Due to severe funding cuts, libraries in the UK are in a bit of a crisis right now. As Teleread reports, this is driving some libraries to drink–literally. In an effort to stay open, some branches are considering converting to wine bars-cum-libraries.

Flavorwire compiled photos of "30 Excellent Bookstore Windows From Around the World."